Everyone loves a secret garden. Theres something of ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’ about it. But it can’t be any old secret garden. There’s got to be something special about it.
Well London has got exactly that.
Drive down Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea and you’ll come across some high bricked ,walls. These walls aren’t just to keep people out, they’re also there to trap heat and create a micro climate for what’s inside. A four-acre site of one of the oldest botanical gardens in Britain. This is the Chelsea Psychic Garden devoted to the ancient study of growing plants to be used for healing.
It was originally established in London in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and became one of the most important centres of botany and plant exchange in the world. It’s the only botanic garden collection focused entirely on medicinal, herbal and useful plants.
I must admit, being totally ignorant of the healing properties of plants, I thought I’d list a few of the more common ones here: Chamomile helps with anxiety, Lavender relaxation and sleep, Calendula wound healing, Rosemary bacterial infections and Thyme for its anti-inflammatory properties.
Previously a jealously guarded affair, a charity took over the management of the Physic Garden in 1983 and a few years later, it opened to the general public for the first time, allowing us all to enjoy its exotic and wonderful secret.
Image: Chelsea Physic Garden, London
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Image originally published in Queer Places: Retracing the Steps of LGBTQ people around the World Authored by Elisa Rolle