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Kew Gardens Review
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Kew Gardens
- Address: Kew Rd., Kew, London | Map It
- Phone: 020/8332-5655
- www.kew.org
- Category: Parks, Gardens/Arboretums
- Location: Kew
Fodor's Review:
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew are a spectacular 300 acres of public gardens, containing more than 30,000 species of plants. In addition, this is the country's leading botanical institute, and has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. There are also strong royal associations. Until 1840, when Kew Gardens was handed over to the nation, it had been the grounds of two royal residences: the White House (formerly Kew House) and Richmond Lodge. George II and Queen Caroline lived at Richmond Lodge in the 1720s, while their eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Princess Augusta, came to the White House during the 1730s. The royal wives were keen gardeners. Queen Caroline got to work on her grounds, while next door Frederick's pleasure garden was developed as a botanical garden by his widow after his death. She introduced all kinds of "exotics," foreign plants brought back to England by botanists. Caroline was aided by a skilled head gardener and by the architect Sir William Chambers, who built a series of temples and follies, of which the crazy 50-story Pagoda (1762), visible for miles around, is the star turn. The celebrated botanist Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) then took charge of Kew, which developed rapidly in both its roles -- as a landscaped garden and as a center of study and research.
The highlights of a visit to Kew are the two great 19th-century greenhouses filled with tropical plants, many of which have been there as long as their housing. Both the Palm House and the Temperate House were designed by Sir Decimus Burton, the first opening in 1848, the second in 1899. The Temperate House was the biggest greenhouse in the world, and today contains the largest greenhouse plant in the world, a Chilean wine palm rooted in 1846. You can climb the spiral staircase almost to the roof and look down on this and the dense tropical profusion from the walkway. The Princess of Wales Conservatory, the latest and the largest plant house at Kew, was opened in 1987 by Princess Diana. Under its bold glass roofs, designed to maximize energy conservation, there are no fewer than 10 climatic zones.
Plants may be beautiful to look at, and they have many medicinal uses, but how many plants are used in making fabrics, paper, and many more items? In Museum No. 1, near the Palm House, an interesting exhibition of the economic botany collections shows which plants ". help the merchant, physician, chemist, dyer, carpenter and artisans to find raw materials of their profession correctly named." It's free, but opening hours are seasonal, so check beforehand. The plant houses make Kew worth visiting even in the depths of winter, but in spring and summer the gardens come into their own. In late spring the woodland nature reserve of Queen Charlotte's Cottage Gardens is carpeted in bluebells; a little later, the Rhododendron Dell and the Azalea Garden become swathed in brilliant color. High summer brings glorious displays of roses and water lilies, and fall is the time to see the heather garden, near the pagoda. Whatever time of year you visit, something is in bloom, and your journey is never wasted. The main entrance is between Richmond Circus and the traffic circle at Mortlake Road.
- Cost: £12.25
- Open: Gardens Apr.-Oct., weekdays 9:30-6:30, weekends 9:30-7:30; Nov.-Mar., daily 9:30-4:30
- Tube: Kew Gardens
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