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Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a giant garden in London full of plants from all over the world. Some plants live inside huge glass houses!
Kew Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens in south-west London, began as a small garden in 1759. Today it covers 132 hectares beside the River Thames, with huge glasshouses and enormous collections of plants. Scientists here have studied plants from around the world for more than 260 years.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on the south bank of the Thames in south-west London, were founded as a botanic garden in 1759 and have contributed without a break to the study of plant diversity and economic botany ever since. UNESCO inscribed the 132-hectare landscape in 2003 for its gardens by Bridgeman, Kent, Chambers, Brown and Nesfield, its iron-framed glasshouses and its vast collections, including a herbarium of more than eight million specimens.
Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is in London, next to the River Thames. It is a garden made for studying plants.
There are lawns, flower beds, lakes and big glass houses full of plants.
Kew Gardens lies on the south bank of the River Thames, in south-west London. Its full name is the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A botanic garden is a garden where plants are grown, collected and studied.
The gardens cover 132 hectares. They have lawns, lakes, flower beds, old garden buildings and huge glasshouses, and they hold enormous collections of living plants, dried plants and books.
UNESCO describes a historic landscape garden among parks and estates along the Thames, with work by the landscape designers Bridgeman, Kent, Chambers, Brown and Nesfield spanning the 18th to the 20th centuries. Its botanic collections of conserved plants, living plants and documents have been greatly enriched over time.
Since their creation in 1759, UNESCO says, the gardens have made a significant and uninterrupted contribution to the study of plant diversity, plant classification and economic botany: the study of useful plants. The property covers 132 hectares.
- Where
- south bank of the River Thames, south-west London
- Botanic garden since
- 1759
- Area
- 132 hectares
- World Heritage
- inscribed 2003
From a royal garden to a science center
Long ago, a princess started a small garden for plants here.
Later, explorers brought back plants from faraway countries, and the garden grew and grew.
ICOMOS writes that Princess Augusta and Lord Bute started the first botanic garden at Kew in 1759, on just 4 hectares. When Joseph Banks took charge in 1773, Kew became known around the world. Plant hunters traveled far to bring back new species.
After a time of decline, the gardens were saved, and William Hooker became their first official director in 1841. Kew grew into the national botanic garden, and later a center for protecting plants.
ICOMOS records that Princess Augusta and Lord Bute are generally accepted to have founded the first botanic garden at Kew in 1759, a modest 4-hectare garden. Its international reputation came with Sir Joseph Banks, head of the garden from 1773, who shared with George III the aim of using exotic and native plants for economic purposes; plant collectors brought back species from India, Abyssinia, China and Australia.
After the deaths of Banks and George III in 1820 the gardens declined, but after a parliamentary inquiry and a public campaign they were saved; Sir William Hooker's directorship (1841–1885) revitalized them. UNESCO traces Kew's path from royal retreat and pleasure garden to national botanic garden and then a modern institution of conservation ecology.
Houses made of glass
The Palm House is a giant greenhouse made of glass and iron. Inside it is warm, like a rainforest!
Another glass house is even bigger.
The Palm House was built from 1844 to 1848, designed by Richard Turner and Decimus Burton. It is made of iron and glass, 108 meters long and 20 meters high, and ICOMOS described it as holding one of the world's largest collections of palm trees from tropical rainforests.
Burton also designed the Temperate House, for plants from cooler regions. Kew's iron-framed glasshouses became models for glasshouses around the world.
ICOMOS describes the Palm House (1844–1848) by Richard Turner and Decimus Burton as one of the finest 19th-century glasshouses still standing and, when it was built, the largest: 108 meters long, up to 30 meters wide and 20 meters high. Turner also designed its heating system, set under a wrought-iron grille floor. ICOMOS noted that it held one of the world's largest collections of palms from tropical rainforests.
Burton's Temperate House (1859) was, in ICOMOS's words in 2003, the largest of the glasshouses open to the public: 188 meters long, for plants and trees from temperate regions. UNESCO says these two iron-framed glasshouses became models for conservatories around the world.
A pagoda and millions of plants
Kew has a tall tower called a pagoda. It has ten floors!
Kew also keeps millions of dried, pressed plants, so scientists can study them.
The gardens hold older buildings too. The Pagoda, a brick tower 50 meters tall with ten stories, was designed by William Chambers in 1761 and 1762.
When ICOMOS studied Kew in 2003, its herbarium held more than eight million dried plant specimens, and it counted about 70,000 living plants, plus libraries of books, photographs and illustrations.
Among the 18th- and 19th-century features are William Chambers's Pagoda (1761–1762), a 50-meter, ten-story brick tower closing one of Nesfield's vistas from the Palm House, the Orangery, Queen Charlotte's Cottage, the Rhododendron Dell and a boundary ha-ha by the Thames.
