Cambridge University Botanic Garden

The Cambridge University Botanic Garden lies just south of the city centre between Trumpington Road and Hills Road. It covers 16 hectares of level ground and holds more than 8,000 plant species from every continent. The garden was begun in 1831 by Professor John Stevens Henslow, who taught Charles Darwin, and opened to the public in 1846. Its flat site was once an unpromising gravel pit, but Henslow and his assistant Cardale Babington shaped it into lawns, a lake and a rock garden. Glasshouses were added in the 1860s, and rare trees were planted across the grounds. The garden has played a part in major scientific work. In the early 20th century William Bateson, Charles Chamberlain Hurst and Edith Rebecca Saunders carried out pioneering plant genetics research here. Later Frederick Blackman, George Edward Briggs and Frederick Tom Brooks used the site for plant physiology and pathology studies. The garden also held the Isaac Newton tree, a Flower of Kent grown from the apple tree that inspired Newton’s theory of gravity, until it was blown down in 2022. Visitors find a wide range of features. Cory Lodge, built in 1925 as the director’s house, stands near a striking Catalpa speciosa and a trained Ginkgo biloba on the north wall. The rock garden, one of the earliest in the country, and the lake created from an old gravel pit remain central to the layout. Glasshouses and mature specimens of rare trees frame the lawns, while the Sainsbury Laboratory nearby carries on the garden’s tradition of plant science.