Our next destination was Kew Gardens, which has been described as having "the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". If you're ever in London and you're into gardening, or have ever seen a garden that looked kind of nice to you, you should probably go to Kew Gardens too. It's in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, along the river (as you've no doubt deduced from the name), well to the west of the center of town. You can get there on the Underground, which will drop you off a short walk from a Garden entrance called the Victoria Gate.

Kew Gardens covers 330 acres, much of it wooded and much of it on the parklike side. Many of the thousands of plants living at the gardens come from different climates and would not survive a London winter, and for them there are several structures, scattered around the grounds, in which the climate can be controlled. And there are additional structures which exist for decorative or historical reasons. We could easily have spent the entire day exploring all of this, but our time in London was growing short, and we had another destination we wanted to visit for part of the day. So unfortunately we weren't able to explore the entire garden, and only ended up seeing about half of it, roughly the right half of the map below. But I'm sure you'll agree we had plenty to look at in our half-day visit. And, of course, we'll have to return someday.

Kew Gardens started to acquire something like its present form under George III, who undertook the enrichment of the gardens beginning in 1772, with the advice of some of the prominent botanists of the time. One of the botanists, Joseph Banks, had made a name for himself by travelling to distant points of the globe and bringing back samples of plants utterly foreign to England or to any other place in Europe. In 1766, he'd crossed the North Atlantic to Labrador and Newfoundland, and in 1772 he'd visited some of the British Isles and ventured as far as Iceland. But most famously, in 1768-71 he'd accompanied Captain James Cook on a trip around the world aboard the HMS Endeavour, during which time he'd studied the flora and fauna of places like South Africa, Brazil, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. He brought back samples and seeds, some of which found their way into the Royal garden.

Banks soon became the unofficial director of the garden. In addition, in 1778 he was elected President of the Royal Society, a position he would hold for 41 years. With these dual roles, Banks was able to send out explorers to find more exotic plants and to encourage general shipping to the many far-flung British colonies to bring back samples from foreign ports. By the time Banks died in 1820, the collection at Kew was formidable to say the least. In 1840 Kew was opened as a national botanical garden, and the rest is history.

In addition to the structures and the plants, we noticed on our map that Kew Gardens was also home to two bodies of water. We turned right toward the closest one, called the Palm House Pond. On the far side of the pond, there was a picturesque three-story building, dating from 1857, which is apparently just called "Museum No. 1". At present, Museum No. 1 holds an education center and a restaurant.

You're probably thinking that if there's a Palm House Pond, there must be a Palm House somewhere. You would be correct, and from our vantage point at the pond, it's impossible to miss, if you turn around. The Palm House is an immense wrought-iron-and-glass structure that was built between 1844 and 1848 by architect Decimus Burton and iron founder Richard Turner. If the idea of a Palm House and the name Turner seem familiar, you have a really good memory. You have only to look at the page for the Belfast Botanic Garden to see a similar (but considerably smaller) structure that was built in 1840, with the participation of the same Richard Turner.


The Palm House is one of those climate controlled buildings I mentioned earlier. Inside, no surprise, you can find palms of various types. But we went into the house and found that there are a whole lot of other plants that apparently share the same climate preference.







Also in the Palm House, there were some small ponds and aquariums. With pond and aquarium plants and creatures.


After having our fill of the Palm House, we went out the back way, to see if the scenery was any different. It was, somewhat, but the first thing that caught our attention was a statue of a dangerous-looking creature. This was one of the "Queen's Beasts" - a series of statues of creatures that appear in the coats of arms of the Queen's royal predecessors. This one is the Griffin of Edward III (1312-77):

Next to the Palm House, but much smaller, is the Waterlily House, built in 1852 (ironwork by the aforementioned Richard Turner). Like the Palm House, this structure is aptly named, as it has a large pond in the middle, with waterlilies floating all over it. But not just any waterlilies - some have the biggest lilypads you will have ever seen. But there are normal-sized waterlilies too, plus other plants that enjoy the same heat and humidity.



Not far from the Waterlily House is the much newer and more wordily-named Princess of Wales Conservatory. The Conservatory was opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales, but the Conservatory was not named for her. It was named for Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, who had the Gardens greatly enlarged before her son succeeded to the throne as George III in 1760.

In the Conservatory there are ten micro-climatic zones, with their climates controlled by computer. One of the largest zones has a desert climate, and many spiky plants can be found here:




The other zones in the Conservatory are more humid, and there are more flowers. I'm not sure what they all are, but they smell pretty good. Except for the corpse flower, of course, which fortunately wasn't blooming. One of these other zones was also guarded by a dinosaur.





From the Conservatory, we walked over to Kew Palace, which seemed to consist of a single unpalace-like manor house.

Kew Palace is all that's left of a larger palace complex, that's most well-known for its use by George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte.

A lot happened during the 60-year reign of George III, but it's impossible to discuss his reign in much detail without recognizing his bouts with mental illness. It's not clear exactly what kind of mental illness this was, but it seemed to match up with the mania phase of being bipolar. In any case, there were periods during which the King could not function, and he needed to be removed from the public eye while undergoing treatment. Sometimes he would go to Kew Palace, where he would stay with his handlers in a more palatial building (since demolished) known as the White House, while his family would stay in the surviving structure, known as the Dutch House (as it was built, around 1631, by a Dutch merchant). During his final illness, the King instead stayed at Windsor, while his son (the eventual George IV) ruled as regent. The Dutch House has been furnished and decorated to give some idea of what life was like for the Royal family while they were staying there.




Behind the Dutch House, there are a couple of smallish gardens (by Royal standards, anyway). One was used for the growing of household plants (herbs, medicinal plants, some vegetables). This garden has been restored to reflect approximately what it looked like when in use.



The other garden is more ornamental, and has a well and a fountain.


Running short on time, we walked back toward the Victoria Gate by a non-direct path, in order to see a little more of the Gardens.

On the way we found some lunch (there are a few places to eat in Kew Gardens), and then headed out the gate and back to the Underground station. We caught a train and headed back toward town. But not too far back toward town, as our second destination for the day was on the way. This destination was the Victoria and Albert Museum.