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The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 in 1673. (The word ‘Physic’ here refers to the science of healing.) It is the second oldest botanical garden
Botanical garden

Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material....
 in Britain
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden
University of Oxford Botanic Garden

University of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain, and the third oldest scientific garden in the world, was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research....
, which was founded in 1621.

Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plant
Alpine plant

Alpine plants are plants whose natural habitat is mountain slopes, above the tree line approaching the line of perpetual snow....
s. The largest fruiting olive
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
 tree in Britain is there, protected by the garden’s heat-trapping high brick walls, along with what is doubtless the world’s northernmost grapefruit
Grapefruit

The grapefruit is a subtropics citrus tree grown for its bitter fruit which was originally named the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados.These evergreen trees are usually found at around 5-6 m tall, although they can reach 13-15 m ....
 growing outdoors.






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The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 in 1673. (The word ‘Physic’ here refers to the science of healing.) It is the second oldest botanical garden
Botanical garden

Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material....
 in Britain
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden
University of Oxford Botanic Garden

University of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain, and the third oldest scientific garden in the world, was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research....
, which was founded in 1621.

Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plant
Alpine plant

Alpine plants are plants whose natural habitat is mountain slopes, above the tree line approaching the line of perpetual snow....
s. The largest fruiting olive
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
 tree in Britain is there, protected by the garden’s heat-trapping high brick walls, along with what is doubtless the world’s northernmost grapefruit
Grapefruit

The grapefruit is a subtropics citrus tree grown for its bitter fruit which was originally named the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados.These evergreen trees are usually found at around 5-6 m tall, although they can reach 13-15 m ....
 growing outdoors. Jealously guarded during the tenure of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the Livery Company of the City of London. Originally, apothecaries, or Pharmacys, were members of the Grocers' Company....
, in 1983 the Garden became a registered charity and was opened to the general public for the first time. The garden is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine
The London Museums of Health & Medicine

The London Museums of Health & Medicine is an organization that brings together some of the activities of some of the museums in London related to health and medicine....
.

History

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the Livery Company of the City of London. Originally, apothecaries, or Pharmacys, were members of the Grocers' Company....
 initially established the garden on a leased site of Sir John Danvers
John Danvers

Sir John Danvers was an England politician.Danvers was the third son of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey in Wiltshire and younger brother of Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby....
’ well-established garden in Chelsea, London
Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road power station and Chelsea Harbour....
. This house, called Danvers House, adjoined the mansion that had once been the house of Sir Thomas More
Thomas More

Saint Thomas More was an English lawyer, author, and statesman who in his lifetime gained a reputation as a leading Renaissance humanist scholar, and occupied many public offices, including Lord Chancellor ....
. Danvers House was pulled down in 1696 to make room for Danvers Street.

In 1713, Dr Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane

Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, Royal Society was an Ulster-Scots physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum....
 purchased from Charles Cheyne the adjacent Manor of Chelsea, about , which he leased in 1722 to the Society of Apothecaries for Ł
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
5 a year in perpetuity, requiring only that the Garden supply the Royal Society
Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
, of which he was a principal, with 50 good herbarium
Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in alcohol or other preservative....
 samples per year, up to a total of 2,000 plants.

That initiated the golden age of the Chelsea Physic Garden under the direction of Philip Miller
Philip Miller

Philip Miller was a botany of Scotland descent.Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death....
 (1722–1770), when it became the world’s most richly stocked botanic garden. Its seed-exchange program was established following a visit in 1682 from Prof. Herman, a Dutch
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 botanist connected with the Leiden Botanical Garden and has lasted till the present day. The seed exchange program’s most notable act may have been the introduction of cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 into the colony of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 and more recently, the worldwide spread of the Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus).

Isaac Rand, a member and a fellow of the Royal Society published a condensed catalogue of the Garden in 1730, Index plantarum officinalium, quas ad materiae medicae scientiam promovendam, in horto Chelseiano. Elizabeth Blackwell’s
Elizabeth Blackwell (illustrator)

Elizabeth Blackwell , was a Scottish botanical illustrator and author. She achieved fame as a botanical illustrator, and was both artist and engraver for the plates of "A Curious Herbal", published between 1737 and 1739....
 A Curious Herbal (1737–1739) was illustrated partly from specimens taken from the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Parts of this classic garden have been lost to 'development' - the river bank during 1874 construction of the Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment

Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; the eastern end, including Grosvenor Road and Millbank, is in the City of We...
 on the north bank of the River Thames
River Thames

The Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading, Berkshire and Windsor, Berkshire....
, and a strip of the garden to allow widening of Royal Hospital Road. What remains is a patch in the heart of London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
.

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