The Palm House in Kew Gardens was an entirely new concept. Not a building with glass, but a building of glass.

Built from 1844 to 48 by Richard Turner using Decimus Burton's designs, it is the world's most important Victorian glass and iron structure.

Turner borrowed ideas from shipbuilding, and The Palm House is like an upturned ship’s hull. He used the latest material - strong, workable wrought iron - to make the delicate ‘ribs’ across a huge span of 15.2m (50ft), with no supporting pillars, unheard of at the time. The height was essential for the palm trees inside to grow.

Palms are tropical plants, so an ingenious heating system with basement boilers and heated underfloor water pipes was installed. Harmful smoke was carried away to a smoke stack disguised as an Italian bell tower.

The Palm House at Kew wasn’t built just for people’s relaxation. It was designed to be a scientific, hi-tech research laboratory for palm trees, from which we get all sorts of useful crops, textiles, gums and other chemicals.