Living Coasts
Living Coasts was a coastal zoo and aquarium located on the harbourside of Torquay, Devon, on the English Riviera. Operated by the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust — the same charitable organisation behind Paignton Zoo — it occupied a striking seafront site and specialised in coastal and marine wildlife from around the world. The attraction was designed to celebrate and educate visitors about the extraordinary biodiversity found at coastlines, bringing together penguins, puffins, seals, otters, cormorants, and a wide array of other seabirds and marine creatures in a setting that deliberately echoed the rugged, windswept drama of a natural shoreline. For families visiting the English Riviera, it offered something genuinely distinctive from a standard aquarium or zoo, combining the appeal of live animals with the spectacular backdrop of Torquay harbour.
The site itself was developed in the early 2000s and opened to the public in 2003, making use of a previously underused stretch of the Torquay waterfront. The Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust invested heavily in creating naturalistic habitats, including a large walk-through aviary known as the Avian Bay, a beach environment for Humboldt and Macaroni penguins, and a specially designed rocky cove habitat for Atlantic grey seals. The trust's conservation mission was central to the attraction's identity, with breeding programmes for vulnerable species and strong educational messaging woven throughout the visitor experience. It was never conceived purely as entertainment but as a conservation-led experience with real research value.
Physically, Living Coasts had a wonderfully unusual character. Visitors entered what felt less like a traditional zoo and more like a working harbour come to life, with the sounds of seabirds calling overhead, the smell of salt air rolling in from the bay, and the visual drama of Torquay's waterfront stretching out beyond the enclosures. The aviary was particularly immersive, a tall, netted space where birds flew freely around visitors at close range. The penguin beach was a highlight for many — watching Humboldt penguins porpoising through a purpose-built pool just metres away from the actual sea was a quietly remarkable experience. The whole site had an open, breezy, slightly wild atmosphere that distinguished it from indoor aquariums.
The surrounding area is one of the most pleasant seaside settings in southwest England. Torquay is the largest of the three towns making up Torbay, a sheltered bay on the South Devon coast often marketed as the English Riviera for its mild climate and palm-lined promenades. The harbour area immediately around the Living Coasts site is busy with pleasure craft, fishing boats, cafés, and restaurants, and the town centre with its shops and hotels is only a short walk away. Nearby attractions included Torre Abbey, a medieval monastery turned art gallery and museum, as well as easy access by ferry to Brixham and Dartmouth along the bay.
Sadly, Living Coasts closed permanently in 2020 as a result of the financial pressures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the closure being described initially as temporary, the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust ultimately announced it would not reopen, citing the unsustainable costs of the site and the losses accumulated during lockdown periods. The animals were relocated to other facilities, including Paignton Zoo and partner institutions. The closure was mourned by local residents and visitors alike, and the fate of the site itself remained a subject of local interest and redevelopment discussion in the years following. As of mid-2025, the site had not reopened in any equivalent form.
Living Coasts holds an interesting place in the story of British coastal tourism. It represented a genuine attempt to reimagine what a seafront attraction could be — not a traditional funfair or amusement pier, but a scientifically serious, conservation-focused institution built right on the working harbour. Its short lifespan of about seventeen years means it is fondly remembered by those who visited but was never able to fully embed itself into the long-term landscape of Devon attractions in the way its founders had hoped. The integration of real marine conservation with a genuinely beautiful harbourside setting was, by most accounts, a formula that worked well when conditions allowed it to operate fully.