Temperate House in Kew Gardens

The "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" were founded in 1840 and are among the largest and best known botanical gardens in the world. Richmond's sprawling park area, which boasts numerous greenhouses and horticultural structures, has its origins in the exotic gardens of Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury. Augusta von Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg (1719–1772), Princess of Wales, enlarged and redesigned the grounds. The "Temperate House" shown here was built in 1859 by the architect Decimus Burton (1800–1881). It was the largest greenhouse in the world at the time of its construction and is still one of the most impressive garden buildings from the Victorian period.

Kew Gardens Temperate House from the Pagoda, color photography, 2006, photographer: David Hawgood; source: Geographer, geograph.org.uk, Wikimedia Commons,  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.