The Chelsea Physic Garden: London’s Oldest Botanic Garden

Largely hidden from view, enclosed behind a brick wall in Chelsea is a beautiful and historic site. The Chelsea Physic Garden is a four acre botanic garden, established in 1673. 

Chelsea Physic Garden is both a beautiful, relaxing place to visit but one that is also packed with history and stories to tell.

Chelsea In The 17th Century

In the late 17th century Chelsea was well outside of London. It was really a rural village, but not any old village, it was described in the 1720s by Daniel Defoe as a ‘village of palaces’.

Henry VIII acquired the Manor of Chelsea in 1536 and Chelsea Manor House was rebuilt.

Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves lived for a time in the house in Chelsea, Elizabeth I lived there for a period and Sir Thomas More lived next door at the large Beaufort House.

Long after the Tudors departed, Chelsea retained its status as popular with aristocrats and courtiers. 

The royal connection continued when in 1609 King James I established a theological college on the site of what is now the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The Hospital was founded by Charles II in 1682, on which I have written a blog post before.

The Garden’s Origins

In 1673 the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries choose Chelsea to establish their Physic Garden. This makes it the oldest botanic garden in London, the second in the country (behind the Oxford Botanic Garden).

They are one of the City of London’s livery companies, medieval trading guilds set up to regulate and control various trades. 

The Apothecaries’ Company was established in 1617, after splitting from a company that consisted of the Grocers, Pepperers and Spicers. 

In 1704 a law was passed which allowed members of the company to officially practise medicine. From 1815, they were allowed to license and regulate medical practitioners, a role it can still officially carry out today. 

In 1673 they set up the garden on the riverbank in Chelsea, to grow various herbs and plants that they could then use to treat, study, but also to train apprentices. 

Today the garden has over 5000 different species of plants.

Sir Hans Sloane

The physician, doctor and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) is probably best remembered for providing the collection that formed the basis of the British Museum. 

He also however played a key role in securing the future of the Chelsea Physic Garden. He trained at the garden in the 1680s, allowing him to then go on to establish a successful career as a physician and scientist. 

In 1713 he purchased the Manor of Chelsea from Charles Cheyne. It covered 166 acres, including the Chelsea Physic Garden. He granted those four acres to the Apothecaries in perpetuity for £5 per year. A sum that has not changed and is still paid today to the Cadogan Family. 

As part of the deal they also supplied the Royal Society, of which Sloane later became the President, with samples of plants and herbs. 

Discoveries 

A number of discoveries and advancements were made at the Chelsea Physic Garden over the centuries. 

It is thought for example that they discovered how to ‘force’ rhubarb. The story goes that a gardener found rhubarb growing underneath a bucket, which had grown taller and straighter than rhubarb grown in ordinary conditions. 

From 1722-1770, the head gardener was a man named Philip Miller. He was very adept at mimicking growing conditions from different parts of the world and classified a lot of species for the first time in the West. 

In 1731 Miller also published the very popular Gardener’s Dictionary, giving tips and advice to other budding gardeners. 

What To Spot In The Garden

The Watergate

As mentioned above, before the construction of the Chelsea Embankment, completed 1874, the Garden was right on the shore of the Thames. 

The old watergate, where boats could have once pulled in to enter the garden, is still there. 

Atop is the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries.

It depicts Apollo, the Greek God of Healing, slaying a wyvern, a sort of dragon-like creature, that represents disease. 

Right at the top is a rhinoceros. A rhinoceros is a heraldic symbol representing strength but also has a link to medicine, as powdered rhinoceros horn was thought to have medicinal properties. 

The Poisonous Plants

A key part of the training given to apothecaries when the garden was set up was to display two similar plants next to each other: one that heals and one that is poisonous and for the apothecary to be able to distinguish between the two (sounds sensible).

Pictured below is the dedicated poisonous plants area in the garden today.

Agatha Christie actually completed her pharmaceutical training with the Apothecaries Company in 1917 and lived near to the garden in the 1920s and 1930s. She of course went on to use this knowledge of poisons in many of her murder mysteries.

Useful Plants

There are various different sections in the garden including a section for ‘edible’ plants and ‘useful’ plants. 

You will see labels for plants use to produce alcohol, dyes and more. 

I thought the section on tea was particularly interesting. The Chelsea Physic Garden has an interesting relationship with tea.

The curator of the garden from 1846-48 was Robert Fortune, one of the most famous British Plant Hunters.

After leaving Chelsea, Fortune was recruited by the East India Company to illegally obtain Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, from China. He travelled around China, recruiting local guides and disguising himself as a Chinese man to trick local producers.

It is then said that he was commissioned by the Company to help set up tea plantations on their land in India and he discovered a species of tea plant in Assam, ending the Chinese monopoly.

The Cool Fernery

Thomas Moore, the head gardener from 1848-1887, turned the garden into the biggest medicinal plant collection in the country and oversaw the building of the Cool Fernery. 

Reading about and collecting ferns became an obsession for many in the Victorian period. It was known as ‘Pteridomania’ or ‘fern fever’.

The design on the custard cream biscuit is apparently actually based on unfurling ferns!

The Pond Rockery

Close to the Hans Sloane statue is the Pond Rockery. It is thought to possibly be the oldest rock garden in Europe. 

The Grade II listed structure was originally built to house alpine plants but today is home more to Mediterranean plants. 

Look out for the huge clam shells, these were brought back by Captain James Cook from Tahiti. 

Basalt is also incorporated into the structure that had been used by Joseph Banks as ballast (weights to balance a ship), on his ship, the St Lawrence, that he took to Iceland to collect plants. 

It also bizarrely includes parts of the Tower of London, salvaged when restoration work was being carried out to the Tower. 

The Pomegranate Tree And Elizabeth Blackwell

By Swan Walk Gate there is a pomegranate tree.

This is thought to be the original pomegranate tree planted in the 1670s and so was likely the tree used by Elizabeth Blackwell for her illustrations in the 1730s. 

Elizabeth Blackwell is a fascinating character. She was born in 1699 in Aberdeen and married Alexander Blackwell. He studied medicine but he and Elizabeth had to leave Scotland for London due to questions around his qualifications to practise medicine. 

He turned his hand to printing in London but fell hugely into debt and was thrown in prison. Elizabeth, left with no income, a child to support and Alexander’s debts to pay off, turned her hand to illustrating. 

She learnt that a ‘herbal’, someone who illustrated plants, was needed at the Chelsea Physic Garden to illustrate plants, particularly from the New World. 

On the encouragement of Sir Hans Sloane, she moved near to the garden and started illustrating. She would paint the plants, they would then be taken to Alexander in prison who would then use his medicinal knowledge to write their scientific and latin names. Over 500 were eventually published, in 1737, as ‘The Curious Herbal’. 

The Glasshouses

The glasshouses in the garden are over 100 years old. The Chelsea Physic Garden actually built the first ever heated glasshouse in England in 1673.

These contain plants that need protecting from the country’s cold climate.

How To Visit

The Chelsea Physic Garden is open 11am-5pm everyday except Saturdays.

A standard adult ticket is £13 and there are various concessions (young person, pension credit etc). Book tickets here.

They also have various events on there from tours, to yoga to creative writing. Find out more about the events here.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s hidden historical gems below!