Kew Buildings

Of course there is far more to Kew than my last post on the subject - which was mostly about the outdoor trees - could touch upon.  Including the range of buildings and plant houses that have been designed and built there over the years. 

I've already mentioned the Temperate House:

I also really admire the tiny next-door Evolution House, not least because I'm a bit of a sucker for a gallery or display that tells a structured, linear story (rather than just collect interesting thematically- or historically-related stuff together).  Perhaps I'm just simple that way, but at least I'm consistent: my favourite London museum gallery is what they now appear to call 'From the Beginning' at the Natural History Museum, which weaves the story of evolution and the history of the planet together into a single timeline.  (Although to be honest, several Science Museum galleries and the clocks at the British Museum and at the Royal Observatory also run it close...)

Not all of the Kew buildings house plants: this next one can be seen far and wide across South West London (as I know from when I used to work in Isleworth):

And then there's this:

A circular building?
 
Not quite.  It's the Palm House - more usually seen like this:

It is, as you might expect, appropriately hot and humid inside.

Outside there is a rather pointless set of statues on the theme of Royal heraldic beasts:

The Princess of Wales Conservatory makes less of an impact from the outside:

But tardis-like it seems bigger on the inside, and feels quite airy.

Although it contains a number of different climates - and some areas are very damp (Rainforest plants):

But finally, whatever the design of the building, one thing that stopped us and held us spellbound was this butterfly, which we spotted near the far end of the building.