Museums & Attractions

Chelsea Physic Garden
If you’re a real plantsman or woman this ancient garden holds endless fascination and for those interested in alternative medicine the garden is now home to the world’s first garden of ethnobotany (the study of the botany of different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples). So you can find out about the plants used medicinally by – among others – North American Indians, Australian Aboriginals and the tribal peoples of Southern Africa. And, for those who are more sceptical, in each bed you’ll find a plant that has been proved effective by controlled medical trials.
Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Rd, SW3 (020 7352 5646).

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Frogmore House
This royal retreat at Windsor is a seventeenth-century house which was purchased for George III’s consort Queen Charlotte and was a favourite of successive monarchs. On show are furniture, porcelain and paintings including drawings and watercolours by Queen Victoria. The Cross Gallery, which spans the entire breadth of the house is decorated with garlands , painted by Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte. Another room contains work by the eighteenth-century flower painter Mary Moser. Based on a model ‘picturesque’ landscape, the gardens which were laid out by Queen Charlotte, feature 4,000 trees and shrubs and a lake. They are also the resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, although their mausoleum is closed to the public.
Frogmore House, Windsor Home Park, Windsor, SL4 (0207 766 7305/ bookinginfo@royalcollection.org.uk).

London Wetland Centre
Recent sightings at this 105-acre wildlife sanctuary in Barnes have included laughing Marsh Frogs (catch them in full chortle and they look as though they’re blowing bubblegum), an emperor dragonfly, two green sandpipers, two greenshanks feeding on the main lake and an impressive flock of 17 black-tailed godwits paying a late-afternoon visit. We can’t promise you’ll see a kestrel or a kingfisher, but you may well and whatever wildlife puts in an appearance during your visit, it’s a green and tranquil place to spend some time over the bank holiday weekend. There’s a three-storey tower and six other hides to offer cover while you watch the wetland wildlife and there are plenty of great spots to enjoy a picnic.
London Wetland Centre, Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, SW13 (020 8409 4400).

Kenwood House
There’s much more to Kenwood than the Brewhouse Café in the old kitchens – although that is an excellent port of call if you’ve just had a good walk on Hampstead Heath. The white stucco mansion was remodelled by Robert Adam, who also designed much of the interior, between 1764 and 1773 and the house contains the Iveagh Bequest of paintings including Vermeer’s ‘The Guitar Player’ and works by Reynolds, Turner, Van Dyck and Hogarth. A temporary exhibition ‘Slavery and Justice: the Legacies of Lord Mansfield and Dido Belle’, which continues until September 2, looks at Kenwood’s connections with the abolition of the slave trade through Lord Mansfield, the former owner of the house, who, as Lord Chief Justice, presided over test cases on the legality of slavery in England. The display also explores the private life of Lord Mansfield and reveals how he raised his great-niece Dido Elizabeth Belle – the daughter of his nephew and an enslaved African woman – at Kenwood.
Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, NW3 (020 8348 1286).

Queen Charlotte's Cottage
Few people seem to know Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, perhaps because the place is only open to the public during the summer at weekends, and the attractions at Kew are so numerous that it’s impossible to tick them all off on a single visit. It was to this cottage in its idyllic woodland setting, that George III and Queen Charlotte went to relax when they were in residence at Kew Palace. Built in 1770, the cottage provided an informal setting for rustic meals when the royal family felt like slumming it. It was also used for the celebration of formal weddings, including that of Edward Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria. Next door to the cottage there used to be a menagerie of exotic animals. Among the traces of the Georgian decor still visible in the cottage are remnants of wallpaper, Hogarth prints and a wall painted by one of George III’s daughters, the Princess Elizabeth.
Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, Kew Gardens, Kew Road, Surrey, Richmond, TW9 3AB (020 8332 5655).