Art and Architecture trail

Walking distance

The Art and Architecture trail has three route options:

Main trail

Starts at Victoria Gate and finishes at The Hive.

• 4.35 km
• 1.5 - 2 hours

Shorter trail

Cuts from the Temperate House back to the Palm House via King William’s Temple.

• 2.75 km
• 1 -1.5 hours

Extended Royal Kew trail

Goes up to Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, and carries on past The Orangery to Kew Palace, the Royal Kitchens and the Nash Conservatory.

• 6.25 km  
• 2.5 - 3 hours 

1 - Temple of Bellona

Architect: William Chambers, 1760, moved and rebuilt c.1803.

Named for the Roman goddess of war, this is one of over 20 ornamental follies Chambers designed to grace the pleasure grounds created by Princess Augusta (credited as the founder of Kew’s original botanic garden), and Prince Frederick. 

2 - Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

Architects: Walters & Cohen Architects, 2008.

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery celebrates the beauty and biodiversity of the natural world through art. It is the first and only purpose-designed botanical art gallery in the world, showcasing pieces from The Shirley Sherwood Collection as well as temporary exhibitions and shows curated from Kew’s art collections. 

3 - Marianne North Gallery

Architect: James Fergusson, 1882.

To step inside the Marianne North Gallery is to be transported across the globe, as visitors are invited to discover how hundreds of plants from around the world grow in their natural habitats. The Gallery is open and free to visit, displaying 848 vibrant artworks created by intrepid Victorian explorer Marianne North. 

4 - Temperate House

Architect: Decimus Burton, opened 1863, completed 1899.

The Temperate House is the largest surviving Victorian glass structure in the world, providing shelter for over 10,000 frost-tender plants from 1,500 species, many of which are rare and threatened in the wild. During a major five-year restoration (2013–2018), extensive repairs were completed, including replacing 15,000 individual panes of glass. 

5 - King William’s Temple

Architect: Sir Jeffry Wyatville, 1837.

Standing at the centre of the Mediterranean Garden, this statuesque structure with Tuscan porticos was built for Queen Victoria, in memory of her uncle, William IV. This temple commemorates a selection of British military actions from 1760 to 1815. 

6 - Great Pagoda

Architect: William Chambers, 1762.

Chambers’s Great Pagoda was designed for Princess Augusta, standing at ten storeys high (nearly 50 metres) with a staircase of 253 steps. There are 80 ornate dragons, which are perched on the corners of each octagonal roof. 

7 - Japanese Landscape and Gateway

Landscape design: Professor Masao Fukuhara of Osaka University, 1996. Gateway carving: Wada Genyemon, 2010.

Surrounding the ornate ChokushiMon (or ‘Gateway of the Imperial Messenger’), the Japanese Landscape unites three garden designs: a Garden of Peace, evoking a traditional Japanese tea garden; a Garden of Activity, consisting of large pebbles and raked gravel; and a Garden of Harmony, representing Japan’s mountain regions. 
 

8 - Queen Charlotte’s Cottage

Architect unknown, c.1771.

This early example of a ‘cottage orné’ (a stylised rustic building) was used by the Royal Family for taking tea and resting on their walks in the gardens. Originally, the cottage was adjacent to a menagerie, which at different times contained pheasants, cattle and even kangaroos. 
 

9 - Treetop Walkway

Architect: Marks Barfield Architects, 2008.

The Treetop Walkway soars 18 metres above the ground and offers a unique perspective of the surrounding tree canopies with spectacular views across Kew Gardens.

10 - Lake Crossing

Architect: John Pawson, 2006.

Gently wending its way across the lake, this award-winning construction is a sympathetic addition to the natural landscape. The curving black granite walkway is framed by flat bronze posts, which begin to disappear when viewed from the side.  

11 - Minka House 

Moved to Kew 2001.

Meaning ‘house of the people’, minka (民家) are traditional Japanese country dwellings. This minka once stood in the city of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, and belonged to the Yonezu family. The house was donated to Kew by the Japan Minka Reuse and Recycle Association. 

12 - Palm House

Decimus Burton (design) and Richard Turner (construction), completed 1848.

One of Kew’s most iconic features, the remarkable curvilinear structure of the Palm House was built using the latest innovations in shipbuilding and glazing – this is perhaps why the glasshouse resembles the hull of an upturned ship. 

13 - Waterlily House

Decimus Burton (design) and Richard Turner (construction), 1852.

Originally built to showcase one of the natural wonders of the nineteenth century, the spectacular giant waterlily Victoria regia (now Victoria amazonica), which was named for Queen Victoria. 

14 - Queen’s Beasts

Sculptor: James Woodford OBE, RA, presented in 1958.

Each of these ten statues represent the heraldic badges of Queen Elizabeth II’s royal ancestors. They are Portland stone replicas of the plaster models that were placed outside the Westminster Abbey annex for the Queen’s coronation in 1953. 

15 - Campanile

Architect: Decimus Burton, 1847.

Resembling an Italian Romanesque campanile (bell tower), this imposing structure functioned as the chimney for the 12 boilers installed under the Palm House. The boilers and chimney were connected via an underground tunnel, through which fuel could be transported and the smoke carried away through ducts. 

