CHESTER Zoo has been named as England’s top attraction outside of London.

New figures released by The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) which represents the UK’s most iconic attractions revealed the zoo was visited by 1,866,628 people last year.

This is the seventh year in succession that the zoo has achieved the accolade.

Chester Zoo’s chief operating officer Jamie Christon said:“We are proud to say that this is a golden era for Chester Zoo.

“In 2017 we welcomed more than 1.86m visitors for the second year in a row, a feat that has never previously been achieved since the zoo first opened in 1931.

“We know that developing major visitor experiences is crucial – such as our vast new South East Asian ‘Islands’ habitats for sun bears, tapirs and songbirds – and our appearances on Channel 4’s The Secret Life of The Zoo have helped spread the word about our offer.

“But we also strongly believe that visitors are moved to spend their leisure time with us because we are a world-leading conservation charity.

"Every individual to walk through our gates is helping fund urgent work preventing extinction here in the UK and across the globe.

“We thank each and every one of them for their support.”

Chester Zoo, a registered conservation and education charity, supports more than 80 projects that are fighting to prevent extinction in around 30 countries worldwide.

The zoo is also ranked as the UK’s best and third best in the world by users of the travel website, TripAdvisor.