The National Arboretum and the Pleasure Grounds

Kew's gardeners and managers had for a long time wished to expand the area of Banks' arboretum. W T Aiton had tried and failed to gain some extra ground from the Pleasure Grounds in 1831 when the Botanic Garden was still tightly confined to the north-east corner.

Sir William Hooker succeeded in this aim in 1843, when an additional grant of land was made, extending the Gardens' boundary south of the Pond. Ordering many trees and shrubs from British and Continental nurseries, Hooker began a scheme whereby specific spaces were allocated to genera, and Nesfield was employed to devise a design for the newly expanded arboretum.

Whilst Nesfield did submit a design for this small, contained arboretum within the grounds of the Botanic Garden the scheme gained more impetus, and a grander scale, when Aiton retired.

Hooker had heard rumours of Aiton's imminent retirement, so he asked Nesfield "to make a report to the effect that the present Botanic Garden cannot be what it ought to be unless the Pleasure Grounds are considered one with it". This joint campaign reflected the apparent warming of the relationship between Hooker and Nesfield.
Two weeks after Aiton retired Nesfield had submitted to Hooker a ‘Report on the formation of a National Arboretum at Kew’. A short while after that, the Pleasure Grounds were given to Hooker to manage along with the Botanic Garden. However, the physical separation between the Botanic Garden and the Pleasure Grounds was maintained until 1895.

Nesfield began his arboreal plantings in the Pleasure Grounds, flanking the Pagoda Vista (then still unmarked on the ground) with clumps of members of the Rosaceae and Leguminosae families. The outline plan for this design can be seen in Nesfield's 1845 ‘Sketch Plan of the Arboretum’.

Whether under Hooker's orders, or by his own design, Nesfield's plan states that he was concerned not to "materially alter the general features" of the surviving 18th century landscapes of the Pleasure Grounds. When Hooker was granted the Pleasure Grounds to manage he wrote a letter in July 1845 stating that "In future not a tree is to be cut down for profit, only when necessary for improving the beauty of the place".

By 1849 the Gardens as a whole contained more than 2,000 species, and over 1,000 varieties and hybrids had been planted. With this in mind Hooker named it a National Arboretum.

Back to: 1841-1885: The flowering of Kew