Queue for Kew
- Russell Shanks
- Oct 22, 2018
- 3 min read
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
I had not been to Kew since a school visit some 15+ years ago, so anything beyond the family café area felt new. Traveling along the Overground from West Hampstead was relatively simple enough, service on the Richmond branch is not as frequent as other TFL tube services but if you time it right you can really cut a corner and avoid Central London.
Kew itself has a very distinct village feel to it, bringing together a mix of tree-lined streets, Victorian, Edwardian and ‘50’s style housing and shops. The Gardens are about a 5/10 minute walk down the road from Kew Gardens Station, but just follow the crowds – you may have wondered why the Overground seems so busy this far down the line…most people aren’t heading for Richmond.
Entry is just under £20 for an adult, competitive against other substantial attractions of this size and visitor appeal (the likes of Dover Castle, Hampton Court Palace and Chatsworth are comparable). Naturally all the on-site food and drink is also in the Heritage attraction price range (Your £2.80 Coffees and the like) – you can buy a bag of Cheesy Peas though.
Fantastic!
The most immediate and pleasant surprise about Kew is that it is not as intensively structured as you may imagine. There is not section upon section displaying different plants and flowers. No clearly defined herbaceous borders with rows of densely packed plants.
There is space to explore.
The whole appearance is natural. There are of course some areas exactly set up for displaying particular environments of foliage and for various displays or exhibits, the Rock Garden is one notable area.
However to a large extent Kew is open ground of well-trimmed grass, trees and badger sets. Grand vistas give you fantastic visuals between the main focus points – Temperate House to Pagoda, Pagoda to Riverside and Riverside to Palm House provide a good triangular to get in a decent walk.
The Woodland area on the south side is the best place to get off the established pathways and explore. If you are botanically-inclined you are likely to find a lot of interesting species of trees. For me it was a chance to track wildlife – from a solitary Peacock to screaming Parakeets, Crows to Green Woodpecker. The woods also soak up London’s noise as well, it’s very serene even right down to the edge of the park and the River Thames.
Visiting in early October you get the best mix of evergreens and innumerable autumnal shades. Piercing through the green pines and furs are leaves of bright yellow through to blood red, every shade of orange in between – add in a stiff breeze and you could find yourself singing “Colours of the Wind” from Disney’s Pocahontas in the leaf-swirl.
You can imagine that there was a great deal of intention in the way that some trees are bunched, so that their colours complement each other in their autumn hue – though you don’t need to give it this much consideration to enjoy.
One of the big draws of Kew are the garden buildings splayed around the park. The Temperate House is very airy and pleasant for a greenhouse, while the famous Palm House is utterly sweltering. The Temperate House is so called as it houses plants from the planet’s temperate zone – between the Tropic of Cancer/Capricorn and the Artic/Antarctic Circles. The Palm House fills the gap in between – the tropics.
It is strongly advisable to shed a few layers before wandering in, there’s not a great deal of room to do this inside and putting anything down will get it soaked. It’s as close to walking into a rainforest as you can in London. Heading up to the gantry will be a heavy lesson in thermodynamics (as heat rises) and only for those who aren’t already having difficulties. For your efforts you do get a good look at some massive palm leaves, but the balcony views are better in the Temperate House.
By this time you’ve probably covered most of the site, having walked a fair way and experienced a few seasons worth of conditions inside and out so it’s about right to have a browse in the shop and head for the exit. Head past the few too many books on botanicals & gin and make a stop in Kew high street for a coffee and refresher. There’s a tiny bookshop opposite The Tap on the Line pub worth a view, though it is suspiciously like a Waterstones off-shoot.
Top Tip: Try to be the first or last into the Palm House. It fills very quickly which just adds to the heat.
Best Avoid: Following the crowds. Get off the beaten track and go for a wander.
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