Kew Gardens, the greatest of all public gardens in Britain and perhaps the world. The Gardens  feature the largest and most comprehensive living plant collection in the world.

Part of the gardens 132 hectares is over 200 years old. Inside the famous Palm House attractions such as the world's oldest pot plant, have recently been overshadowed by a rare natural phenomenon bringing hundreds of visitors to the Princess of Wales conservatory.

The giant Amorphophallus Titanum or Titan Arum burst into flower. The biggest flower in the world grows wild in the rainforests of Sumatra and smells of rotting flesh and excrement, earning it the name "corpse flower". Kew boasts two enormous greenhouses.

The Palm House was built in 1844, by the engineer Richard Turner and the great architect Decimus Burton. It is a huge and beautiful iron and glass structure made of simple repeating units.

Even bigger than the Palm House is the later Temperate House, which was commenced in 1860 but apparently not finished until 1899. This structure is some 600 ft long and 60 ft high.

There is some sculpture at Kew which deserves mention, and a most important collection of Victorian paintings. In the Palm House are two lead figures, about 4 ft high, by John Cheere (1709-87). They represent a Shephard and a bosomy Shepherdess.

The Palm House overlooks a lake and in front of it is a row of stone heraldic beasts (the 10 Queen's Beasts), In the lake itself stands a monumental statue of an athlete struggling with a snake In the garden of grasses near to the modern Princess of Wales greenhouse is The Sower, an important work by Hamo Thornycroft, The Marianne North Gallery is a purpose-built gallery within the gardens to display the botanical paintings of a 19th Century artist who traveled the world.

Nearly 850 of Marianne North's oil paintings are on show. Kew contains various important 19th Century structures, The Pagoda (by William Chambers) is a witness to the Japanese influence. The Marianne North gallery itself was designed in Greek style by James Fergusson in 1882, and various small Greek temples are dotted around the Gardens.

Situated on the south bank of the River Thames near Richmond, about 10km south-west of London. The "Tube" (London Underground) is the best way to get to Kew from the center or West End of London. Buses serve those living north or south of Kew (Ealing down to Kingston) and the neighboring suburbs. From north London, Silverlink trains run directly to Kew Gardens station. Kew Gardens is a short walking distance from many other tourist attractions such as the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, the Public Records Office and Syon Palace.