Botanic Gardens and Glasshouses in London: Kew, Chelsea, the Barbican and Free Options

Why a garden or glasshouse works for a date

A glasshouse gives you something to walk through and talk about, and it stays warm when the weather does not.

They differ a great deal in cost and in how easy they are to get into. Kew is a full day out with a significant ticket price. Chelsea Physic Garden is small and ticketed. The Barbican Conservatory is free but opens only on set dates. The Horniman Gardens, Myddelton House and Isabella Plantation cost nothing to enter. We have grouped them below so you can choose by budget and by how much planning you want to do.

Every hour, price and rule here comes from the place's own website or a reference page we read on 14 October 2026. Where a site did not say something, we say that too. Hours change with the seasons and with events, so check on the day.

Kew Gardens: the glasshouses and the history

Kew's botanic gardens formally started in 1759, according to Wikipedia, which gives their area as 121 hectares in its infobox and 132 hectares in the text and UNESCO listing. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2003.

The Palm House was built between 1844 and 1848 by the architect Decimus Burton and the iron founder Richard Turner. Wikipedia describes it as the first greenhouse built on this scale and the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron, and says it holds what is called the oldest pot plant in the world, a cycad moved there in 1848. Its upper walkway puts you among the branches of the larger plants.

Plan around a closure. According to Wikipedia, Kew announced in 2025 that the Palm House will close for a five-year renovation starting in 2027, with a budget of £50 million and 16,000 glass panes to replace. If the Palm House is the reason you are going, go before then, and confirm the timing with Kew.

The Temperate House was commissioned in 1859, also from Burton and Turner. Wikipedia gives it 4,880 square metres of floor space, rising to 19 metres, which it says is twice the floor area of the Palm House. The Princess of Wales Conservatory, designed by Gordon Wilson and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales, has ten computer-controlled climate zones under one roof. The Great Pagoda, by Sir William Chambers, is 50 metres tall and dates from the early 1760s.

Prices and hours: Kew's website refused our automated requests on 14 October 2026, so we could not read its ticket page and have not printed any figures. Kew prices vary by season and by whether you book online or at the gate, so check kew.org for your date. Kew Gardens station is served by the Underground and the Overground, according to Wikipedia.

• Royal Botanic Gardens, KewBotanic garden and glasshouses (paid)

  Kew, Richmond · Nearest: Kew Gardens

  UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. Palm House (1844 to 1848), Temperate House and Princess of Wales Conservatory. Check prices on Kew's own site.

Chelsea Physic Garden: small, old and ticketed

Chelsea Physic Garden was established in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow medicinal plants, according to Wikipedia. Sir Hans Sloane leased the land to the Society in 1722 for £5 a year. The garden became a registered charity in 1983 and first opened to the general public in 1987. Wikipedia gives its size as about 3.5 acres.

Wikipedia describes its rock garden as the oldest in Europe devoted to alpine and Mediterranean plants, and says the garden claims the largest fruiting olive tree in Britain, helped by the warmth of its high brick walls.

The garden's visit page gives opening as Sunday to Friday, 11am to 5pm, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. Saturday is not listed, so do not plan a Saturday visit without checking. The same page carried a notice about a winter closure before a reopening for the spring season, so check whether the garden is open on your date.

Tickets are bought online. Entry includes the glasshouses and a free audio guide to them; volunteer-led tours run from April to October but are not guaranteed on any given day. The visit page did not list current prices when we read it, and pointed to a separate prices page that we could not load, so check the garden's site for what you will pay.

• Chelsea Physic GardenHistoric botanic garden (paid)

  Chelsea

  Founded 1673. Open Sunday to Friday, 11am to 5pm, Saturday not listed on its visit page. Book online.

The Barbican Conservatory: free, but only on listed dates

The Barbican calls its Conservatory the second biggest in London, and Wikipedia places it after the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew. It was designed by the Barbican's architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, and wraps around the theatre's fly tower. The Barbican says its steel and glass roof covers 23,000 square feet, that it was planted in 1980 and 1981 and opened in 1984, and that it now holds around 1,500 species of plants and trees. Wikipedia adds that it houses terrapins and koi carp, and that the Arid House, with its cacti, was added in 1986.

The opening rules matter more than anything else here. The Barbican's page says admission is free but ticketed, and that the Conservatory is closed for public visits on any date not listed. Tickets are released online one month in advance, and a limited number of day tickets go on sale from 9.30am on each day it is open. Free tickets you cannot use can be returned through your account.

When we checked on 14 October 2026, the page said there were no upcoming public opening dates, and offered a waiting list for news of new tickets. It also mentioned a plant adoption event on 2 December. In other words, do not turn up on spec. If a date is released, book it, and use the waiting list if you want an alert.

Inside the main Barbican building, the Conservatory is on Level 3, according to the Barbican's location notes.

• Barbican ConservatoryGlasshouse (free, ticketed, set dates only)

  City of London

  Around 1,500 species under a 23,000 sq ft roof. Free tickets released online a month ahead; closed on any date not listed.

The Horniman Gardens: free, with a view

The Horniman's 16 acres of gardens in Forest Hill are free to enter, according to its gardens page. They open daily at 7.15am Monday to Saturday and 8am on Sundays and bank holidays, and close between 4.20pm in winter and 8.30pm in summer. Those times are for the Horniman Drive gates; other gates may close earlier. The gardens close on 31 October and 25 December.

