18 Facts About Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world".

Kew Gardens has its own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847.

Early royal residences at Kew Gardens included Mary Tudor's house, which was in existence by 1522 when a driveway was built to connect it to the palace at Richmond.

The origins of Kew Gardens can be traced to the merging of the royal estates of Richmond and Kew in 1772.

Kew Gardens was the location of the successful effort in the 19th century to propagate rubber trees for cultivation outside South America.

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Waterlily House is the hottest and most humid of the houses at Kew Gardens and contains a large pond with varieties of water lily, surrounded by a display of economically important heat-loving plants.

Kew Gardens Palace is the smallest of the British royal palaces.

Kew Gardens's left the paintings to Kew on condition that the layout of the paintings in the gallery would not be altered.

Kew Gardens Herbarium is one of the largest in the world with approximately specimens used primarily for taxonomic study.

The Kew Gardens Herbarium is of global importance, attracting researchers from and supporting and engaging in the science of botany all over the world, especially the field of biodiversity.

The Index Herbariorum code assigned to the Kew Gardens herbarium is K and it is used when citing housed specimens.

Kew Gardens holds further collections of scientific importance including a Fungarium, a plant DNA bank and a seed bank.

In one famous case, the forensic science department at Kew Gardens was able to ascertain that the contents of the stomach of a headless corpse found in the river Thames contained a highly toxic African bean.

Gardens have their own police force, Kew Constabulary, attested under section 3 of the Parks Regulation Act 1872.

Formerly known as the Royal Botanic Kew Gardens Constabulary, it is a small, specialised constabulary of two sergeants and 12 officers, who patrol the grounds in a marked silver car.

Kew Gardens is home to a number of eateries including The Orangery, Pavilion Bar and Grill, The Botanical Brasserie and Victoria Plaza Cafe.

In 1921 Virginia Woolf published her short story "Kew Gardens", which gives brief descriptions of four groups of people as they pass by a flowerbed.

Kew Gardens is accessible by four gates that are open to the public: the Elizabeth Gate, at the west end of Kew Green, and was originally called the Main Gate before being renamed in 2012 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II; the Brentford Gate, which faces the River Thames; the Victoria Gate, situated in Kew Road, which is the location of the Visitors' Centre; and the Lion Gate, situated in Kew Road.