Literary London

Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.

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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The flower bed of Woolf's story Kew Gardens, printed by the Hogarth Press in 1919 with woodcuts by her sister.

Bloomsbury GroupIn the storyGo inside

Also in What’s On and Outdoors & Nature and Science & Engineering.

Woolf wrote Kew Gardens a mile from the house at Richmond: a July afternoon in which four pairs of people pass an oval flower bed, talking of ghosts, marriage and the price of tea, while a snail crosses the soil between the stalks and the aeroplanes drone overhead. The Hogarth Press published it in 1919 in an edition of a hundred and fifty with Vanessa Bell's woodcuts, and its notice in the Times Literary Supplement sold out the print run in a week. Any flower bed on the lawns by the Palm House will do.

Where
Victoria Gate, Kew Road, Kew, TW9 3AE
Nearest station
Kew Gardens · 5 min walk

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Hours

Monday10:00 – 19:00
Tuesday10:00 – 19:00
Wednesday10:00 – 19:00
Thursday10:00 – 19:00
Friday10:00 – 19:00
Saturday10:00 – 19:00
Sunday10:00 – 19:00

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 3 September 2026.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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