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 1841-1885:
The flowering of Kew
 Palm
House
 The
Waterlily House
 Back to: Palm
House Zone
 On to: Broad
Walk
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The Waterlily House The Waterlily House is another of Kew's classic
listed buildings, again with ironwork by Richard Turner. Built in 1852, it was
then the widest single span glasshouse in the world, designed specifically around
a 36 ft (11 m) concrete pond to house the huge attraction of the age, Victoria
amazonica, the giant Amazonian waterlily. The fully-glazed cast and
wrought iron Waterlily House is essentially square in floor plan, with a projecting
rectangular porch. Its columns sit on a low masonry plinth, similar in concept
to the Palm House, but much simpler in detail Sadly, the giant Amazonian
waterlily never did well and in 1866, the house was converted into an Economic
Plant House for medicinal and culinary plants. The building was repaired
in 1965, following extensive wartime damage, when the intermediate glazing bars
were replaced with aluminium alloy, and again in 1992 when they were replaced
with stainless steel. In 1991, it was converted back to its original use
and today, it is the hottest and most humid environment at Kew and contains, as
well as waterlilies, other very interesting plants.
 Back to: Palm
House Zone
 On to: Broad
Walk
|
