The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29714.
A splendid, if difficult, offering from Boatman, with a theme announced in 1A LONDON ZOO, picked up with some prominent architects of the buildings, and numerous animals, named and unnamed scattered through the clues; for those less familiar with the Zoo (or with the UK for that matter), there is always Wikipedia. I was happy to tease out most of it (I hope), even though I would normally be in bed long ago.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LONDON ZOO |
Predator, not one half donkey, half yak, half cow: no animals here (6,3)
|
| A charade of L[i]ON (‘predator’) minus the I (‘not one’) plus DON (‘half DONkey’) plus ZO (‘half yak, half cow’ – one of alternative spellings of the hybtid) plus O (zero, ‘no’).
Corrected. |
||
| 6 | SATE |
Fill full of food, fried, filleted (4)
|
| SA[u]TE (‘fried’) minus its middle letter (‘filleted’). | ||
| 8 | NATURISM |
Inappropriate sightseeing, missing nothing, revealing everything (8)
|
| A charade of N/A (not applicable, ‘inappropriate’) plus T[o]URISM (‘sightseeing’) minus the O (‘missing nothing’). | ||
| 9 | FLOWER |
Having regard to predator, turned back stock? (6)
|
| A reversal (‘turned back’) of RE (‘having regard to’) plus WOLF (‘predator’). The question mark for the indication by example; stock as stock-gillyflower. | ||
| 10 | CANAPE |
In some parts of the UK, they say they can’t afford a bite to eat (6)
|
| ‘In some parts of the UK’ – probably Scotland – this might sound (‘they say’) like CANNA PAY. | ||
| 11 | INSIDERS |
They’re privileged to be locked up next to ravens’ cage (8)
|
| A charade of INSIDE (‘locked up’ – imprisoned) plus RS (‘RavenS‘ cage’). The Ravens’ Cage was an ornate ironwork aviary of the London Zoo, the oldest surviving exhibit, now a monument. | ||
| 12 | CASSON |
Architect of housing for big beasts and a smaller one covered in fleece (6)
|
| An envelope (‘covered in’) of ASS (‘a smaller one’ – smaller beast, that is) on CON (dupe, ‘fleece’). The “architect’ (this time unequivocally) was Sir Hugh Casson; among other projects, he designed the Elephant House for London Zoo (although the elephants have been moved to Whipsnade). | ||
| 15 | STAGNATE |
Idle beast unearthed, defying odds (8)
|
| A charade of STAG (‘beast’) plus NATE, even letters (‘defying odds’) of ‘uNeArThEd’. | ||
| 16 | AGITATOR |
‘You can see the solution: bag it!’ – a Tory activist (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘you can see the solution’) in ‘bAG IT A TORy’. | ||
| 19 | EXPECT |
Bank on not counting pence and cents to be interchangeable (6)
|
| EXCEPT (‘not counting’) with the P and C exchanged (‘pence and cents to be interchangeable’). | ||
| 21 | ASPIRING |
Boatman in time of growth after answer is hopeful (8)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘Boatman’ as the crossword’s setter) in A (‘answer’) plus SPRING (‘time of growth’). | ||
| 22 | GOLDIE |
Eagle, one escaping from captivity, to depart (6)
|
| A charade of G[a]OL (‘captivity’) minus the A (‘one escaping’) plus DIE (‘depart’). GOLDIE was a golden eagle which escaped (twice) from London Zoo. Not golden, but a pair of bald eagles have taken up residence around a lake a mile or so from where I live. | ||
| 24 | BURTON |
Architect starts to build urban retreat to observe nature (6)
|
| First letters (‘starts’) of ‘Build Urban Retreat To Observe Nature’. The architect is Decimus Burton; he was responsible for the original design of the London Zoo (he did much design work in London in the 19th. century); his Giraffe House is still used as such. | ||
| 25 | LUBETKIN |
Architect, revolutionary, built new enclosure for king and (previously) emperor initially (8)
|
| A sort-of envelope (‘enclosure for’) of E (’emperor’) and K (‘king’) separately, and with ‘previously’ indicating the order, in LUBTI, an anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘built’; plus N (‘new’). Berthold Lubetkin was the 1930s modernist designer of the Round House and Penguin Pool in London Zoo. As King and Emperor are species of penguin, the clue has a brilliant extended definition. | ||
