Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

Queen Victoria was the granddaughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter.

The Victoria Medal of Honour in Horticulture was established by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1897 ‘in perpetual remembrance of Her Majesty’s glorious reign, and to enable the Council to confer honour on British horticulturists’. 63 recipients hold the medal at any one time, reflecting the years of her reign (the longest of any monarch in British history), and many of Kew’s staff have been so honoured.

Nearly all of the land belonging to the modern Gardens was held by the Crown (the government) in 1841, when William Hooker was made the first official Director. To this, Victoria generously added part of Kew Green to make a grand entrance for the public (Decimus Burton’s Main Gate), and land which had been the royal kitchen garden for the Order Beds. Having last used Kew Palace in 1844, she agreed to open it to the public in 1898.
The last part of Kew Gardens to be added to the present site was Queen Charlotte’s Cottage Grounds, 15 hectares (37 acres), which Victoria donated to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The area had rarely been visited and she hoped ‘that this unique spot may be preserved in its present beautiful and natural condition’. Today it is the heart of Kew’s Conservation Area, containing one of London’s finest bluebell woods.

The splendid Giant Amazon Waterlily was named Victoria regia in honour of Her Majesty (now Victoria amazonica). The Victoria Regia House (now the Waterlily House) was built in 1858 to display it at Kew, but it now grows better in the Princess of Wales Conservatory.

Back to: Royalty

On to: Directors & Advisors