Glasgow Botanic Gardens

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Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a large botanical garden in Glasgow’s West End, Scotland. It has several glasshouses, with the Kibble Palace being the most famous. The gardens grow temperate and tropical plants, have a herb garden, a bed that shows plants in the order they came to Scotland, the UK’s national collection of tree ferns, and a world rose garden that officially opened in 2003 by Princess Tomohito of Mikasa. The River Kelvin runs along the north side of the gardens and continues through Kelvingrove Park, giving a long walking route between the two green spaces. In 2011 the gardens won a Green Flag Award.

History and location
In 1817 about eight acres of land at Sandyford near Sauchiehall Street were laid out by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow to serve the University of Glasgow. The institution was founded by Thomas Hopkirk and Professor James Jeffray. William Hooker helped develop the gardens before moving to run Kew Gardens in London. The gardens moved to their current site in 1842. They were once used for concerts and other events, and in 1891 they became part of Glasgow’s Parks and Gardens. A nearby railway line once served the site; Botanic Gardens Railway Station still exists as a derelict site behind trees, while Kirklee railway station lies inside the gardens.

Kibble Palace
The Kibble Palace is a large 19th‑century glasshouse, covering about 2,137 square metres. It was designed for John Kibble by James Boucher and James Cousland in the 1860s, with the components cast by Walter Macfarlane at the Saracen Foundry. It was moved up the River Clyde by barge and fully erected at the current site in 1873. The structure is a curved iron-and-glass building on a stone base and was first used for exhibitions and concerts, then for growing plants from the 1880s. It hosted notable university events when Disraeli and Gladstone served as rectors of the University of Glasgow in the 1870s. After years as a public events venue, it became focused on plant growth.

Today the Kibble Palace is known for its New Zealand and Australian tree ferns, some of which have lived there for about 120 years, forming the national tree fern collection. In the 1920s a statue called “King Robert of Sicily,” inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s works, was added to the palace by Scottish sculptor George Henry Paulin.

Restoration and library
From 2004 a £7 million restoration repaired severe corrosion in the ironwork. About £3.4 million came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with additional support from Glasgow City Council and Historic Environment Scotland. The palace was carefully dismantled, repaired in a workshop in South Yorkshire, and rebuilt with a reworked interior layout to extend its life. It reopened to the public in November 2006. The building now houses many orchids, carnivorous plants, and tree ferns.

The Gardens also have a small but long‑standing research library with more than 2,600 items in the main collection, plus a number of special collections and botanical periodicals, including a run of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine from 1787 to the present. The library is a reference collection for staff, students, and researchers working with the Gardens.