Kew Gardens

This is part 3 of my exciting "West London adventure"

I went to Kew Gardens this summer and never blogged about it. I was mid-writer's block, so the odds of me getting to my keyboard and typing something up was slim. But still, it's a shame it's taken me so long, especially when it's been snowing these past few days. I'm blogging about Kew out of season! 

Temperate House amidst the trees

Kew Gardens might be the prettiest place in London. It's around 130 hectares in size, housing the largest botanical (that's plants) and mycological (that's fungi) collections in the world. According to Kew themselves, at least. It's even a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of only four in London. 

8.5 million items, they boast. And I probably only saw a fraction of that. 

Kew Gardens's origins stem from an exotic garden which existed in Kew Park back in the 1750s, and were founded by Henry Capell, Baron of Tewkesbury. At this time, Kew was mostly royal land, and had been ever since 1299. So it should come as no surprise that the original Kew Gardens was merely an extension of the garden, created by Princess Augusta in 1762, as a royal retreat for King George III. Kew Park was destroyed in 1802, and by 1840, the gardens became the national botanic garden, which was later followed by its expansion from 75 acres to eventually 300, as it is today.   

Background info 

Getting into Kew costs money, unsurprisingly. A regular adult admission ticket is £24 online, but that goes down to £10 if you're a student. And I'm a student. So that's cool.

I came to Kew at the end of August last year, so am mainly relying on the photos I took to write up this post. That also means lots of the things I mention might not be open right now, because the weather's miserable in January.

The Great Pagoda

You might not expect to see a pagoda in the middle of a botanic garden, but there's one in Kew! It opened in 1762 as a gift to Princess Augusta, and was created by Sir William Chambers, an architect who really liked Chinese architecture. 

 

You can climb to the top of the pagoda for a fee, and you're rewarded with some lovely views of nearby Richmond, as well as a very distant central London. You can also see the Palm and Temperate Houses, the two large glasshouses at the centre of the gardens, from here, and it puts into context just how large the gardens really are. 

Around the pagoda are some more examples of Oriental architecture, such as the Japanese Gateway - a scaled-down replica of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto - which is quite charming.

 

Galleries

I don't have any photos for these two galleries, though one of them explicitly told you to not photograph anything. That's my excuse.

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery is where they hold exhibitions of artworks held by Kew and botanist Shirley Sherwood. When I visited, it was the "Power of Trees" exhibition, where they had loads of drawings of trees. Right now, it's exhibiting India's biodiversity until April.

The Marianne North Gallery is a bit different. It was built in 1880 to house North's botanic paintings from her travels across the Far East, Africa, and South America. She was inspired by a trip she took to Kew when she was 26, in fact. And the gallery is stunning - all the walls are covered head to toe in paintings of plant life, and you can spend all day dizzy from looking at all the art. 

You can't photograph the art, though. Or at least you shouldn't.

Temperate House

 

The main appeal of Kew is the large glasshouse in the centre. Temperate House is the one which houses over 1,200 plant species from all around the world. I reckon sharing some photos of the plant life there would be most effective in describing the place:

   

   

The glasshouse opened in 1899 after nearly 30 years of construction, and underwent five years of renovation efforts before being re-opened in 2018. It was envisaged to be the first building anyone would see as they enter Kew, such is its grand scale. I love it for the architecture alone, I could spend ages walking around the building.

   

Palm House

The smaller cousin of Temperate, Palm House is half the size of Temperate House, but came first, opening in 1848. It houses...palm trees and various other tropical plants, many of which are endangered or otherwise extinct. It won't shock you it can get very humid inside...

   

Just outside the house are some beautiful flower gardens, and you're also opposite a wonderful lake. On the other side of the lake is a brasserie, because the gardens have to make money, and visitors have got to eat, you know?

  

Princess of Wales Conservatory

This one's named for Princess Diana, and opened in 1987. It's the third largest conservatory in Kew, and consists of various different climate zones. You can wander from a desert into the tropics with no issue, which is how you can go from looking at cacti to Venus fly traps in a matter of a few minutes. 

Not that I noticed any.

    

Waterlily House

It does what it says on the tin - you go inside and admire various water lilies floating on a pond, surrounded by plants. This is the most humid building in the gardens, as otherwise the water lilies and plants wouldn't survive; for a similar reason, they also need loads of sunlight, so the house is closed over winter. 

 

One thing I read on the Kew Gardens website which I found curious is they dye the water black to prevent algae growth, which in fairness does result in some prettier pictures than I'd otherwise get. Maybe we should do that with all ponds? 

The Hive

One of the more unique buildings in Kew Gardens is the Hive. This is basically an art installation, what with its honeycomb-shaped layers spiralling inwards and various LEDs. It's supposed to emulate what it would be like in a hive, what with the music emulating the bees' vibrations and the general hexagon infatuation here. From the outside, it looks slightly garish with its twisted aluminium skeleton, but it is quite cool to visit for a while.

   

Kew Palace

To leave you in no doubt this used to be royal land, you can visit a royal palace in Kew. It's no longer used as a palace, of course, now it's a museum, but that doesn't diminish how wonderful it is.

 

The main building - also known as Dutch House - was built in 1631, initially as a mansion for silk merchant Samuel Fortrey, but began housing royals around 1728, when King George II and Queen Caroline grew a liking for Kew. The palace is the smallest royal palace, in fact, and its origins explain why.

   

When King George III became king, he continued living in the palace, and it was also the place where he was incarcerated on a few occasions as he fell victim to mental illness. It was also where George III's wife, Queen Charlotte, died in 1818. Afterwards, the palace was no longer particularly favoured by the royal family. Which isn't a bad thing for those keen in Georgian history, or those who simply want to look around the old palace gardens.

Mannequins for King George III, Queen Charlotte, and several of their fifteen children

You can't see all of the palace, but it is interesting to walk down the corridors and look into the same bedrooms and studies the royals would have used hundreds of years before. The gardens too are a nice treat, though here it's just well-trimmed hedges and decorated fountains. It makes for a nice botanical detox after walking around Kew for four hours.

   

Epilogue

I could go on about the gardens, such as the wonderful walkway or the Carbon Garden with its mushroom building, but this post's long enough as is. Besides, part of the appeal of Kew Gardens is that you can go visit them whenever you want (so long as it's within opening hours). I really recommend you visit! It's best in the spring and summer, when everything's open, but that doesn't mean you can't go in the winter - in fact, it's off-peak season until the 31st January, so admission will be slightly cheaper!