Kew Gardens
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003). The Most Famous Botanic Garden In The World, With 50,000 Living Plants, The Victorian Palm House And Temperate House, The Treetop Walkway, Kew Palace And A Seed Bank Of Wild Species. A Full Day In A London Suburb · Richmond, England
Kew Gardens, officially the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a huge garden and research centre in south-west London beside the Thames, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It holds tens of thousands of living plants in glasshouses and landscaped grounds. The Palm House is a curved Victorian iron and glass greenhouse full of tropical trees, the Temperate House is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world, and the Princess of Wales Conservatory shows plants from dry deserts to wet jungles. Outside are the Treetop Walkway, high above the oaks, the Hive, a buzzing sculpture about bees, the Great Pagoda and Kew Palace, a small royal house with its own ticket. Seasons shape the visit: spring blossom, summer borders, autumn colour, an orchid festival in February and Christmas lights in winter. Kew is large, so allow four to five hours, bring a picnic, and expect aircraft noise from Heathrow overhead. It is crowded on fine weekends and not cheap, but the glasshouses are worth it in rain.
Kew Road, Richmond, in south-west London beside the Thames, reached by District line or Overground to Kew Gardens, Richmond, England, United Kingdom
The gardens are open daily for most of the year, usually from morning to early evening in summer and earlier in winter; last entry is commonly an hour or more before closing. The glasshouses and galleries close earlier than the grounds, and the Treetop Walkway may be CLOSED in high wind or ice. Kew Palace is open only in the warmer months and is not included in the standard garden ticket, so it is CLOSED in winter. Christmas lights run on evenings only with a separate ticket, and the gardens are commonly closed on Christmas Day. There is nothing FREE inside the gardens: all areas need a ticket, though Friends members enter without paying. The river path outside the gate is FREE. Confirm times before you travel.