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K25 The Broad Walk at Kew: 2000 and beyond
Introduction
The Broad Walk is a well-known feature of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. During its 150 years or so, it has seen many changes in culture, fashion and technology. Over this time, the Broad Walk and its surrounding landscape have been altered through natural processes of plant growth and death, and by planting and landscaping. As we enter a new millennium, the Broad Walk provides a focus from which to look back at the past, and to prepare for the future. The staff at Kew are planning changes to the landscape of the Broad Walk which we hope will reflect the original designs, and improve the area for future generations.
The Broad Walk in summer before the start of restoration.
History of the Broad Walk
Nesfield's original design
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Following the conversion of the Gardens into a national botanic garden in 1841, the famous English landscape architect, William Nesfield, was commissioned to design a new layout to complement the features and buildings of Kew's architect, Decimus Burton. Amongst the best-known features of Nesfield's work are the major vistas radiating from the Palm House and Pagoda, and the planting plans for Decimus Burton's grand Broad Walk. This takes visitors from the Main Gate on Kew Green up to the Palm House Pond, via a right-angle turn at the Orangery. Very little of Nesfield's work survives elsewhere in the UK, so the remnants at Kew are of historical importance. Nesfield designed the plantings for the Broad Walk around 1846. Pairs of the stately deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara), alternating with large kidney-shaped flower beds, flanked the main stretch from the Orangery up to the Pond. Smaller beds were positioned close to the gravelled surface of the Walk. |
Barrons' tree transplanter was in use |
Changes through time
Late nineteenth century illustrations show the grandeur that the two lines of cedars created, but sadly these trees were badly affected by increasing industrial pollution towards the end of the century and only two of the originals survive today. In the 1930s, North American tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera) were planted as replacements.
During the Great Storm of October 1987, many trees along the Broad Walk were felled or lost major limbs.
Nesfield's kidney-shaped flower beds still exist and are planted with rhododendrons, but large rectangular beds replaced the smaller beds closest to the Walk, in conflict with the original
design.
The restoration
Since the Great Storm, the Gardens' staff have been developing replanting schemes. The Broad Walk deserves careful attention, as restoration here is an opportunity to revive the key elements of Nesfield's design.
To re-establish the original layout, the modern large rectangular flower beds have been removed and will eventually be replaced by smaller beds or planters in keeping with Nesfield's plan. Sixteen semi-mature Atlantic cedars (Cedrus atlantica) will be planted in the positions of the trees in the original plans. These have a similar appearance to Nesfield's deodar cedars, but will grow better in London's climate.
The year 2000 wheatfield display
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The large rectangular flower beds and immediately surrounding lawns have been ploughed and levelled. We are using this opportunity to create an unusual display for summer 2000. In October 1999, a strip on each side of the Broad Walk was sown with wheat and wildflower seeds for a millennium summer spectacle that should trigger memories of the flower-filled fields that were once common in the countryside. |
A selection of the wild flowers that are |
Endangered arable weeds
Flowers and farming
Wild plants that were once widespread amongst farm crops are now extremely rare and some species, including interrupted brome (Bromus interruptus), have become extinct. Numbers of other plants such as field buttercup (Ranunculus arvensis) and cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) have dropped more quickly than any other species in the British flora.
This loss of wild flowers is linked to a revolution in farming practices during the last few decades. Horses have been replaced by machinery, crop rotations have changed, many cereals are now sown in the autumn rather than in spring, new crop varieties and fertilisers have increased yields dramatically and herbicides and pesticides have created cleaner, more sterile environments. These changes caused huge improvements in crop production efficiency, but at the expense of the plants and animals that rely on the agricultural environment for their existence.
Many farmers and conservationists are now working towards a balance between controlling weeds to minimise crop losses, and maintaining ecological biodiversity. One way of doing this is to have field margins that are managed for wildlife and so treated with fewer chemicals than the rest of the field. As well as encouraging wild flowers, these areas also provide nesting sites for birds, and food and shelter for butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers and other insects.
This move towards sustainable agriculture will help to meet the demand for food, while maintaining a landscape that future generations can enjoy.
Bromus interruptus extinct in the wild
Interrupted brome (Bromus interruptus) is a grass that grew in arable fields. It was first described in 1849 and by the 1920s the grass had been recorded from sites scattered throughout southern England. However, it was last seen in Cambridge in 1972 and is now classed as extinct in the wild. This rapid decline may be due to improvements in crop seed-cleaning methods.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is leading an English Nature Species Recovery Programme for Bromus interruptus, to devise a long term strategy for its future. Researchers at Kew and elsewhere are trying to find out about the grass's history and habitat requirements, and seeds of Bromus interruptus are stored in Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place.
Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place
Plants throughout the world are becoming extinct at an alarming rate and they are often lost before we know anything about their potential benefits for society. Pressures on the environment are so great that it is not always possible to conserve plants in their natural habitat, so seed banks provide an effective form of insurance.
Because seeds take up so little space, many thousands of seeds (and therefore potential plants) can be stored for each species. The seeds are carefully dried and then stored in freezers at minus 20°C. Under these conditions some seeds can survive for hundreds of years. If a plant species becomes extinct in the wild, it may be possible to reintroduce it using banked seeds.
The Millennium Seed Bank project is one of the largest international conservation projects ever undertaken. The £80 million project aims to collect and conserve seeds of the entire UK native seed-bearing flora by the end of year 2000, and over 24,000 (approximately 10%) of the world's plant species by 2010. The seeds will be stored in a new building at Wakehurst Place, Sussex.
The Millennium Seed Bank will be a world resource, making seeds available to researchers, conservationists and scientists throughout the world. The project will also carry out research to improve seed conservation, and the on-site exhibition will help to encourage public interest in seeds and plant conservation.