| 26 | GAPE |
Stare at head of Guy the Gorilla? (4)
|
| A charade of G (‘head of Guy’) plus APE (‘the Gorilla’). Guy the Gorilla was for many years a star attraction at London Zoo, along with |
||
| 27 | STATEMENT |
Country intended to be heard in report (9)
|
| A charade of STATE (‘country’) plus MENT, sounding like (‘to be heard’) MEANT (‘intended’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LLAMA |
One supporting erection of commercial housing for animal (5)
|
| A charade of LLAM. a reversal (‘erection’ in a down light’) of MALL (‘commercial housing’ – a shopping mall) plus A (‘one’), with ‘supporting’ indicating the order of the particles in the down light. | ||
| 2 | NOUGATS |
Sweets? Give mixed nuts a go (7)
|
| An anagram (‘mixed’) of ‘nuts a go’. | ||
| 3 | OLIVE |
All are dead and drab (5)
|
| A charade of O (zero) LIVE (‘all are dead’). Olive drab as a colour. | ||
| 4 | ZOMBIES |
Last above the grave, headless, risen even on Sunday: they’re undead (7)
|
| A charade of Z (‘last’) plus [t]OMB (‘the grave’) minus its first letter (‘headless’) plus IE (‘rIsEn even’) plus S (‘Sunday’). | ||
| 5 | OBFUSCATE |
Storm in Beaufort scale, lacking components of real cloud (9)
|
| An anagram (‘storm’) of ‘b[ea]ufo[r]t sca[l]e’ minus the letters of ‘real’ (‘lacking components of real’ – note that ‘components’ indicates that the letters are neither in sequence nor order). | ||
| 6 | SNOWDON |
Architect of ultimate in homes currently on London’s east side (7)
|
| A charade of S (‘ultimate in homeS‘) plus NOW (‘currently’) plus DON (‘LonDON‘s east side’). The definition must refer to the First Earl of Snowdon, Antony Armstrong-Jones, and is definitely misleading. According to Wikipedia, he codesigned the London Zoo aviary, known as the Snowdon Aviary (now Monkey Valley), and of which he was particularly proud. Of course it fits the crossword’s theme. | ||
| 7 | THE ARCTIC |
Architect-designed home for polar bears (3,6)
|
| An anagram (‘designed’) of ‘architect’. | ||
| 13 | ANGOSTURA |
Argonauts’ wrecked bark (9)
|
| Another one-word anagram (‘wrecked’). The aromatic bitter bark of a tree, it is used as a bitter flavouring, but curiously not in the brand Angostura bitters, which is named for a town in Venezuela, now Ciudad Bolivar. | ||
| 14 | NUTRIENTS |
Carbohydrates, fats etc not normally inert in vegan protein sources (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of RIENT (or TRIEN if you prefer), an anagram (‘not normally’ – one of the better cryptic anagrinds) of ‘inert’ in NUTS (‘vegan protein sources’). | ||
| 17 | THISTLE |
Tesla man’s let off: a prickly type (7)
|
| A charade of T (‘Tesla’ a unit of magnetic flux density) plus HIS (‘man’s’) plus TLE, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘let’. | ||
| 18 | REGALIA |
They might be seen on leader of Algeria after revolution (7)
|
| An anagram (‘after revolution’) of ‘Algeria’. | ||
| 20 | PALETTE |
Enclosure curtailing boundaries of aquatic mammal’s range (7)
|
| A charade of PALE (‘enclosure’. With the P in place, I spent a fair time trying to come up with something starting PEN) plus [o]TTE[r] (‘aquatic mammal’) minus its outer letters (‘curtailing boundaries’). | ||
| 22 | GABLE |
Boatman under back of big empty llama-house where roof ends (5)
|
| A charade of G (‘back of biG‘) plus AB (able-bodied seaman, ‘boatman’) plus LE (’empty Llama-housE‘). Note the capital first word, to hide the lower case usage, and the hyphen in llama-house to get the correct emptying. | ||
| 23 | IDIOT |
In a manner of speaking, expending money on, say, tea in a mug (5)
|
| A charade of IDIO[m] (‘a manner of speaking’) minus the M (‘expending money’) plus T (‘say tea’). |
Thanks Peter O, esp for PALETTE. I also stumbled there. Got the idea about PALE, but couldn’t figure out the order of the components, thinking it was a container of PAL …… E.
