Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens, in south-west London, holds what it describes as the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world, spread over 132 hectares beside the Thames. It began in 1759 as an exotic garden for Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, grew under George III with the help of Sir Joseph Banks, and became the national botanic garden in 1840. It is run by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a research institution whose herbarium, library of more than 750,000 volumes and seed bank support plant science worldwide. In the 19th century Kew raised the rubber seedlings that spread rubber cultivation beyond South America. In 2003 the gardens became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The great glasshouses are the heart of any visit. The Palm House, built between 1844 and 1848 by the architect Decimus Burton and the ironmaster Richard Turner, is considered the world's most important surviving Victorian glass-and-iron structure. A gallery 9 m up lets you walk among the tops of the palms. The Temperate House, also by Burton, has twice the floor area and is the largest Victorian glasshouse still standing. The Princess of Wales Conservatory of 1987 contains ten climate zones under one roof, from desert cacti to orchids and carnivorous plants, and the small Waterlily House grows giant Victoria waterlilies in summer.

Elsewhere the landscape is full of set pieces. Sir William Chambers' ten-storey Great Pagoda of 1762, 50 m high, can be climbed by its 253 steps. The treetop walkway takes you along a 200 m route 18 m above the ground through the woodland canopy, and it sways in the wind. The Hive, a 17 m aluminium honeycomb lattice by the artist Wolfgang Buttress, stands in a wildflower meadow and explores the life of bees. Kew Palace, the smallest of the British royal palaces, is a red-brick house of about 1631 that George III bought for his family. The Marianne North Gallery displays 832 paintings of plants by the Victorian traveller Marianne North, hung frame to frame exactly as she arranged them.

Allow a full day: the gardens are large, and every season has something to see, from spring flowers to autumn colour in the arboretum and the heated glasshouses in winter. Five trees survive from 1762, among them a ginkgo and an oriental plane.

Getting there

Kew Gardens station, on the District line of the London Underground and on London Overground, is about 400 m from the Victoria Gate. Kew Bridge station, across the river with South Western Railway trains, is about 800 m from the Elizabeth Gate. Bus 65 stops near the Lion and Victoria Gates, and in summer riverboats from Westminster call at Kew Pier. There is a car park outside the Brentford Gate. Richmond town centre is about 2 km away, and London Heathrow (LHR) is about 12 km to the west.