Chelsea Physic Garden

Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, Chelsea Physic Garden is London's oldest botanic garden and one of the oldest in Europe. Tucked behind high brick walls along the Thames Embankment, this peaceful four-acre garden holds more than 4,500 medicinal, edible and useful plants, including rare species, historic glasshouses, and a Garden of World Medicine. Cotton seeds sent from here to the American colonies in the eighteenth century played a part in the cotton trade. Adult tickets are around £15 (concessions from £6.50); Historic Houses members go free.