Catching the Rain
In the Queen's Garden, Kew Palace
The Queen's Garden was conceived in 1959 by Sir George Taylor, then Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and officially opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II ten years later.
The design involved the recreation of arcades and steps associated with the Dutch House. It also contains several pieces of sculpture including a marble satyr, a venetian well head and five 18th century terms, commissioned by HRH Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1734/5 and considered to be the oldest pieces of sculpture remaining at Kew.
There is also a wrought iron pillar from Hampton Court Palace and a gazebo on a mound. One element is a parterre enclosed in box hedges and standing in the pond in the centre of the parterre is a copy of Verocchio's 'Boy with a Dolphin', the original of which is in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.
[Royal Botanic Gardens website]
Kew Palace (also known as the Dutch House) is the second building on this site; the first was a gift to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, from Elizabeth I.
The Dutch House (so called because of its Dutch Gables) was built by Samuel Fortrey in 1631, and eventually passed into the hands of Samuel Molyneux, secretary to George II. In 1728 the house was leased by George II for his daughters, and then taken on a long lease by Frederick Prince of Wales (George II's son) in 1731. The Dutch House became the independent household and school for his sons, Princes George and Edward. George III would eventually purchase the house for his wife, Queen Charlotte, in 1781. The palace was the household and school for George's own children, although later George III was confined here from November 1788 to April 1789, and again in 1801.
In 1802, work began on a new palace, a gothic "castellated palace" designed by James Wyatt and (in part) George III - the work was halted by the Prince Regent, and the new palace finally demolished in 1828.
In 1833, the house passed on to the Dowager Duchess of Kent (widow of George III's grandson, Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn), but she refused due to the condition of the property. The palace was presented to the nation by Queen Victoria in 1887.
Catching the Rain
In the Queen's Garden, Kew Palace
The Queen's Garden was conceived in 1959 by Sir George Taylor, then Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and officially opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II ten years later.
The design involved the recreation of arcades and steps associated with the Dutch House. It also contains several pieces of sculpture including a marble satyr, a venetian well head and five 18th century terms, commissioned by HRH Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1734/5 and considered to be the oldest pieces of sculpture remaining at Kew.
There is also a wrought iron pillar from Hampton Court Palace and a gazebo on a mound. One element is a parterre enclosed in box hedges and standing in the pond in the centre of the parterre is a copy of Verocchio's 'Boy with a Dolphin', the original of which is in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.
[Royal Botanic Gardens website]
Kew Palace (also known as the Dutch House) is the second building on this site; the first was a gift to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, from Elizabeth I.
The Dutch House (so called because of its Dutch Gables) was built by Samuel Fortrey in 1631, and eventually passed into the hands of Samuel Molyneux, secretary to George II. In 1728 the house was leased by George II for his daughters, and then taken on a long lease by Frederick Prince of Wales (George II's son) in 1731. The Dutch House became the independent household and school for his sons, Princes George and Edward. George III would eventually purchase the house for his wife, Queen Charlotte, in 1781. The palace was the household and school for George's own children, although later George III was confined here from November 1788 to April 1789, and again in 1801.
In 1802, work began on a new palace, a gothic "castellated palace" designed by James Wyatt and (in part) George III - the work was halted by the Prince Regent, and the new palace finally demolished in 1828.
In 1833, the house passed on to the Dowager Duchess of Kent (widow of George III's grandson, Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn), but she refused due to the condition of the property. The palace was presented to the nation by Queen Victoria in 1887.