Chelsea Physic Garden is not the kind of place you stumble across. Hidden away behind an unprepossessing red brick wall, from the outside there’s little to suggest anything deserving of a second glance. Appearances are deceiving.
You should grab the first opportunity you have to explore this four-acre botanical haven sandwiched between the Thames and Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea.
Even during our visit in September, the garden was bursting in bloom, a riot of colours and fragrance in well-organised chaos. Here’s what you need to know before you go.
You can book online or simply turn up and buy a ticket on site, though booking ahead is worth doing if you want a guaranteed time slot, check current times and prices here.
Exploring Chelsea Physic Garden
It’s a wonder that Chelsea Physic Garden flies under the radar, this is the second-oldest botanical garden in the UK, set up by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1673 to further understanding of plants’ uses in healing and medicine. That makes it almost a century older than the city’s most famous botanic gardens at Kew.
At four acres, the gardens are relatively small but there’s a surprising amount to explore. Close to the centre you’ll find an unlikely masterpiece in the country’s first rock garden, and one of the odder Grade II listed sites in London: look closely and you’ll spot clamshells salvaged from Captain Cook’s Endeavour and volcanic rock brought back from Iceland in 1772 by the plant collector Sir Joseph Banks.
Beyond that, a radiating patchwork of small gardens, organised by area of origin or the plants’ medicinal uses (beware the patch of poisons, their labels ominously marked by a skull and crossbones). Species abound, over 4,500 in fact, spread across edible, medicinal, herbal plants and more.
It wouldn’t be a botanical garden without a glasshouse or two, there are several dotted around the garden, the most impressive being the restored Victorian glasshouses still in use today.
Volunteer-led tours run throughout the day between April and October, included in the price of your ticket, it’s worth checking the timing of the next one when you arrive, though as they’re run by volunteers, one isn’t guaranteed on every visit. If you don’t manage to catch one, here are a few things worth seeking out yourself.
The largest fruiting olive tree in Britain: in 1976 it produced a bumper crop of 7 pounds of olives, a record at the time.
The world’s most northerly outdoor fruiting grapefruit tree, grown from little more than a houseplant pip planted by a local resident in 1945. It outgrew her home entirely before she donated it to the garden, and took another 50 years to finally bear fruit.
History of Chelsea’s Botanical Garden
When the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries established the garden in the 17th century, they wanted to create a place where they could teach apprentices to identify plants used for medicinal purposes.
They chose this particular spot by the Thames because the warmer microclimate allowed them to grow a much larger number of plants than would normally grow in the UK. The riverside location was also useful for setting off on expeditions to discover new specimens.
Sir Hans Sloane, after whom Sloane Square down the road is named, purchased the Manor of Chelsea and in 1722 leased the land to the apothecaries for a peppercorn rent of £5 a year in perpetuity, on condition that they supplied the Royal Society with 50 herbarium samples annually, up to a cumulative total of 2,000 plants. Even at the time, it was a steal.
The garden played a fundamental role in creating the Index Seminum, a global seed exchange system that saw the apothecaries swapping seeds with other botanists around the world. It was the apothecaries who first sent cotton seeds to the American colony of Georgia in the early 1730s, unwittingly playing a role in the growth of the cotton plantations, and the slave trade that fuelled them, that followed.
Interestingly, although the garden has been in continuous use since its creation, it was only opened to the public in 1983.
The cafe
Tucked away at the back of the gardens, stop at the Physic Garden Cafe during your trip, at least for a cup of tea and something from their freshly baked selection.
The cafe has a genuinely good menu packed with seasonal British favourites, much of which is made with produce from the garden. They also host an ever-changing roster of dinners and events through the warmer months, worth checking what’s currently on before you go.
The London x London Take: Come for the plants and stay for the details most people walk straight past, the Grade II listed rock garden alone has more genuine history packed into a few square metres than most whole museums, between the Captain Cook clamshells and Joseph Banks’s Icelandic lava. This is a garden that rewards slowing down rather than rushing the circuit.
Chelsea Physic Garden: practical information and map
- Address: 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, SW3 4HS. Entrance is on Swan Walk.
- Opening hours vary through the seasons and the garden is typically closed on Saturdays, check current times and prices here
- Book tickets here