ICOMOS listed the collections at the time of inscription: a herbarium of over eight million specimens, about 70,000 living plants and genetic resources, and reference collections including 750,000 published works, 200,000 photographs and over 175,000 illustrations. In 1879 the painter Marianne North gave Kew 832 pictures of plants and a gallery to show them.
- Palm House built
- 1844–1848
- Pagoda
- 50 m tall, ten stories (1761–1762)
- Herbarium
- over 8 million specimens (2003)
Flower beds and a glass palace
In this photo, the giant glass Palm House shines in the sun. In front are green lawns and beds of purple flowers.
This photo was taken on 25 July 2009, under a sky full of white clouds. The long, curved glass Palm House stretches across the picture, with a taller middle section.
In front of it are a hedge, benches where visitors are resting, and lawns cut into curving flower beds of purple and blue flowers.
The photograph (25 July 2009, by David Iliff, a Featured Picture on Commons) shows the Palm House from across its formal garden: the curved iron-and-glass wings and raised central section, a hedge with benches and seated visitors, and curving beds of flowers set into the lawn.
Amazing facts
-
Kew keeps millions of dried, pressed plants for scientists to study!
By 2003, Kew's herbarium held more than eight million dried plant specimens.
At the time of inscription, Kew's herbarium alone held over eight million specimens.
-
When the Palm House was built, it was the biggest glass house of its kind!
When it was built, the Palm House was the largest glasshouse of its kind: 108 meters long and 20 meters high.
At its construction (1844–1848) the Palm House was the largest such glasshouse: 108 m long, up to 30 m wide and 20 m high.
-
A painter gave Kew 832 pictures of plants, and a gallery to show them in!
In 1879 the painter Marianne North gave Kew 832 of her plant paintings and a gallery to display them.
In 1879 Marianne North offered Kew her collection of some 832 paintings of plants observed around the world, together with a gallery to show them.
Words to know
- botanic garden
- a garden where plants are grown, collected and studied by scientists
- glasshouse
- a building with glass walls and roof where plants are kept warm
- herbarium
- a collection of dried, pressed plants kept for study
- species
- a group of living things of the same kind
- pagoda
- a tall tower with many stories, each with its own roof
- tropical
- from the warm parts of the world near the equator
Discovery challenge
-
What do people study at Kew Gardens?
What do scientists at Kew Gardens study?
UNESCO says Kew has contributed without a break since 1759 to the study of what?
- Plants
- Rockets
- Dinosaurs
Show the answer
Plants
Plants!
Plants from all over the world.
Plant diversity, plant classification and economic botany.
-
What is the Palm House made of?
What two materials is the Palm House made of?
The Palm House (1844–1848) is a structure of which two materials?
- Iron and glass
- Wood and straw
- Ice and snow
Show the answer
Iron and glass
Iron and glass!
Iron and glass.
Iron and glass.
-
In which city is Kew Gardens?
Kew Gardens is beside the River Thames in which city?
Kew lies in the south-west of which capital?
- London
- Paris
- Tokyo
Show the answer
London
London!
London.
London.
-
What is a herbarium?
By 2003, Kew's herbarium held more than 8 million what?
What does a herbarium, like Kew's of over eight million specimens, contain?
- Dried, pressed plants
- Toy trains
- Seashells
Show the answer
Dried, pressed plants
Dried, pressed plants!
Dried plant specimens.
Preserved plant specimens.
-
In which year did the botanic garden at Kew begin?
In which year was the first botanic garden at Kew founded?
In which year did Princess Augusta and Lord Bute found the first botanic garden at Kew?
- 1759
- 1959
- 1559
Show the answer
1759
1759!
1759.
1759.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what a botanic garden is and why scientists collect plants.
- Describe how glasshouses let people grow plants from warmer climates.
- Explain what a herbarium is and how dried plants help scientists.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might it be important to collect and protect plants from all over the world?
- The Palm House keeps tropical plants warm in London. How does a glasshouse trap warmth?
- Kew started as a royal garden and became a science center. How can a place change its purpose over time?
Try at home or in class
- Press a leaf or a flower between sheets of paper under heavy books for a week, then label it with its name, date and place, as a herbarium does.
- Make a mini glasshouse: put a damp paper towel with seeds in a clear jar or bag on a sunny windowsill and watch them sprout.
Key vocabulary: botanic garden, glasshouse, herbarium, species, pagoda, tropical
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (World Heritage List) , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, No 1084 (Advisory Body Evaluation) , ICOMOS
- File:Kew Gardens Palm House, London - July 2009.jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.