Riverside screening

Below Queen Elizabeth's Lawn, between Brentford Ferry and the Syon Vista, William Hooker planted trees along the riverside to screen out the new docks and railway station at Brentford.

This would also have created a more impressive setting for Queen Elizabeth's Lawn, contrasting the openness of the lawn to the north with the enclosed tree plantings to the south.

William's son Joseph Hooker thickened these plantings in 1877 and Kew's third Director, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, improved them again in 1912 and 1913, replacing the elms with trees such as holm oaks, pines and laurel.

Under William Hooker, three new entrances were constructed to the Gardens: the Main Gate, the Brentford Gate and the Unicorn Gate. Of these, the only gate that involved the creation of a completely new entrance in the Gardens' boundary was the Unicorn Gate.

Another gate was created opposite the Temperate House, now next to the Marianne North Gallery, but this was never opened due to the changed location of the new railway station.

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