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Everything You Should Know About the Kew Gardens, London

Akshay Kulkarni
The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew or colloquially known as the Kew Gardens is the largest UNESCO World Heritage Site in London. At first accessed by the British royalties only, it was made open to the public in 1840.

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Situated at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the Kew Gardens is expanded over 330-acre of area. The garden has four strategically placed entrance gates for the convenience of visitors and can be easily accessed via the tube, train and bus, or by your own vehicle too.
The Kew Palace at the Kew Gardens is the smallest of all the British royal palaces. Former home of King George III, Queen Charlotte and their 15 children, this palace was built around 1631 and is now operated independently by an organization called Historic Royal Palaces.
Ever wondered what happens inside the beehive and how the bees feel? The Hive, a multi-sensory simulation, at Kew Gardens provides you that exact experience. Made out of 170,000 aluminum parts and 1000 LED lights, this masterpiece was designed by the British artist Wolfgang Buttress.
The Waterlily House, a small greenhouse at Kew Gardens was especially designed to showcase the collection of giant water lilies bloomed in the gardens.

Fun Fact:
The leaves of giant waterlily (Victoria amazonica) can grow up to the width of 2.8 meters.
The Palm House at the Kew Gardens is home to many endangered and even extinct plants in the wild. This indoor rainforest harbors the oldest pot plant in the world which has been growing there for more than 250 years. 

It was built in 1844 by a renowned glasshouse manufacturer Richard Turner based on the designs made by the urban designer Decimus Burton.

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The Kew Gardens possesses a wide collection of carnivorous plants spread throughout the garden.
The Great Pagoda, a 10-tiered tower, stands 50 m tall at the south-east corner of the Kew Gardens. Constructed in 1762, this exemplary imitation of Chinese architecture was designed by Sir William Chambers. From the top of the Pagoda, the views across London are spectacular.
The largest Victorian glasshouse in the world, the Temperate House is home to around 10,000 different plants and 1,500 species of plants from all over the world.

It also shelters ‘the loneliest plant in the world’, an Encephalartos woodii, the rarest and most threatened plant species in the world.
The Kew Herbarium is one of the largest herbaria in the world and accommodates around 7 million plant specimens which are being used for taxonomic studies. The Kew Herbarium Catalogue, a digitized collection of data possessed by the herbarium is made available for public use on-line.