Monkey madness at the old Kursaal zoo!

The venue is now offering a £1,000-reward after a man allegedly broke and damaged the meerkat enclosure, leading to the temporary escape over the weekend.

On the loose - the meerkats on the run

This drama sparked memories of another escapade which hit the headlines in south Essex all the way back in June 1928.

Then some pretty amusing monkey mayhem was going on!

A group of playful primates broke out of their home at the House of Monkeys within the Kursaal Zoo, in the dead of night after an unknown intruder smashed into the venue and let them out.

It was never discovered who had committed the break in, however it certainly appeared that the lock to the monkey house had been deliberately smashed in order to let the animals run free and cause mischief.

Twenty out of the 500 monkeys who lived in the ‘house’ or the ‘Monkey Jungle’ as it was more commonly known, made a run for it.

“Exciting escapades at Southend” was the Southend Standard newspaper headline as the entire town became gripped by the monkey saga.

“About 20 monkeys promptly left the house intent on improving their knowledge of the Kursaal grounds and the surrounding district,” reported the Standard broadsheet.

“They spread themselves abroad in great delight, exploring nooks and corners and mounting roofs.”

At this time the Kursaal was Southend’s foremost entertainment venue and the zoo was the first of its kind in the region.

Tourists and day-trippers flocked to see the zoo’s exotic inhabitants which included lions, grizzly bears, polar bears, wolves, jackals, ostriches and no less than nine tigers (at the time even the world famous New York zoo only had three).

And of course they came to see the cheeky monkeys.

But anyone who came on June 24, 1928 was out of luck as the mutineer monkeys decided to make the most of their new found liberty, despite Kursaal staff and the authorities clambering to recover them.

One of the monkeys was soon seen sunning himself on the tower of the Kursaal’s Alpine Ride.

Another found his way into the Kursaal’s lavish ballroom and scrambled to the top of the archabove the stage.

He then saw fit to scamper off into another direction with staff giving chase.

One spent the entire day on the top of the Scenic Railway while another mounted the Bowl Slide and was chased from roof to roof of the cages forming the zoo.

Others left the grounds altogether.

By the following day and after much perseverance by the Kursaal staff, half of the truant monkeys had been recaptured. But the remaining ten would remain at large for another two days. Some returned one by one of their own free will, finally bored of their adventure. Others were more stubborn.

One particular monkey who had taken refuge on the roof of the nearby Ship Hotel had no intention of coming down and bit the hand of a zoo attendant when they finally managed to grab him.

Another monkey wandered as far as Park Lane – some half a mile away – where he broke the window to a house by jumping through it. After a general rampage around the home he then settled onto the roof, until he was recaptured.

Even the monkeys that returned of their own accord remained in a rebellious mood, emboldened by their recent antics. “The ones that had come back on their own proceeded to rip open a bag of meal and started helping themselves freely,” said the Standard.

By the end of the week, however, the chaos had returned to calm and life in the Monkey Jungle settled down once again.