Managed everything else, including my lack of UKGK. I really enjoyed finding the references for CASSON (Elephant House), GOLDIE (Go Goldie!), SNOWDON, and LUBETKIN. Wonderful theme and themesters, (although I’d rather not see any animals in captivity).
THE ARCTIC was simple but made me laugh. And enjoyed the novel hidden indicator in AGITATOR.
Got there, with some cheating (like having in front of me a wiki list of London architects, of whom I know very few), but revealing nothing, – probably for the first time for me in a cryptic. A few parsings completely escaped me, especially CANAPE and PALETTE.
Enjoyed it a lot, thanks Boatman and Peter.
And forgot to mention my favourite NUTRIENTS. Great surface, and a brilliant indicator, ” not normally”, for equally special fodder in the context, ”inert”.
Yesterday, Boatman teased a clue on social media pertinent to today’s puzzle. The answer is SCOTT, the designer of the telephone box, and I now read that there is a Grade II listed K3 kiosk at London Zoo, one of only three in the country.
Architect of small boxes – one may be found in the north end of settlement (5)
Thanks to Boatman and PeterO.
Groaned at the homophone in CANAPE after staring at the crossers for ages. Thanks to the blogger for the parsing of PALETTE which defeated me. Wasn’t familiar with the architects, though I suppose I should have remembered SNOWDON, but, apart from LUBETKIN, the names were not too tricky to deduce from the fodder. Hesitated to enter LLAMA because the animal had featured in one of the clues. I thought the yak-cow hybrid was spelt ‘dzo’ so held up a while thinking the first word ended in d. Definitely a tough work-out from the setter, so no wonder that the blogger had a late bedtime. Thanks to Boatman and to PeterO (and hope you’ve caught up on your sleep now),
PeterO – thanks for a fantastic blog that really captures the smartness of this crossword. So many references to the zoo (e.g. Raven’s Cage) in addition to the clued ones. Another point is that Decimus Burton’s first contribution to the Zoo was the Clock Tower built over the Llama House – so 1D and the reference in 22D are also on theme.
Very impressive!
I thought this was a real tour de force. Failed with the parsing of PALETTE (I similarly expected PEN to figure, and once I’d got the answer I couldn’t get past AL for boundaries of Aquatic mammaL…) but even so found this to be a very elegant handling of the theme (which was reasonably familiar to me, having spent many hours at ZSL). 25ac was particularly fine, and CANAPE made me laugh – I do enjoy a dodgy pun. Huge thanks to Boatman and to PeterO for exemplary explanatory work.
Excellent puzzle. Superb blog (quite detailed).
Thanks Boatman and PeterO.
Faves: LONDON ZOO, EXPECT, LUBETKIN, THE ARCTIC, NUTRIENTS and PALETTE.
Tiny tweak to the blog, Peter, in that the parse for LONDON ZOO does not account for the DON which is, of course, half DONkey.
Thanks Boatman and PeterO
Well, I finished, but a few unparsed, and I needed a wordsearch for LUBETKIN. I too raised an eyebrow at LLAMA appearing in both a clue and a solution.
Shouldn’t “fried” be “sauteed”?
