Climbers and Creepers

Climbers and Creepers is Britain's first interactive botanical play zone.

Climbers and Creepers

Climbers and Creepers

Activities

In the summer of 2004, Kew's determination to make serious botany great fun for children was demonstrated with the opening of 'Climbers and Creepers'. Bringing a new use to an old cycad house by White Peaks, Climbers and Creepers engages children from around 3-9 years in the pleasures of learning more about plants and their relationships with animals and people.

As 'insects', children climb inside a plant to learn about pollination. Thrills come when they learn about the dangers insects face from carnivorous plants when they trap model flies with Venus fly traps or are themselves 'eaten' by a giant pitcher plant.  

Climbers and creepers' is the ideal spot for families with young children. To keep the fun going at home there are games, stories and more things to learn with Climbers and Creepers online.

Kids' Mission

Crawl through Climbers and Creepers and visit the glass-walled apiary:

  • how do bees make honey?
  • what is it like for small mammals in woodland?

Visitor information

Climbers and Creepers is open all year-round for families to drop in casually and school parties to visit on a more organised basis. 

 

Treehouse Towers Update

Opens for 2 April

Our previous outdoor play area had to be removed as it was getting old and uneconomical to repair. The building of a new play area was delayed within the planning process but permission has now been granted. We are very sorry for the delay.

Located outside Climbers and Creepers, Treehouse Towers will allow up to 300 kids to climb up ladders, clamber across rope bridges and slide their way down from the three towers. Each tower varies in height, and as children scale between them they’ll find each one more of a challenge. The area will feature giant swings, zip wires, scramble nets, slides and a mountaineering ramp for families to enjoy, whilst also offering educational opportunities for children to learn about and appreciate trees.

 

 

4 comments on 'Climbers and Creepers'

Digital Media Team says

01/03/2010 10:31:03 AM | Report abuse

The Treehouse Towers outdoor play area is scheduled to be open for Easter. Opening times for Climbers and Creepers can be found in the Visit Information section of the website.

Dominic says

28/02/2010 9:31:49 AM | Report abuse

What are opening times?

NM says

27/02/2010 12:05:01 PM | Report abuse

Ditto! We have been without an outdoor play area for so long now. Once the weather improves it will certainly put families with small children off with no outdoor area. In fact it seems a shame there are not more outdoor nature areas aimed at kids elsewhere in the gardens.

Mary Khan says

04/12/2009 9:16:39 PM | Report abuse

My little grandsons love our regular "adventures" to Kew Gardens, and have great fun in "climbers and Creepers. However, 6 year old Thomas was hugely disappointed on our last visit at half term to find that the promised new outdoor play area which was to be built in October, was not even begun. When oh when is it to be built, please???

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Your Kew

We invite photographers to capture the sights at Kew and Wakehurst. These images are a selection of images submitted by photographers from around the world. We hope you enjoy them. You can see more on Flickr.