Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commonly called Kew Gardens (Kew Gardens), is an extensive botanical garden with greenhouses, covering 120 hectares, located between Richmond upon Thames and Kew, in the southwest of London, England. Its director is now Professor Stephen D. Hooper. It has 700 employees and its budget in 2006 was £44,000,000.

History

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have their origins in two different properties: the Richmond Gardens which belonged to the Crown, and the Kew Gardens, which were in the hands of individuals. Both were located north of the current municipality of Richmond upon Thames.

From the Middle Ages to the Stuarts (14th-17th centuries)

Since the 14th century, English monarchs had shown a predilection for Richmond (then called Sheen). Edward III died in 1377 at his palace at Sheen, Henry IV (1399-1413) later ordered its destruction and Henry V (1413-1422) its restoration. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII (1485-1509), frequently resided in the palace, until it burned. The king ordered it to be rebuilt in Tudor style and renamed Sheen with the name "Richmond". Under Henry VIII (1509-1547), Richmond Palace lost relevance to the newly acquired Hampton Court Palace. Mary I (1553-1558) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603) regularly used it given its proximity to London and the latter died in the palace in 1603.

With the accession to the English throne of James I (1603-1625) and the House of Stuart, Richmond once again lost relevance as a country house compared to the new Theobalds Palace acquired by the monarch. Richmond then became the property of the Prince of Wales (future Charles I), who, being already king, created an important hunting reserve in Richmond, Richmond Park located to the south and closed by a perimeter wall. After damage suffered during the Civil War (1642-1651) and the Commonwealth (1649-1660), Richmond Palace slowly fell into decay, being demolished during the second half of the century XVII. After its disappearance, the royal property was divided into two large green spaces, Old Deer Park to the north and Richmond Park to the south.

The Georgian period (18th century)

The disappearance of Richmond Palace did not mark the end of royal interest in the property, although during the reign of George I (1714-1727) Hampton Court was preferred. In 1718, the Prince of Wales, the future George II (1727-1760), and his wife Princess Caroline settled for the summer at the Duke of Ormond's country house in Old Deer Park. The house was renamed Richmond Lodge and the gardens Richmond Gardens in honor of the old palace. Carolina, queen consort since 1727, carried out important transformations in the gardens, inspired by those of her childhood in Charlottenburg and Herrenhausen and with a clear objective: "help nature, not dilute it in artistic creations";. To this end she had the help of Charles Bridgeman, who, in addition to Carolina's German models, also contributed the trends present in English gardens of the time: Italian fountains, French perspectives and Dutch topiary. Likewise, the architect William Kent built several whims, such as a dairy, a hermitage, the Queen's Pavilion or Merlin's Cave, a rustic house decorated with life-size figures.

After the early death of Queen Caroline in 1737, George II and his court continued to frequent the place, but only on summer Saturdays for lunch and walks.

At the same time, in 1731, the Prince of Wales, Frederick of Hanover, wishing to get away from his parents, rented a property in Kew from the Capell family that consisted of famous gardens and the so-called Kew House. i>, which probably dated from the reign of Elizabeth I. William Kent was called to expand and redecorate the mansion, which saw its brick façade replaced by another plastered in white, and for them it was renamed White House. The new house was inaugurated in 1736 by Prince Frederick and his new wife Princess Augusta, and exotic plants and elaborate mythological sculptures were added to the garden.

Kew became the summer court of the princes of Wales and an alternative to George II's royal court at neighboring Richmond Lodge. Following Frederick's unexpected death in 1751, the Dowager Princess Augusta continued to rent Kew and thereafter carried out extensive alterations and beautification to the gardens on the advice of her confidant Lord Bute; It was the latter who suggested commissioning the, as yet unknown, architect William Chambers to design several caprices.

With the accession of George III to the throne, the pre-eminence of Richmond-Kew was maintained as the main summer residence of the royal family, where they could live simply and familiarly away from the ceremonial of the court of St. James. At first, the monarch and his wife Queen Charlotte settled in the Richmond Lodge , but as the house was small they moved to the White House , still rented to the Capells. When this was also too small, the neighboring Dutch House, which had already been used by Queen Caroline and Princess Augusta, was also rented to serve as a "royal nursery". Later it would be used as the residence of the young Prince of Wales, the future George IV.

The 19th-20th centuries

King George III enriched the gardens, helped by the good work of William Aiton and Sir Joseph Banks. The old manor house at Kew was demolished in 1802. The "Dutch House" ("Dutch House") attached was acquired by George III in 1781 as a nursery for royal infants. It is a structure of simple bare bricks, currently known as "The Kew Palace" ("Kew Palace").

