Botanic gardens · East of England
Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Cambridge's 40-acre teaching botanic garden — taxonomic beds, Henslow's 1846 founding.

Derek Harper — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
About
Cambridge University Botanic Garden, founded by John Henslow in 1846, is the working garden of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences. 40 acres of formal collections — the Systematic Beds (every major plant family arranged for taxonomic comparison), the Glasshouse Range, the British Wild Flower Garden — plus a working hot-house and the original collection from Charles Darwin's tutor.
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
The Cambridge University Botanic Garden is a botanical garden located in Cambridge, England, associated with the university Department of Plant Sciences (formerly Botany School). It lies between Trumpington Road to the west, Bateman Street to the north and Hills Road to the east. The garden covers an area of 16 hectares (40 acres). The site is almost entirely on level ground and in addition to its scientific value, the garden is highly rated by gardening enthusiasts. It holds a plant collection of over 8,000 plant species from all over the world to facilitate teaching and research. The garden was created for the University of Cambridge in 1831 by Professor John Stevens Henslow (Charles Darwin's mentor) and was opened to the public in 1846. The second-highest temperature recorded in the UK, 38.7 °C (101.7 °F), was recorded on 25 July 2019 at the garden. The garden held this record for four years until it was broken in 2022, when 40.3 °C (104.5 °F) was recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire on 19 July of that year. On this day, the garden broke its own record, reaching 39.9 °C (103.8 °F).
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
on Free School Lane was once the home to the Walkerian Garden. Eventually, the University built the Cavendish Laboratory here, but a small patch of garden has been planted with plants representative of the stock of the original garden.]]
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 52.1942, 0.1278
- County
- Cambridgeshire
- District
- Cambridge
- Parish
- Cambridge, unparished area
- Postcode
- CB2 1NN
- Parliamentary constituency
- Cambridge
- Official site
- www.spri.cam.ac.uk
Sources
- manual: cambridge-university-botanic-garden (manual)
- wikipedia: Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
- Cambridge University Botanic Garden is in Cambridgeshire, East of England, United Kingdom (postcode CB2 1NN), in the parish of Cambridge, unparished area.
- When was Cambridge University Botanic Garden built?
- Dates from the Victorian period.
- Who owns Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
- Cambridge University Botanic Garden is owned by University of Cambridge.
- How do I get to Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
- Drivers can navigate to postcode CB2 1NN. It sits within the Cambridge parliamentary constituency.
- How busy is Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
- Cambridge University Botanic Garden draws around 334,461 visitors a year.