Pathways to knowledge

Pathways to knowledge – a ‘groundbreaking’ new project at Chelsea Physic Garden that celebrates accessibility and creates opportunities for learning – made possible with funding from the Julia Rausing Trust

We are delighted to announce that Chelsea Physic Garden has received a grant of £190,000 from the Julia Rausing Trust to replace existing gravel pathways, paving the way for visitors to access and engage with newly installed interpretation. The Garden was thrilled to be selected for support by the Trust, set up to honour the memory and philanthropy of Julia Rausing.

‘Pathways to knowledge’ has inclusion and accessibility at its heart. The newly surfaced pathways will help with physical access, since currently, visitors in wheelchairs or with buggies can find our paths difficult to navigate. This project will mean that more people can enjoy all that is on offer at London’s oldest botanic garden.

The funding will also support the development, design, and delivery of new and engaging content for visitors across the Garden’s collections of medicinal, edible, and ‘useful’ plants. After years of weathering, many interpretation panels have deteriorated and become difficult to read. This funding will help more people to discover the wonders of our diverse plant collections, woodlands, and the wildlife in our ponds and bee hives.

The grant from the Julia Rausing Trust will have a long-lasting impact and builds on the Garden’s recent project to increase access to the historic Glasshouses, which reopened in 2023 following major restoration. Indeed, new path surfaces were ‘road-tested’ as part of the Glasshouses refurbishment, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project.

The grant will also support the Garden’s new visitor interpretation, which aims to reflect a multitude of voices and stories, to highlight the pressing issue of climate change, reinstate indigenous plant knowledge, celebrate the power of plants for health and wellbeing, and contextualise the Garden’s role in the colonial trade of plants.

The development of new interpretation continues the Garden’s practice of consultation with visitors, experts and community users to ensure that information is relevant, inclusive and scientifically factual. One community user has told us how being involved gave them greater respect for the Garden, adding:

‘The effort put into engaging a diverse group of people, reimbursing them for their time, and talking about possibly controversial, but very important parts of garden history is really amazing.’

Certainly, Chelsea Physic Garden was grateful for the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Julia Rausing Trust, as part of the Trust’s broader commitment to supporting the botanic garden sector.

With the Trust’s funding, we will be able to roll out the path and interpretation scheme in spring 2025, to create a cohesive and accessible visitor experience that will help us meet our ambition of becoming a Garden for all.