Buildings and Structures

"Working" Buildings

Museum No 1

This Grade II listed building, overlooking the lake opposite the famous Palm House, was designed by Decimus Burton and opened in 1857. Its aim was to illustrate mankind's dependence on plants, and it housed the Economic Botany Collections augmented by Sir William Hooker.

The museum closed in 1987 because of its poor state of repair. For a while, the Collections, the most comprehensive of their type anywhere, were stored in the Sir Joseph Banks Centre for Economic Botany. The exhibits, which include tools, ornaments, clothing, food and medicines, have gone largely unseen by the public, except for students and other specialised groups. In February 1996 the National Heritage Memorial Fund, financed by the National Lottery, announced the award of £1.4 million to Kew to help renovate the museum.

The building opened again in 1998, and the current exhibition is entitled "Plants+People". Collections are on display in a dozen of the original mahogany cabinets on the Museum's ground floor. The upper two floors accommodate Kew's rapidly expanding education programme covering a wide range of activities from international diploma courses to school information services.