Half the money is already in place. The Victorian glasshouse will shut for four to five years once work starts next year.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is asking the public for £1 million to help pay for the restoration of its Palm House, the Grade I-listed glasshouse that has been open to visitors since 1848.
The full project is expected to cost £66 million. Kew says roughly half of that has already been secured, and the public appeal is meant to raise the next £1 million.
The building was designed by the architect Decimus Burton and built by the iron-founder Richard Turner. Its curved wrought-iron frame was made using methods borrowed from shipbuilding, which is why it looks like a ship’s hull turned upside down.
Close to 180 years of intense heat and humidity inside the glasshouse have worn the structure down, and it now needs major repair work. Richard Deverell, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, said the building’s “future cannot be taken for granted”. He said the first half of the money came from philanthropists, grants and individuals, and that any donation, of any size, would help protect the building and the plants inside it.
The glasshouse holds tropical plants from around the world, some of them endangered or extinct in the wild, and supports Kew’s research on biodiversity loss and food security. One of its best-known residents is an Eastern Cape giant cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii, which arrived at Kew in 1775 and is thought to be the oldest pot plant in the world.
Work is due to start next year. The plans include new glazing, renewable heating and tanks to collect rainwater. Kew’s goal is a building with no net carbon emissions once it reopens, which would make it the first glasshouse of this type to reach that standard.
Because of the size of the job, the Palm House will be shut for four to five years and is expected to reopen in the 2030s. Donations can be made through the appeal page at kew.org/appeal.
The public appeal aims for £1 million towards a restoration expected to cost £66 million. About half of the total is already secured.
Work is due to start next year. The glasshouse will be closed for four to five years and is expected to reopen in the 2030s.
New glazing, renewable heating and tanks to collect rainwater. Kew wants the restored building to have no net carbon emissions, a first for a glasshouse of this type.
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