Kew Gardens: Plants, Empire and the Palm House
Kew is where Londoners go to breathe: glasshouses, lawns, a pagoda, trees from every continent. It was also, for a century, the head office of the British Empire's plant business. Rubber for Malaya, quinine for India, cocoa seedlings for the Gold Coast all passed through these gardens. Both stories are worth knowing before you walk in.
Overview: a garden that ran an empire
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, on the Thames in south-west London, cover around 120 hectares and hold one of the largest collections of living plants in the world, along with a herbarium of millions of dried specimens. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. On a sunny day there are few better places in London.
In the nineteenth century, Kew was much more than a pleasure garden. It was the centre of a worldwide network of colonial botanic gardens, which moved valuable plants between continents, sometimes legally and sometimes not, and turned them into plantation crops. That network changed the economies of whole countries, Ghana among them.
- Founded: 1759, as Princess Augusta's garden; a state institution from 1841
- UNESCO World Heritage Site: since 2003
- Palm House: built 1844–1848 by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner; due to close in 2027 for a five-year restoration
- Rubber: 70,000 seeds smuggled out of Brazil by Henry Wickham in 1876 and raised at Kew
- Ghana link: Aburi Botanical Gardens, opened in 1890 with a Kew-trained first curator
- Address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond TW9 3AE; Kew Gardens station (District line and Overground)
Royal origins
Kew began as a royal pleasure garden. In 1759 Princess Augusta, the mother of George III, laid out a botanic garden here. The architect William Chambers added follies, including the Great Pagoda of 1762. Under George III, the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, who had sailed with Captain Cook to the Pacific, made Kew a collecting centre and sent plant hunters around the world.
In 1841 the gardens were handed to the state. Under William Hooker and his son Joseph Hooker, Kew became a scientific institution with a clear public mission: to serve the economy of Britain and its colonies.
The imperial network
From Kew, a chain of botanic gardens stretched across the empire: Calcutta, Peradeniya in Ceylon, Singapore, Trinidad, Jamaica, and later Entebbe in Uganda and Aburi in the Gold Coast. Kew trained their curators, sent them seeds and cuttings in sealed glass "Wardian cases", and received specimens in return. Through this network tea went from China to India, rubber from Brazil to Ceylon and Malaya, cinchona from the Andes to India, and sisal from Mexico to East Africa.
These were not neutral science projects. They were designed to give Britain control of strategic crops, and plantations needed land and labour. Indian workers were shipped to Malayan rubber estates, and African farmers were encouraged, and sometimes pressured, to grow export crops instead of food. Indigenous knowledge of plants was collected and rarely credited.
Rubber and quinine
In 1876 the planter Henry Wickham, working for Kew and the India Office, shipped about 70,000 seeds of the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis out of Brazil, describing them to officials as specimens for the queen. Joseph Hooker paid him for them. Fewer than 4 percent germinated in Kew's glasshouses, but the seedlings were sent to Ceylon and Malaya. There Henry "Rubber" Ridley, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, worked out better tapping methods. Within decades Asian plantations had destroyed Brazil's wild rubber trade.
Quinine, from the bark of the Andean cinchona tree, was the only effective treatment for malaria. South American governments tried to protect their monopoly, and in Bolivia an Aymara man, Manuel Incra Mamani, was killed for helping a British collector smuggle seeds. Cinchona was brought through Kew to India and grown in plantations. Cheap quinine protected British soldiers and administrators in Africa and Asia, and helped make the conquest of the African interior possible.
Kew and Ghana: Aburi
Ghana has its own Kew. In March 1890 the Aburi Botanical Gardens opened in the cool Akuapem hills above Accra, on the site of an old government sanatorium. Its founders were Governor William Brandford Griffith and the Sierra Leonean doctor John Farrell Easmon, and its first curator, William Crowther, came from Kew. Aburi supplied cheap cocoa seedlings to farmers and helped the Gold Coast become the world's largest cocoa producer. Rubber was sent to Aburi from Kew in 1893.
The gardens were an instrument of colonial economic policy, and also one of the most beautiful places in Ghana. Read the full story on Ghana-Net's Aburi Botanical Gardens page and the dedicated Aburi site, and for cocoa itself, Tetteh Quarshie, the blacksmith who brought cocoa to Ghana.
Kew today: from extraction to conservation
Today Kew's science is about saving plants, not exploiting them. Its Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst in Sussex stores seeds from tens of thousands of wild species, and its scientists work with partners across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Since 2020 Kew has also said publicly that it wants to address the colonial roots of its collections and how it tells their story. That drew criticism from some politicians and commentators who called it "woke", and support from others. In practice it has meant new labels, research and exhibitions on plants and empire.
What to see
- The Palm House: the great iron-and-glass greenhouse of 1844–48, a tropical rainforest under glass, with rubber trees, cocoa, coffee and palms. It is due to close in 2027 for a five-year restoration, so see it while you can.
- The Temperate House: the world's largest surviving Victorian glasshouse, reopened in 2018 after restoration.
- The Marianne North Gallery: hundreds of paintings of plants and landscapes by a Victorian woman who travelled the world alone, including South Africa.
- The Great Pagoda: Chambers's 1762 pagoda, restored with its dragons.
- The Hive and the Treetop Walkway: for children and for views over the canopy.
- Kew Palace: the smallest royal palace, included with garden entry when open.
In the Palm House, look for the cocoa tree and the rubber tree side by side. They tell the story of this page better than any label.
Practical guide
- Tickets: paid entry, usually around £20–£25 for adults depending on the day, cheaper online; reduced prices for children, young people and students. Check Kew's website for current prices.
- Opening: daily from 10am; closing time varies with the season, from mid-afternoon in winter to 8pm on summer weekends. From mid-November to early January the gardens close at 3.15pm.
- Closures: some glasshouses close for renovation (the Waterlily House until spring 2027). Check before you go.
- Getting there: Kew Gardens station on the District line and London Overground, then a short walk to Victoria Gate; or by river boat from Westminster in summer.
- Time: allow at least half a day.
Combine Kew with the London hub and our first-time-in-London practical guide.
Tours and experiences
Our tour partner offers London tours and day trips, and for those visiting Ghana, tours in the Volta and Eastern regions, including the Akuapem hills. Entrance fees are included in the tour price where a tour visits paying sites. Tips are not included but are always welcome.
Read next
Another great London institution built in part by empire.
The plant that built Manchester, and who grew it.
The colony that became the world's cocoa giant.
An honest guide to Britain's national war museum.
The hub for every Britain and Africa history page on this site.
The African side of the story
Britain Adventures is part of a network of independent sites on Africa and its history. These are the places where the stories on this page continue:
- Pan-African: African Independence · Uganda · Egypt · Sierra Leone · All African Radio Stations
- Ghana: Ghana-Net · Cape Coast Castle · Elmina Castle · James Fort, Accra · They Made Ghana · War Cemetery Cape Coast
- Across Africa: Kenya Web News · Explore Nigeria · Gambia Vibes · Zambia Vibes
- European history: V2 Rocket and Peenemünde · Tannenberg Memorial
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