The page lists a Sound Garden, a Prehistoric Garden, a Pollinator Garden, a Wildlife Garden, meadows and display gardens, plus a free Animal Walk with goats, sheep, alpacas and other animals, open 12.30pm to 4pm. The ticketed Butterfly House was listed as closed when we checked.

Wikipedia notes a Grade II listed conservatory from 1894, moved in the 1980s from the Horniman family house in Croydon, and a 1912 bandstand overlooking the London skyline. It gives Forest Hill station, on the Overground and National Rail, as about 650 metres away. The Horniman's page said both bus stops outside were closed because of burst water mains, so check before relying on a bus.

• Horniman Museum and GardensGardens (free)

  Forest Hill · Nearest: Forest Hill

  16 acres, free. Opens 7.15am weekdays and Saturdays, 8am Sundays; closing time varies with the season.

Isabella Plantation and Myddelton House: free gardens further out

Isabella Plantation is a woodland garden of about 40 acres inside Richmond Park. The Royal Parks says it is open all year with a few early closures in April and May, and that it is at its best from late April to early May, when the evergreen azaleas flower along the ponds and streams. Richmond Park's pedestrian gates are open around the clock and its vehicle gates from 7.30am to 6.15pm, according to its page. Neither page mentions an entry charge.

Getting there takes some thought. The Royal Parks says the 85 and K3 buses stop at Warren Road near Ladderstile Gate, from where a waymarked walk of about 15 minutes leads to Broomfield Hill Gate. Broomfield Hill car park is about 400 metres from the garden and can only be reached via Kingston Gate. There are two toilet blocks with accessible cubicles, and a motorised wheelchair can be borrowed on weekdays if booked at least five days ahead.

Myddelton House Gardens in Enfield are free to enter and open daily from 10am to 4pm, according to Lee Valley Regional Park. The eight acres include a rock garden under restoration, a rose garden, an alpine meadow, a heritage kitchen garden, a museum about the gardener E.A. Bowles, and a Victorian glasshouse with four climatic zones. Car parking costs £3. Dogs are not allowed apart from assistance dogs, and the Bowles Tea Room serves food.

Wikipedia says Bowles, known as the Crocus King, spent about fifty years developing the garden, which specialises in snowdrops and crocuses, and that a restoration was completed by 2011 with National Lottery Heritage Fund money. The Lee Valley page did not name a nearby station, so plan your route before you set off.

• Isabella PlantationWoodland garden (free)

  Richmond Park

  About 40 acres. Azaleas peak late April to early May. Buses 85 and K3, then a 15-minute walk.

• Myddelton House GardensGarden with Victorian glasshouse (free)

  Enfield

  Eight acres, open daily 10am to 4pm, free entry, £3 parking, no dogs except assistance dogs.

Free versus paid, and what to expect from glasshouses

If cost decides it, the Horniman Gardens, Myddelton House and Isabella Plantation are free, and so is the Barbican Conservatory when it opens. Chelsea Physic Garden and Kew charge for entry. Kew's ticket is the largest outlay, so it suits a date where you plan to spend most of the day there.

If you specifically want a large modern glasshouse with several climates under one roof, the closest London equivalent is Kew's Princess of Wales Conservatory, with its ten climate zones. Smaller multi-zone glasshouses are at Myddelton House, which has four, and the Barbican, which pairs a main tropical space with an Arid House.

If you want the least planning, the Horniman is the simplest: free, open from early morning, near an Overground station, with a museum next door. If you want the most history in the smallest space, Chelsea Physic Garden is the one, as long as you avoid Saturdays.

Before you go

• Check Kew's prices and hours on kew.org for your exact date; they vary by season and are not printed here because Kew's site blocked our checks.
• Do not plan a Saturday at Chelsea Physic Garden: its visit page does not list Saturday as an opening day.
• Only go to the Barbican Conservatory with a ticket for a listed date; it is closed on every other day.
• Check the Horniman's closing time for your date, which varies from 4.20pm in winter to 8.30pm in summer at the Horniman Drive gates.
• For Isabella Plantation in azalea season, allow for the walk from the bus stop or the car park, and check for early closures in April and May.

Questions people ask

Which London botanic gardens are free?

The Horniman Gardens in Forest Hill, Myddelton House Gardens in Enfield and Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park are free to enter, according to their own sites, although Myddelton House charges £3 for parking. The Barbican Conservatory is free but needs a ticket for a listed date. Kew and Chelsea Physic Garden charge for entry.

Is the Barbican Conservatory open every Sunday?

No. The Barbican says the Conservatory is closed on any date not listed on its website, and that free tickets are released online a month ahead, with some day tickets from 9.30am. When we checked on 14 October 2026, no upcoming public dates were listed. You can join its waiting list for alerts.

When is Chelsea Physic Garden open?

Its visit page gives Sunday to Friday, 11am to 5pm, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. Saturday is not listed. The page also mentioned a winter closure, so check the garden's site for your date and for current prices.

Is the Palm House at Kew closing?

According to Wikipedia, Kew announced in 2025 that the Palm House will close for a five-year renovation starting in 2027, with a £50 million budget. Confirm the exact dates with Kew before planning a visit around it.