Royal Botanic Gardens *

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

The botanic gardens at Kew were founded in 1759 by Princess Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, and originally covered a small area c.4 hectares to the south of the Orangery. Around this botanic garden were two C18th gardens, to the south were royal pleasure gardens and kitchen gardens dating from 1729 designed by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline and later redesigned by Capability Brown for George III in 1764. At the northern end the grounds were landscaped by Sir William Chambers (1723-96) for Princess Augusta. When Princess Augusta died in 1772, the two estates were merged and the Botanic Garden was enlarged. Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society and botanical adviser to George III and Queen Charlotte, introduced many new and exotic plants.

In 1841 the gardens became a public research institute with Sir William Hooker as first Director, and the grounds were increased in size to c.100 hectares and re-landscaped by William Nesfield, overlaying much of the work of Bridgeman, Brown and Chambers. In 1845 a lake in the south-west was created and mounds and embankments were created from the spoil excavated, and in 1847 a smaller artificial lake was created in front of the Palm House. Nesfield also created the walks and vistas that remain today. Decimus Burton designed the main entrance gates from Kew Green (q.v.) and two glasshouses, the Palm House (1844-48), which was restored in 1985, and the Temperate House (1859-62), which was later extended in 1898/99. The Temperate House was designed to house African plants in the south wing, with temperate plants from Australasia in the north wing, and sub-tropical trees in the main hall. The Temperate House underwent restoration in 1978-82 and in July 2013 it closed for major restoration, expected to take c.5 years to complete, during which time the glass panels will be replaced, beams repainted and the roof raised. Richard Turner worked with Burton on the Palm House and also designed the Water Lily House north of this in 1852. The North Gallery was built in the late 1880s to house the botanical collection of 832 paintings by Marianne North, a remarkable Victorian artist and traveller.

To mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the Queen's Cottage Grounds were added to the Royal Botanic Garden in 1898, an area of c.15 hectares that had rarely been visited by the royal family and had become a wilderness, a wildlife sanctuary and a haven for birds, praised as such by W H Hudson, the naturalist, and by the Linnaean Society. The gift was made on the condition that it would remain in its natural state. It remains a conservation area and is only open to the public on special occasions.

The Botanic Gardens were initially administered by the Office of Works and then from 1903-1984 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. In 1983 a Board of Trustees was appointed to manage the gardens following the National Heritage Act of the same year.

There are fine views across the river to Syon House (q.v.), and Kew Gardens abuts the Old Deer Park (q.v.) to the south. The gardens contain many historically important buildings including Kew Palace, built in 1634 on the site of an earlier building and recently restored, and Queen Charlotte's Cottage built in the south-west corner in c.1722. A number of garden buildings designed by Sir William Chambers for Princess Augusta survive such as the 1757 Orangery; the Temples of Aeolus of c.1760, rebuilt in 1845 by Decimus Burton; Arethusa (1758) and Bellona (1760) along the east side; the Ruined Arch (1759/60) and the Chinese Pagoda (1761). King William's Temple of 1837 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville is situated between the Palm House and Temperate House. In the C20th a number of new glasshouses have been built including the Alpine House, the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Sir Joseph Banks Building, a centre for Economic Botany. The Gardens contain c. 50,000 plants from all over the world and the Herbarium has c.6 million specimens. During the storms of October 1987 many trees were lost. The Queen's Garden is a formal garden laid out behind Kew Palace. Near the Pagoda is a Japanese Garden with the Chokushi Mon, a replica of the 'Gateway to the Imperial Messenger' in Kyoto, which had been made as the main gateway for the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition held at White City in London. After the exhibition the gateway was eventually moved to Kew; it was restored in 1995 and the new Japanese Gardens were built to complement it in 1996.