Kew Gardens, officially the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, are the most famous botanical gardens in the world. They lie in south-west London, along the Thames, and cover more than 130 hectares of Victorian glasshouses, lawns, tree-lined avenues, lakes and pavilions. They hold one of the largest collections of living plants in the world and are a major centre of scientific research. Since 2003 they have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History
The garden was born in 1759, when Princess Augusta, mother of the future King George III, created an exotic garden on the royal estate at Kew. In the 18th century the botanist Joseph Banks, who had sailed with Captain Cook, turned Kew into a centre for the study of plants from all over the world, sending plant hunters to every continent. In 1840 the garden became a public institution, and in the 19th century the famous iron and glass glasshouses were built. Kew also played an important role in spreading useful plants such as the rubber tree and cinchona, the source of quinine.
- 1759Princess Augusta creates the garden at Kew
- 1762William Chambers builds the Great Pagoda
- 1840Kew becomes a public botanical garden
- 1848The Palm House is completed
- 1863The Temperate House opens
- 2003Kew becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- 2018The restored Temperate House and the Pagoda with its dragons reopen
What to see
The glasshouses
The Palm House, completed in 1848 by the architect Decimus Burton and the engineer Richard Turner, looks like the upturned hull of a glass ship: inside, in the humid heat, grow palms, bananas, coffee and cocoa plants. The Temperate House, from 1863, is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world, with plants from the temperate zones of every continent, some extremely rare. The modern Princess of Wales Conservatory houses ten different climates, from desert to tropical forest, with cacti, orchids and giant water lilies.
The Great Pagoda and Kew Palace
The Great Pagoda, 50 metres tall, was built in 1762 by William Chambers in the Chinese style. Restored in 2018, it has regained the 80 colourful dragons that adorn its roofs, and in summer you can climb to the top. Kew Palace, the smallest of the royal palaces, is the red-brick house where King George III lived with his family.
The Treetop Walkway and The Hive
The Treetop Walkway is a walkway suspended 18 metres up among the crowns of oaks, chestnuts and beeches. The Hive, a 17-metre steel installation that recreates a beehive, was created by the artist Wolfgang Buttress for the UK pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan and later moved to Kew: its lights and sounds respond to the activity of a real beehive.
Other treasures
The Marianne North Gallery displays more than 800 plant paintings by a Victorian artist who travelled all over the world. There is also a lake with water lilies, a Japanese garden, a rock garden and a children's play area. Kew holds a herbarium of around seven million specimens and runs the great Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst in Sussex.
Practical information
The gardens are open all year, except Christmas Day. Tickets are bought online. In winter a very popular evening light trail is held. Opening times and prices are published on the official website.
Getting there
- By Underground: District line to Kew Gardens, then 5 minutes on foot; also on the London Overground.
- By train: to Kew Bridge, then 10 minutes on foot.
- By boat: in summer, riverboats from Westminster along the Thames.
- By air: Heathrow Airport is about 20 minutes away.
Nearby
- Richmond, with its great deer park and views of the Thames.
- Syon House, home of the Dukes of Northumberland, and Hampton Court, the palace of Henry VIII.
- See also London's parks and the UNESCO sites of the United Kingdom.
Tips
- How long: at least half a day, ideally a full day.
- When to go: spring for the magnolias, cherry blossom and bluebells; but the glasshouses are lovely in winter too.
- A tip: pick up or download the map and choose a route: the gardens are huge and you can easily walk for hours.