Chelsea Physic Garden, Botanical garden in Chelsea, England.
Chelsea Physic Garden is a botanical garden in Chelsea, London, housing over 5,000 plant species across roughly 3.8 acres of land. The collections are divided into sections devoted to medicinal, edible, and historically important specimens.
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries founded this garden in 1673 to grow medicinal plants and train pharmacists and herbalists in London. In the 19th century the collections expanded and a palm house was added, which still stands today.
The name comes from 'physic', an old English word for medicine and healing, reflecting the original purpose of the site. Today visitors can walk among themed beds that organize plants by their use or origin.
A Victorian palm house shelters tropical specimens from cold weather and offers views of warmth-loving species year-round. Pathways between the beds are mostly level and pass through shaded as well as sunny sections.
Some of the beds display plants that form the basis for common medicines today, making the link between old herbalism and modern pharmacy visible. A protected area grows rare species that hardly exist in the wild anymore.
Location: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Inception: 1673
Official opening: 1673
Address: 66 Royal Hospital Road
Website: https://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk
GPS coordinates: 51.48500,-0.16278
Latest update: December 5, 2025 22:27
London offers far more than Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. Away from the main attractions, numerous sites remain unfamiliar even to many locals. This selection includes the ruins of St Dunstan-in-the-East, where a medieval church has been transformed into a public garden, the Sir John Soane's Museum with its antiquities and architectural fragments, and Dennis Severs' House, a Georgian townhouse preserved as a lived-in time capsule. The collection features gardens such as Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park and Kyoto Garden in Holland Park, historic buildings like the 14th-century Charterhouse and St Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest parish church. It also covers unusual museums including the Old Operating Theatre, Europe's oldest surviving surgical theater, and industrial monuments like Crossness Pumping Station with its Victorian steam engines. Leadenhall Market displays Victorian architecture in the financial district, while God's Own Junkyard in Walthamstow exhibits thousands of neon signs. Other sites range from the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in Neasden to Wilton's Music Hall, London's oldest music hall, and the Victorian dinosaur sculptures at Crystal Palace Park. Little Venice presents canals lined with houseboats, the Freud Museum preserves the psychoanalyst's London home, and Keats House commemorates the Romantic poet. These locations provide insights into history, architecture, and culture beyond the standard tourist circuit.
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