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The museums, the machines and the men and women who worked it out: laboratories kept as they were, beam engines under steam, the tunnel, the barrier, the roofs, and the plaques on the houses where the ideas came.
London's oldest botanic garden, walled beside the river since 1673 and still laid out by what the plants are for, with the largest olive tree in Britain.
Natural historyGo inside
Also in Museums and Outdoors & Nature.
The Society of Apothecaries took four acres of riverside Chelsea in 1673 to grow the plants their trade was made from and to teach apprentices to tell them apart, and Hans Sloane, who had trained here, bought the freehold in 1722 and leased it back to them for £5 a year for ever, a rent still paid; his statue stands in the middle. From here the seeds that founded the cotton crop of Georgia were sent in 1732, and the rock garden of 1773, built of basalt that Joseph Banks brought back from Iceland as ballast, is the oldest in Europe. The high brick walls and the river make it warmer than anywhere else in London, which is why the largest fruiting olive tree in Britain and the northernmost outdoor grapefruit in the world grow here. Its 4,500 plants are still arranged by use, medicine, food, dye and poison, with glasshouses, a pond and a café under the trees. The apothecaries kept it to themselves for three centuries; it became a charity in 1983 and opened its gate.
| Monday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Thursday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | Closed |
| Sunday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
Hours from the page that lists them, checked 8 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.