Broad Walk

The Broad Walk was laid out by Decimus Burton in 1845-1846 as part of his entrance design for the then newly created Royal Botanic Gardens. The Broad Walk and three great Vistas radiate out from the Palm House and give the Gardens the shape they have today. Its history is intriguing, having needed to satisfy changing tastes, and the original flowerbeds on either side were even used to grow vegetables in the First World War.

Today, though, the Broad Walk is attaining the grandeur that Decimus Burton and William Nesfield, Kew's innovative designer at the time, intended with their original design.

There are sixteen semi-mature Atlantic cedars instead of Nesfield's deodar cedars. They look very similar to deodars, but grow better in London. On both the Broad Walk and Little Broad Walk, which goes to the Main Gate, there are summer-planted oak containers actually on the pathways.

Moving large trees needs great care and enormous power. Nineteenth-century technology provided the answer in the form of an excellent tree transplanter, capable of carrying trees up to 20 m (66 ft) in height. It was designed by William Barron and in 1866 Kew bought one and used it to great effect, transplanting 60 trees weighing up to seven tonnes each during the course of one winter.

The technique used a great deal of man- and horse-power. To move a tree, a deep trench was dug 2 m (6 ft 6 ins) away from and all round the trunk. The transplanter's side beams were removed and the machine reassembled round the tree. A cradle was placed under the root ball and a system of ropes, pulleys and winches heaved the tree, upright, root ball and all, out of the ground and into the body of the transporter. A team of horses then dragged the entire contraption to a prepared hole for replanting, when the whole process was reversed.

In 1845 Decimus Burton's Broad Walk was a fundamental component of the 19th century landscape design for the Gardens. In the 21st century, it is still a major axial pathway through the Gardens, and one which entices the gaze of the visitor along its length from the Palm House Pond to the Orangery.

Fittingly, a fully restored Barron's Tree Transplanter was used to move trees at the start of the Broad Walk Restoration in early November 2000.

Continue the tour

Back up to: Entrance Zone

Carry on to: Ice House & Winter Garden

See also

Kew's History & Heritage: Broad Walk