Kew Gardens, Richmond

According to Dr Philip Whitbourn, Decimus Burton’s work at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,’ must rank alongside his neo-classical monuments and his domestic schemes as one of his three principle claims to fame’, and that Decimus Burton’s and Richard Turner’s Palm House ‘could have a just claim as the world’s most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure’. Burton’s work certainly formed par of the case that was to result in Kew Gardens becoming a World Heritage Site. Other works by Burton at Kew include Museum No1, the Campanile and the Main Entrance gates to Kew Green.

This is an opportunity to see the recently opened Temperate House, that underwent considerable restoration work from 2013-18, overseen by project architect Aimee Felton of Donald Insall Associates. The visit will be accompanied by a talk by Aimee on the work of Burton at Kew.

Aimee Felton is a project architect at Donald Insall Associates, specialising in historic buildings. She is currently Vice-Chairman of The Decimus Burton Society.