Museums & Attractions

A magnificent World Heritage Site covering 300 acres with over 30,000 species of plants; plus the tropical Palm House, the Temperate House and the Princess of Wales conservatory.

The newest addition to the Kew landscape is the 18m-high, 200m-long Xstrata Treetop Walkway, which allows visitors to wander through Kew's canopy of trees and see the gardens from a new perspective. This is accompanied by an underground Rhizotron display revealing how roots work. Also new in 2008 is the Shirley Sherwood gallery, the first permanent gallery in the world dedicated to botanical art.

Elsewhere, the energy-efficient Davies Alpine House designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects was the first new glasshouse at Kew for 20 years when it opened in 2006. The Evolution House contains a permanent exhibition telling the story of the development of plant life. A few of the specimens are represented by models but Kew is able to represent many examples of primitive plants – from liverworts to cycads – from its own living collections.

Families with younger children will get a kick out of the human-scale badger sett, the fish in the Marine Display downstairs in the Palm House and the Climbers and Creepers indoor play area for accompanied three-to-nine year-olds (sessions, bookable on arrival, last 20 mins).