What began more than three centuries ago as a small family garden has grown into the largest collection of plants in the world. Kew Gardens, located at a bend of the River Thames between Kew and Richmond in the suburbs of southwest London, include more than 40,000 varieties of plants and 40 historically significant buildings. In 2003, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Sorting the Puzzle Pieces
During the latter half of the 17th century, Sir Henry Capel and his wife Dorothy lived on an estate known as Kew Farm. They designed small walled gardens and courtyards to flank their house, leaving the land outside for agricultural purposes.
Records indicate that Sir Henry and “the whole Capel family were famously devoted to gardening... it was close to an obsession.” Their gardens were widely admired.
Around the same time, two structures relevant to the development of Kew Gardens were built: Dutch House and Richmond Lodge.
The riverside villa called Dutch House was constructed in 1631 by Samuel Fortrey, the merchant son of Flemish emigrants. The four-story structure with its carved brickwork and rounded gables is the oldest building remaining in the gardens and is now known as Kew Palace.
Richmond Lodge was originally a hunting lodge that was transformed into a royal residence during the reign of William III (1689-1702). In recognition of the building’s new status, the land surrounding it was formally landscaped, including the creation of Broad Avenue, connecting the lodge with the Thames.
George, Prince of Wales, and his wife Princess Caroline moved into Richmond Lodge in 1718. When her husband was crowned King George II in 1727, Queen Caroline was granted the house and its associated grounds outright. A patron of the English Garden Movement, she hired two of its leading proponents, Charles Bridgeman and William Kent, to redesign the landscape. The changes that Bridgeman made, although well accepted by critics of the day, were reworked or even removed by his successors.
Meanwhile, Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II and Caroline, acquired Kew Farm, the Capel’s property next door to Richmond Lodge. He married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha in 1736, and together they set about enhancing the estate.
They commissioned William Kent, who had created follies and other structures for Richmond Gardens, to redesign the Kew Farm house. The resulting white Palladian facade led to the house being widely known as the White House.
As gardening enthusiasts, Frederick and Augusta developed a plan for the Kew Farm grounds that included the introduction of trees, a physic and exotic garden, an aqueduct, and a “mound to be adorned with the statues or busts of all these philosophers and to represent the Mount of Parnassus,” which became the mound where the Temple of Aeolus now stands.
Frederick suddenly died in 1751, causing botanist Dr. John Mitchell to mourn that “Planting and Botany in England would be the poorer for his Passing.” However, Augusta instructed head gardener John Dillman to “compleat that part of the Garden at Kew that is not yet finished in the manner proposed by the Plan.” With this directive, she added the physic and exotic garden and became in effect the founder of the botanic gardens at Kew.
She hired William Chambers to build a number of structures on the site. His 1758 alcoves were probably the first seats of this kind to appear in the gardens, and his basic design has been copied several times since. A possible original can be found near the current Lion Gate, and later examples are located near the Isleworth Ferry Gate and the Brentford Gate.
Other structures by Chambers that still stand include the Temple of Arethusa, the Temple of Bellona, the Orangery, the Ruined Arch, and the Pagoda.
On the European continent, Kew was the more famous of the two 18th century gardens at Richmond and Kew. Many of the Chambers designs and “Perspective Views” were included in a 21-part series on the “Details of Nouveaux Jardins a la Mode” by G.L. LeRouge, published between 1776 and 1787.
When Queen Caroline died in 1737, King George II inherited Richmond Gardens. But whereas Caroline had been actively involved in development of the gardens, George II transferred responsibility for their upkeep to head gardener Thomas Greening and his son Robert, who continued to add new features.
Putting Them All Together
Upon the death of George II, Frederick and Augusta’s son became King George III and owner of Richmond Gardens. In 1764, he appointed Lancelot “Capability” Brown as Surveyor to His Majesty’s Gardens and Waters and commissioned him to improve his late grandmother’s gardens.
Brown quickly began altering the designs and removing most of the follies Bridgeman and Kent had installed. His grand scheme for Richmond included creating open space at the center of the gardens and visually uniting them with Syon Park across the Thames, which he already had landscaped.
On the death of Princess Augusta in 1772, George III inherited Kew Farm. He moved the royal family there and demolished Richmond Lodge.
For the first time, Kew Farm, Richmond Gardens, and additional riverside property were held by a single owner. However, George III did not physically unite the properties until 1802, when he closed Love Lane, which had been the main public right of way from Kew to Richmond, and took down the walls that had divided the two royal estates.
Once the gardens were physically united, George III and then head gardener William Aiton made more changes in an attempt to create a continuous landscape. They added two new southern gateways: Lion Gate and Oxenhouse Gate.
In 1773, wealthy entrepreneur and natural history enthusiast Sir Joseph Banks became associated with Kew, assuming, in his words, “a kind of superintendence” to enrich the gardens. Banks had been on several collecting expeditions, including Captain James Cook’s around the world expedition in the Endeavour between 1768 and 1771.
Without the guidance of Banks, Kew might not have evolved into the internationally respected institution that it is today. Banks dispatched collectors around the globe to gather rare, unusual and interesting botanical specimens. In 1773 alone, he planted more than 800 species of trees and shrubs at Kew, mostly from North America.
In 1802, King George III again moved the royal family, this time into Dutch House. He then dismantled the White House, where he had lived during his bouts of insanity. A sundial on the lawn marks the spot where it once stood.
Banks’s death in 1820 coincided with that of George III, and the loss of these two driving forces in Kew’s development almost destroyed the gardens. They languished for two decades before the recently crowned Queen Victoria turned them over to the state in 1840. The royal family also donated some surrounding land, bringing the total area of the gardens up to 200 acres.
The year 1841 generally is regarded as the date when the Royal Botanic Gardens were officially established. At that time, Sir William Hooker was named director. He was responsible for adding the Department of Economic Botany, the library, the museum, and the herbarium.
In 1844, he commissioned Decimus Burton to build the Palm House for tropical trees, shrubs and palms. The curvilinear structure is considered one of the most important surviving 19th century glass and iron buildings in the world. It influenced the design of other glass and metal structures during the Victorian period, including the Crystal Palace erected for the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Hooker asked Burton to construct another huge greenhouse, the Temperate House, in 1860. Twice the size of the Palm House, it remains as the world’s largest ornamental glasshouse.
Additional bequests of land were made to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, until they reached the current size of 300 acres in 1902.
Kew Gardens today are among the most popular visitor attractions in England. They present a pleasant mix of heritage structures, landscaped lawns, formal gardens, and greenhouses displaying plants from around the world. Kew Gardens Gallery showcases art and photography illustrating botanical themes,
Evolution House contains exhibits about the evolution of plant life on earth, and the Wood Museum explains the production of paper and shows examples of inlaid wood cabinetry.
But Kew Gardens is not just another pretty place. It functions as an educational and botanical research center. In addition to working with schools and universities, it offers its own three-year Kew Diploma in Horticulture. It continues to collect plant specimens and seeds, spearheading the Millennium Seed Bank Project, an effort to safeguard 24,000 plant species around the globe from extinction. It maintains a comprehensive library as well as publishing books and periodicals.
A complex program has been undertaken to conserve the architectural and landscape heritage of Kew Gardens while developing the site to improve visitor and scientific facilities.
