Palm House - Satellite Oddity - Kew Gardens, London, UK.
N 51° 28.749 W 000° 17.541
30U E 688015 N 5706587
The Palm House is featured on Virtual Globetrotting the Satellite Oddity Website the Grade 1 Palm House is Kew's most recognisable building. It has gained iconic status as the world's most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure.
Waymark Code: WMRFZA
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/21/2016
Views: 5
Built 1844-48 by Richard Turner to Decimus Burton's designs, the Grade 1 listed Palm House is Kew's most recognisable building. It has gained iconic status as the world's most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure.
"Experts consider Kew’s Palm House to be the most important surviving Victorian iron and glass structure in the world. It was designed by Decimus Burton and engineered by Richard Turner to accommodate the exotic palms being collected and introduced to Europe in early Victorian times. This pioneering project was the first time engineers used wrought iron to span such large widths without supporting columns. This technique was borrowed from the shipbuilding industry and from a distance the glasshouse resembles an upturned hull. The result is a vast, light, lofty space that can easily accommodate the crowns of large palms, while boasting 16,000 panes of glass.
Heating was an important element of the glasshouse’s design, as tropical palms need a warm, moist environment to thrive. Originally, basement boilers sent heat into the glasshouse via water pipes running beneath iron gratings in the floor. A tunnel ran between the Palm House and the Italianate Campanile smoke stack that stands beside Victoria Gate. This 150-metres long (490ft) passage served the dual purpose of carrying away sooty fumes to be released from the chimney and enabling coal to be brought to the boilers by underground railway.Today, the glasshouse is heated using gas, and the tunnel houses the Palm House Keeper’s office. Originally, palms, cycads and climbers were planted in large teak tubs or clay pots that sat atop benches above the iron gratings. However, in 1860, two large central beds were dug and the tallest palms planted in them. Subsequently, most of the glasshouse’s plants were dug into beds to form a miniature indoor tropical rainforest." Text Source: (
visit link)