Chelsea Physic Garden

Take a stroll around London’s oldest botanical garden and explore its diverse collection of over 5,000 plants. 

Visit Chelsea Physic Garden with Go City®

• With us, there are no entry fees on the day – all you've got to do is show your pass.
• Explore four acres of beautifully maintained gardens, including the 18th-century Pond Rockery, Garden of Edible Plants and World Woodland Walk.
• Check out the historic glasshouses with their exotic plants from the Americas and Pacific Islands.
• There’s a cute café serving breakfast, lunch, dinner as well as a selection of cakes and refreshments throughout the day.

Set on the banks of the Thames, Chelsea Physic Garden was established by The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1673 for research into medicinal plants.

The garden’s location was originally selected for proximity to the river and its warm air currents. The resulting microclimate means it can cultivate plants that rarely thrive outdoors in the UK, such as the UK’s largest fruiting olive tree. During the long hot summer of 1976, it yielded a record-breaking 7lb crop!

Take a look inside the beautiful glasshouses for exotic species including cacao, coffee and cotton plants. The glasshouses have a long tradition in the gardens, having been used to cultivate warm-climate plants here for over 300 years. The current hothouses are over a century old.

At the center of the garden, bustling with Mediterranean, alpine and aquatic plants, the tranquil Pond Rockery is a Grade II-listed structure that – at 250 years old – is thought to be the oldest rock garden in Europe.

Find out about the types of plants you can eat (and the ones that might kill you!) in the gardens of edible, useful and medicinal plants and enjoy a peaceful stroll through the wonderful World Woodland Garden. This enchanted forest focuses on medicinal and useful plants from North America, Europe and East Asia.

Chelsea Physic Garden highlights

The Pond Rockery - this oasis in the heart of the garden features clam shells collected on a voyage that plant hunter Joseph Banks took to Tahiti with Captain Cook

The Glasshouses - step inside the garden’s century-old hothouses to explore exotic species of plants from warmer climes

World Woodland Walk - a haven of biodiversity, this tranquil mini forest contains woodland plants from around the globe