A lovely one, thanks to Boatman. I knew practically none of the architects, but the cluing was so good I could work them out. Like Tomsdad @5 and miserableoldhack @7, 10a LOI for me, but also made me burst out laughing.
SATE
saute as an adjective=fried
Congratulating myself for remembering the ZO from previous crosswords, but I needed to consult an interesting website on the architecture of London Zoo to find CASSON and LUBETKIN (clever clue with the King and Emperor, but I could only appreciate it in retrospect). Enjoyed CANAPE and failed to parse PALETTE. That’s also the second time in two days that I have failed to see fried=sauté.
For me this felt on a difficulty level akin to yesterday’s Yank offering. I have an ignorance of architects, so didn’t manage to get those at 12,24 and 25 across. Nor did I manage to solve CANAPÉ or OLIVE. Liked STAGNATE, but rather a bit of a feeble attempt on my part again this week at the Guardian Cryptic. Must be the change in the weather…
CANNA PAY might be said by someone from NE England (e.g. a Geordie) as well as Scotland, hence “some parts of the UK”.
Snowdon’s contribution to the aviary was pretty much just his name. Actually designed by Cedric Price and Frank Newby (engineer). But in truth, while an interesting structure, not a very good aviary.
I thought of muffin when solving 23d, in which we are given ‘In [wordplay] in [definition]’, which must be nonsense in anyone’s book.
Splendid but difficult sums it up very well. Lubertin sounded like a convincing name for an architect and I am another who struggled with PALETTE. I started to enter Palace, but it didn’t fit.
Thanks, PeterO and all – special kudos to Alex@6 and Jay@4 for completing the references to the Zoo’s architects.
I have mixed feelings about zoos – I love to see the animals, as long as I can persuade myself that they feel more or less at home there, but the heritage of London Zoo as Victorian edutainment is nuanced, and I find it interesting that the zoo is now to an extent a museum of architecture as much as a menagerie.
I may not have time to drop in again today as I’m running a show this evening. I hope you enjoy the rest of the day, and I may stop by tomorrow to see how you got on.
Theme was very difficult for me. I failed to solve 10ac, 12ac, 22ac, 25ac, 3d, 20d, 23d.
Of the ones I solved – new for me: architect Decimus BURTON, SNOWDON = architect of London Zoo Aviary.
re 3d OLIVE = drab, sallow. I have always had a more positive view of olive as a colour and skin tone!
I could not parse ZOO bit of 1ac, IE bit of 4d.
Favourites: EXPECT, FLOWER.
Excellent puzzle, horrible grid!
Much too parochial to be enjoyable. I didn’t know any of the architects nor the eagle, and being proper names the crossers weren’t much help, though I guessed SNOWDON.
Goldie the eagle escaped 60 years ago!
Seems I’m alone in not enjoying this. Clunky surfaces and an obscure theme requiring lots of googles. Some clever clues are not sufficient compensation IMHO. Thanks both.
An otter, unable to deal with the flow of our nearby river, found its way uphill to our fishpond and devoured all our fish. I respectfully buried the remains of two very large carp in the flower borders and he came back two days later and dug them up and finished them off. Traumatic but still didn’t help me parse 20d.
Very small point: the “celebrity” polar bear was called BrumAs. Would have seen her while on a school outing in 1957; she died the following year aged only nine. The name was apparently derived from her keepers Bruce and Sam. (And like paddymelon, I don’t like seeing animals in non-natural surroundings. The thought of Brumas being paraded around the zoo in a buggy while still a cub – which I understand she was – makes me positively ill.)
Blimey! Some of these architects aren’t even that famous, but once I saw the LONDON ZOO link in their bios (yes it took a while despite 1a being in quite early) the theme context helped a lot. I found this my toughest of the week in either Grauniad or the FT, with some challenging parsing and esoteric GK. I too struggled to parse PALETTE, but the clues were very good and most of this went in from the wordplay.
Bravo Boatman and thanks, Peter, for a particularly good blog.
