Albert's Greenhouse

The Palm House is iconic of Kew in a way that few other buildings are. It's not the biggest ( That would be the Temperate House ), and it's not the Oldest ( Maybe the Orangery or the Nash Conservatory, formerly the Aroid House ), but in many ways it's the most graceful, and it's the first thing you see when you pay your money and walk into the main entrance.

Completed in 1848. Restored in 1957, over 100 years later. Restored again in 1988. Designed by Decimus Burton, built by Richard Turner. Wrought iron and glass in the form of an upturned ships hull. It's beautiful and impressive now - just think how it must have looked to someone in 1865 London.

The public face of Kew's tropical collection is housed here - palm trees, tropical flowers, and nice wide aisles. The collection is large and well grown, especially the palms and cycads. It's here, at one end, where you can find the Encephalartos altensteinii, a cycad which has been in captivity since 1773.

Both the Temperate House and the Palm House have convenient 2nd story walkways which allow a visitor to view the canopy from above. Most of the plantings are in raised beds rather than pots.



The palm house has a marine collection down in the basement where the heating apparatus used to be. It's nothing like our local Monterey Bay Aquarium, but it does have a nice exhibit of what I presume to be local sea life.