In 1840 the gardens changed their status to a national botanical garden. Under Kew's new director, William Hooker, the gardens were expanded to 30 hectares, and the promenade, or arboretum, to 109 hectares, later increasing to the current 120 hectares.

"The Palm Tree House" (The Palm House) was built by the architect Decimus Burton and the foundryman Richard Turner between 1841 and 1849, being the first large cast iron structure to be built in England. "The Temperate House" (The Temperate house), which is twice as large, followed later in the 19th century. It is currently the largest Victorian iron and glass structure in existence.

Kew was the place where the successful attempt was made, in the 19th century, to spread the cultivation of rubber trees outside of South America.

In 1987, the third largest greenhouse, the Princess of Wales greenhouse (inaugurated by Princess Diana in commemoration of the relationship that her predecessor Augusta had with Kew), was opened, comprising 10 different climatic zones.

In July 2003, they were included in the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Kew Gardens today

Kew Gardens are a leading center for botanical research, a training ground for professional gardeners and an attractive location for visitors. The gardens are laid out informally, with some more elaborate areas. There are large greenhouses, a herbarium and a library. Kew is a very important place as a seed generator; It is one of the most important seed banks in the world. This institution cooperates with the Harvard University Herbarium and the National Herbarium of Australia on the IPNI database, which generates an authoritative source of information on plant nomenclature.

Despite the unfavorable growing conditions for plants (London air pollution, dry land and little rain), this garden continues to house one of the most complete and enjoyable collections of British plants. In an attempt to regenerate the collections out of these unfavorable conditions, Kew has created two outdoor stations, one at Wakehurst Place in Sussex and another (attached with the 'Forestry Commission') Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent, the latter specializing in the development of conifers.

There is a special entrance fee for infants. The closest train and London Underground stations are Kew Gardens station (District Line and London Overground).

Statues

Next to "La Casa de la Palmera" There is a row of ten animal statues with heraldic shields. These statues are called "The Queen's Animals" (The Queen's Beasts) and represent the lineage of Queen Elizabeth II. They are carved in Portland stone, and are replicas of originals made by James Woodford for the queen's coronation in 1953. The animals are: the lion of England; King Edward III's Griffin; the falcon of the House of Plantagenet; Clarence's black bull; Mortimer's White Lion; the eale of Beaufort; The Richmond Greyhound; the Welsh dragon; the unicorn of Scotland; and the white horse of Hanover.

Pagoda

In the southeast of Kew Gardens is the Great Pagoda, erected in 1762, based on a design imitating the Chinese architecture of the Tang period. The lowest of the 10 octagonal tiers is 15 meters (49 ft) in diameter. The height of the entire structure, from the base to the highest point is 50 meters (163 feet).

Each floor of the Pagoda is topped with a projecting roof, in the Chinese style, covered with burnished iron plates of different colors, and along each of the floors there is a closed gallery, with a passage. Until the middle of the 19th century, all corners of the roof were adorned with enormous dragons, eighty in total, covered with a kind of fine glass of various colors. The walls of the building are made of strong bricks. The staircase is located in the center of the building.

Museums and gallery

Near the "Palm House" there is a building known as "Museum No. 1" which was made by Decimus Burton and opened to the public in 1857. Its intention was to show how humanity depends on plants, and includes the Kew collections showing plant derivatives used in useful objects of daily life including, tools, clothes, ornaments, food, and medicines. The building was remodeled in 1998. The upper two floors are now an educational center and the ground floor features the exhibition "Plants+People" (Plants+People), which shows us the variety of plants throughout the world and the diverse ways that people make use of them.

The "Marianne North Gallery" whose initial purpose when it was built in 1880 was to house the paintings of Marianne North, who traveled throughout North America, South America and numerous parts of Asia painting plants. There are about 832 paintings.

As a result of the 2001 Japan Festival, Kew acquired a Japanese wooden house called a minka. It was originally in the 1900s in a suburb of Okazaki. Japanese workers reassembled the structure and British builders who had worked on the Globe Theater added the wall's mud panels.

Activities

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a member of the Botanic Gardens Conservation Union International (BGCI), presenting work for the International Agenda for Conservation in Botanic Gardens.

The Planstastic project: It is an area of the garden where there are giant mushrooms and things to play with.

In Wakehurst, the Millennium Seed Bank Project, the world's most ambitious conservation project, is firmly established; with the Loder Valley Nature Reserve comprising three important types of local habitat; trees, grasslands and wetlands; and the Francis Rose Reserve, which is probably the first nature reserve dedicated to mosses, liverworts, lichens and ferns (cryptogams) in Europe.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, through the Millennium Seed Bank Project, coordinates ENSCONET.