Didn’t get a lot of joy, but to be fair I was watching a footy game as well. Used to walk through the Park and past the Zoo on my way to Prince Albert Rd [where my gf was an au pair] but never went in. And never knew Tony A-J did anything other than take pics and marry Magaret. Hey ho, always learning, thanks BnP.
Good fun, although my architect lists in Bradford’s and the Chambers Crossword Dictionary were not much use.
I didn’t realise the architect connections to LONDON ZOO, which apparently has ‘no animals here’. I liked the good use of architect to make THE ARCTIC, the Scottish canapés, the well-hidden AGITATOR, the surfaces for GOLDIE and THISTLE (serendipitously topical), and the good anagram spot for ARGONAUTS.
Thanks Boatman and PeterO.
I only managed about half of this puzzle, with help from the London Zoo’s webpage on architecture. All the references to inmates and exhibits at the zoo were completely lost on me, so thanks to PeterO et al for making the links. Lots of exquisite extended definitions etc. if only I could get the references… Great work Boatman, I hope some people had the GK to properly appreciate it!
Difficult. Being Australian, I had no idea of the link between the architects or their relevance to any animals, let alone the London Zoo. So while I did complete the puzzle, it lacked the joy of uncovering any story behind it. Proper nouns are more difficult to work out from wordplay unless there is a small degree of recognition.
Thank you PeterO for your detailed explanations of the theme, the links and the many bits of parsing I didn’t see eg with PALETTE, I saw PALE but not oTTEr.
Favourites: OBFUSCATE, THE ARCTIC, CANAPÉ, EXPECT and ANGOSTURA for the nice single word anagram.
Thanks to Boatman and PeterO.
It defeated me, not a surprise, but I thought that it was brilliant. For me the clues were lovely, despite being really entangling. I don’t how the setters manage to do this stuff. Bravo Boatman and Peter for the blog
Top ticks for CANAPE, GAPE & AGITATOR which had me wondering whether the hidden clues are often harder in the paper than online as the solution is more likely to be split across two lines?
LUBETKIN was a somewhat joyless mix of brute force and guesswork
Cheers P&B
Excellent puzzle. Yes quite a bit of googling was necessary but I’ve no objection to that. The trademark two “Boatman” clues (21a and 22d) were nicely done, and as usual he cleverly dealt with capitalisation issues by having both Boatmen at the start. My favourite was the non-themed ANGOSTURA for the brilliant surface.
Many thanks Boatman and PeterO.
Too obscure to be much fun for me, I’m afraid. Not knowing any of the architects, nor that London Zoo was notably architectural, meant writing in plausible parsings and then googling to see if that was an architect’s name. Never heard of a ZO, either, and Goldie was born before I was, so that was another “bung and shrug”.
7D made me smile for its subversion of the theme, but unfortunately that’s about the best I can say. Hardly what I look for in a cryptic crossword. Oh well, on to next week.
Bodycheetah@33 not only two lines but three punctuation marks at the line break for AGIT…ATOR meant I didn’t solve it properly.
Got the architects easily as that’s my field but parsed LUBETKIN after filling.
Thanks for the blog and all the extras , I never look at links so it was just brilliant for me .
I did not connect the architects with the zoo , I thought two themes were going on . Very good set of clues and clear wordplay for the obscure names . I liked the idea for EXPECT and THE ARCTIC a very nice touch .
Lord Jim@34 has beaten me to my comment on the Boatmen .
I was puzzled why the clue for LUBETKIN used “king and (previously) emperor” instead of “emperor and king”, which I think would have worked too. Is it just a subtle way of saying the E and K are not necessarily adjacent, by making a looser connection in the clue? Tx!
Despite knowing nothing about the theme, and being defeated by LUBETKIN (Bradford’s being of no help, as Robi @29 pointed out), I thought this was a fabulous crossword.
