Three hundred acres of botanic garden on the Thames, with Victorian glasshouses full of palms, a walkway through the treetops, a royal palace and around 50,000 living plants. A World Heritage Site since 2003.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew began as a royal pleasure garden and grew into one of the world's leading plant science institutions.
The Palm House of 1848, a curving iron-and-glass greenhouse by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner, holds a rainforest with a spiral stair to a gallery under the roof. The larger Temperate House shelters plants from cooler climates. The treetop walkway lifts you 18 metres into the canopy, and the Japanese gateway, Kew Palace and the pagoda are scattered across the lawns.
Spring brings bluebells and magnolias; autumn turns the arboretum gold and red. From mid-November to early January, the illuminated Christmas at Kew trail runs in the evenings on a separate ticket.
Book online, which is cheaper than at the gate, and pair the visit with the Thames towpath walk to Richmond.
A loop from Victoria Gate, ending on the towpath.
Start in the Palm House and climb to its upper gallery.
Walk south to the vast Temperate House.
Climb the steps or take the lift to the walkway among the treetops.
See the Japanese gateway and the Great Pagoda across the lawns.
Finish at Kew Palace, then join the towpath to Richmond.
District line or Overground to Kew Gardens station, then a short walk to Victoria Gate.
£20–22, cheaper online; Christmas at Kew is a separate evening ticket.
The Thames Path runs past the gardens towards Richmond and Hampton Court.
London practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