16 - Temple of Arethusa

Architect: William Chambers, 1758.

Originally a folly created for Princess Augusta’s pleasure garden, in 1921 this temple was dedicated as a permanent War Memorial, commemorating the staff and members of the Kew Guild who served and sacrificed their lives in the First and Second World Wars. 
 

17 - The Remembrance and Hope Bench

Designer: Gaze Burvill, 2018.

Marking the centenary of the end of the First World War, this bench was constructed out of timber from one of Kew’s Verdun Oaks. Felled after a storm in 2013, this oak grew from an acorn collected in 1917 from the site of the horrific Battle of Verdun. 
 

18 - Hercules and Achelous

Sculptor: François Joseph Bosio, cast by Charles Crozatier, 1826.

This statue captures Hercules wrestling with the river god Achelous. Both Hercules and Achelous were suitors to the nymph Deianeira. To overcome Hercules, Achelous changed first into a serpent, then into a bull, but was ultimately defeated. Queen Elizabeth II gave this statue to Kew in 1963. 

19 - Medici Vase

Manufacturer: Coade, 1826.

This is a replica of a marble vase sculpted in Athens in the second half of the 1st century. It is manufactured in ‘Coade stone’, a durable ceramic stoneware.  

Businesswoman Eleanor Coade established an artificial stone manufactory in 1769. It produced a catalogue of decorative architectural features used across the country. 

20 - Temple of Aeolus

Architect: William Chambers, 1758, rebuilt by Decimus Burton 1845.

Dedicated to Aeolus, the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology, this temple once featured a rotating seat at its centre. The hill on which it sits was created out of soil that was excavated during the construction of a six-acre lake, part of which survives as the nearby Palm House Pond. 

21 - Princess of Wales Conservatory

Architect: Gordon Wilson, 1987.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was designed to achieve high energy efficiency, with much of the building sitting below ground. In 1985, Sir David Attenborough buried a time capsule in the foundation of the glasshouse, containing seeds of basic food crops and endangered species, to be opened in 2085. 

22 - A Maximis Ad Minima

Sculptor: Eduardo Paolozzi, 1998.

The Latin title means ‘from the greatest to the least’. The abstract figure is composed of human and geometric fragments, cast in bronze with the assistance of students at the Royal College of Art. 

23 - Leaf Spirit

Sculptor: Simon Gudgeon, 2018.

Inspired by the restorative peace and tranquillity of nature, the gaps between the leaves of Norway maple (Acer platanoides) that makes up the spirit’s face ‘allow us to glimpse the natural world behind – leaving her to blend subtly into and become part of the landscape’ (Gudgeon, 2018). 

24 - Out in the Fields

Sculptor: Arthur G. Atkinson, 1890, presented in 1929.

A plaster cast of this bronze statue was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890.

25 -  Davies Alpine House

Architects: WilkinsonEyre, opened 2006.

The innovative Davies Alpine House was designed to keep plants dry in winter and cool in summer. The clamshell-like structure acts as a chimney, drawing warm air out the roof, while cool air is circulated around the plants in the rocky landscape. In hot weather, fan-shaped sails provide extra shade. 
 

26 - Bootstrapping DNA

Sculptor: Charles Jencks, 2003.

Designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, in 1953. 
 

27 - A Sower

Sculptor: Sir Hamo Thornycroft RA, 1886, presented in 1929.

The sculpture sits atop a pedestal designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Thornycroft was inspired to create this work by his correspondence with writer Thomas Hardy, lamenting the loss of the rural idyll. 

28 - The Hive

Artist: Wolfgang Buttress, installed 2016.

This unique structure is a multi-sensory contemporary art experience, inspired by the important role of honeybees as pollinators. The immersive soundscape and LED light patterns reflect the real-time activity of the bees in a beehive at Kew – the lights and sound change intensity in tune with the energy of the bee colony. 

29 - The Orangery

Architect: William Chambers, 1761.

Designed with underfloor heating, the Orangery was intended to provide the necessary growing conditions for citrus plants such as lemons and oranges, but light levels were never enough for the plants to thrive inside. From 1863 until 1959, the Orangery housed a timber museum.

30 -  Kew Palace

Built 1631.

Originally built for Flemish merchant Samuel Fortrey and known as the ‘Dutch House’, this is the oldest building in the Gardens. Later, King George III and his wife Queen Charlotte spent many happy summers here with their 15 children, and it was an important refuge during his periods of ill health. 

31 - Royal Kitchens 

Architect: William Kent, c.1730.

These vast kitchens once prepared food for the royal residents of Kew Palace and the nearby White House. In addition to the original charcoal stoves and large elm table, the kitchens house an early 19th-century bathtub, which was possibly used by George III. The kitchen garden displays the kind of vegetables grown at the time. 

32 - Site of the White House 

Architect: William Kent, 1731. Demolished 1802.

On the lawn in front of Kew Palace, there once stood a Palladian mansion which was renovated and painted white by architect William Kent. The White House was the royal residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta. 

33 - Nash Conservatory

Architect: John Nash, 1825. Moved to Kew 1836.

One of four pavilions designed for the gardens at Buckingham Palace, this conservatory was moved to Kew by King William IV in 1836.