I couldn’t parse quite a few – the ZOO part, PALETTE, GOLDIE and the aforementioned LUBETKIN – but there were so many clues that delighted, including OBFUSCATE, GABLE, SATE and NUTRIENTS.
Chapeau Boatman, and thanks to PeterO for the very detailed blog.
What a great crossword.
Very proud of nearly finishing it! Most of the obscure answers could be got (after a great deal of teasing out).
In the end, I had only two to go.
I guessed how LUBETKIN worked so looked up the architect of the penguin house! This was sort of my favourite clue, though slightly unfair, as it’s too hard to work out if you don’t know the architect.
Then I solved PALETTE, as my last one in, but couldn’t parse it.
Oofyprosser @24, you are not alone. My heart sinks a little when I see Boatman, I’m afraid. I find his clueing inelegant and his parsing finicky and stilted. Too many snipping and rearranging scissor-jobs on letters etc. I accept that he is popular, however, so I’m probably missing something.
I made even more of a dog’s breakfast of 1a by parsing it wrongly as L(I)ON DON(key) Z(o) O(x) O. Using Llama-house to provide LE instead of, say, Lake seemed a bit unnecessary. Otherwise, fun puzzle. The theme and their connection to 1a was lost on me, and I resorted to the check button for some of them.
Thanks to PeterO for explaining the brilliance of the clueing and to Boaters for the puzzle.
PrioryRoad @25, such behavior is otterly unforgivable.
I’m surprised at the critical comments about the ”niche” theme. I find almost every theme is niche, for someone, and usually for me. Football, classical music, British towns or islands, television shows, etc.
When I saw ”architect” today I thought I’ve got Buckley’s, and that it would be very dry.
But this was a lot of fun.
I got 1A quickly but never realized that it indicated a theme. I wondered why I had never heard of any of these architects (unless you count SNOWDON, who I assumed was an architect with the same name as the earl). Didn’t understand GOLDIE, either; I was thinking it must be an Australian-like nickname for a golden eagle. I was OK with revealing the architects rather than looking for a list on line. Thanks, Peter.
And I think it helped not googling a list of architects, but following the trail to the ark, my first thought for the second word of 1a.
I agree with PDM@44 , not usually a fan of themes but this one was interesting and educational and I have learnt a lot from the blog and comments ; plus the clues could be solved without it .
My own “theme” for today will have to wait another year .
Thanks Boatman, that was great. I used the check button to help me with a few but I found most of this quite reasonable. I liked OLIVE, THISTLE, & ZOMBIES in particular. I wish Boatman appeared more frequently. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
This link might help cut down on the Googling for architects
Link
Very much a two day effort for me, with help from Google on architects, but I managed to get there in the end EXCEPT (my favourite clue) for the parsing of PALETTE. LUBETKIN was wonderful once I’d found the name and reverse-parsed. Magnificent effort by Boatman and almost equally by PeterO; many thanks both.
grantinfeo@28 reminded me that I also used to walk past the zoo regularly for a while, on my way to work. The wolves, probably mistaking me for a keeper with food, used to come up the perimeter fence to say good morning. At least that’s my recollection, which may have become somewhat twisted over the decades.
Thought this was going to defeat us, but stagnate, Goldie and palette went in just before midnight
Thought we were dealing with an architect theme, but very pleased to discover a London Zoo theme, which meant Goldie had to be the eagle.
Felt bark was a bit of a weak definition for what is a tree…..but very gettable from the anagram
Thanks PeterO for explaining Palette which we couldn’t untangle at all and Boatman for a great puzzle: both fun and educational
GingerTom @53
Chambers, the OED and Collins give angostura as the bark; the tree name (or names – it seems there might be two trees which yield the bark) is more hazy – Angostura? Cusparia? Galipea?
I got a few, even though London is 5 hours down the day and I’ve never been. But a great construction, entertaining and amusing.
Thanks, and to PeterO for an impeccable blog.
Stuck in a halfway rut the past few days. Tough one today. Wisely abandoned ship with half done. Impressive puzzle