Kew Gardens ★★☆
One of the world's top botanical gardens and parks
Though Italian universities had started keeping scientific gardens in the mid 16C—a fashion that spread throughout Europe—Kew was the first to do it on a truly grand scale, expanding to 300 acres since its opening in 1759, serving as the botanical storehouse of the British Empire, and establishing the model of greenhouses, formal gardens, nurseries, and labs that has since been adopted by most other botanical gardens around the world.
Kew has a dizzying array of attractions, easy to get lost in for hours, with gardens dedicated to grasses and to water plants, cherry trees and Japanese landscaping.
Among its greenhouses are the Victorian Palm House—all wrought iron and glass from the 1840s—the angular Princess of Wales Conservatory opened in 1989 by Princess Diana and devoted largely to tropical plants (both wet and dry zones, so nice orchids and cacti), the small but soaring Alpine House built in 2006, and the massive Temperate House (due to reopen in 2018), the largest Victorian glass structure in the world.
The popular Treetop Walkway lets you stroll 200m (656 feet) along the canopy of sweet chestnut, oak, and lime trees at 18m (59 feet) above the ground.
The path from the Treetop Walkway that leads below ground to the Rhizotron, a space where you can examine the interaction of plants and animals with the soil.
The buildings of Kew Gardens
The 1631 Kew Palace itself, King George III's favorite retreat and the smallest official royal palace (it was originally built for a Dutch merchant named Samuel Fortrey). Its small garden contains only period plants from 17C England.
One of the oldest features of the gardens is the 50m (163-foot) Chinese Pagoda in the SE corner, a famous curiosity of Georgian London when it first opened in 1762 (currently being restored and due to reopen in 2018).
There are also two buildings showcasing botanical art: the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art and the Marianne North Gallery, its walls a puzzle of late 19C paintings by the self-taught botanical illustrator.
Kew's place in history
Kew has been around so long, the gardens have acquired their own historical significance, serving both as a model for many of the world's other botanical gardens for the past 250 years, and as a living museum of premier landscape design from the 18C through the 20C, preserving the horticultural architectural theories of William Chambers (who added the Chinese pagoda in 1761–62), Charles Bridgeman (who created the sunken garden in 1734), William Kent, Capability Brown (in the 1770s), and William Nesfield (who laid out the original rose garden in 1848)—all part of why Kew was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
TicketsTours
Set in one of the world's most iconic botanical landscapes and housing the largest collections of living, painted, and dried plants, the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens are a sensory embodiment of the global reach and passion for discovery that defined the British empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. On this Kew Gardens Tour, we'll discuss the force behind the development of these gardens as well as the present and future of Kew, as a center of research into plant genetics and participation in international conservation efforts.
Head inside Kew Gardens and then spend as little or as much time as you like exploring London’s finest botanical gardens. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kew Gardens consists of acres of tranquil grounds with one of the world’s largest collections of plants. Either walk around at leisure or join one of the free guided walking tours that take place daily in the gardens.
Stroll around admiring highlights like the Azalea Garden, Minka House and Bamboo Garden in the center of the park. Check out the 17th century-style Queen’s Garden near Kew Palace (also known as the Dutch House), and see several of Kew’s oldest sculptures that were donated by the British Royal Family.
Perhaps take a walk along the Rhizotron and Xstrara Treetop Walkway, and stroll through the crowns of oak trees at a height of 59 feet (18m), seeing birdlife, fungi and lichen up close. Watch out for the 10-storey Pagoda in the southwest corner of the gardens, and wander along the Holly Walk, seeing trees that have grown there for over 130 years.
Bask in balmy tropical temperatures inside Temperate House – the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse – and see a spectacular array of African plants and sub-tropical trees and palms. In the center of the beautiful building is a Chilean Wine Palm, which is said to be one of the world’s tallest indoor plants.
With plenty of leafy picnic areas, as well as four cafés on site, you can eat lunch inside the gardens (own expense), or simply sit down and relax in between seeing all the rich flora and fauna.
Tips
It takes a solid two hours to do Kew justice (especially since you kinda had to go out of your way to get here in the first place).
You could easily spend half the day or more here.
Kew Gardens offers free tours by its residents experts:
- Introduction to the gardens tours: Daily at 11am and 1:30pm
- Themed tours: Daily at noon (also at 2pm in summer)
- Meet the experts tours: Tuesdays at 11:30am and 2:30pm
