Kew: A year at Kew: Places: South Western zone


	• Holly Walk • Compost Heap • Stable Yard • Woodland Glade & Waterlily pond • Cedar Vista • Queen Charlotte's Cottage • Stag Beetle Loggery • Conservation Area • Wildlife Zone • Badger Sett

South Western Zone

This southwestern corner of the Gardens contains some fragments of a very early formal canal garden designed by Charles Bridgeman. However, tastes change and in the 18th century, the Gardens were redesigned to create a more natural landscape of woodland and parkland.

Later a rustic cottage was built for Queen Charlotte and today her Cottage is the focal point in the area, situated in the heart of the mid-19th century Arboretum. This is a major conservation area and recent additions include a walk-through 'Badger Sett', a Dipping Pond and Gravel Pit, and a skyscraper style Loggery for protected stag beetles.

Cedar Vista runs through the zone, past the tranquil Waterlily Pond and Woodland Glade where Kew's peacocks strut. Holly Walk runs along what was once Love Lane to Richmond, while the Stable Yard, the base for the horticultural and arboricultural management of the Gardens is also in the area but closed to the public. Kew's Compost Heap is here, too, and may be viewed from a path from the Lake.