Birmingham Botanical Gardens & Glasshouses, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Botanic gardens of 1830s designed by J C Loudon which retain many original and 19th-century features including the overall layout and range of glasshouses.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The 4-hectare Botanic Gardens lie on the south side of Westbourne Road in Edgbaston, about 3km south-west of the centre of Birmingham. On the east side the Gardens are adjoined by Edgbaston High School for Girls, on the west side by private housing and the courts of the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society, while the southern tip abuts allotments and Westbourne Road Leisure Gardens (see description of this site elsewhere in the Register). Despite lying within a built-up area the Gardens have a notably open aspect to the south, with views down the Chad Valley.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

The Gardeners' Magazine 8, (1832), pp 407-28

The Gardeners' Magazine 15, (1839), p 456

The Gardeners' Chronicle, (28 September 1872), pp 1291-2; (9 December 1893), pp 723-4

Garden History 8, (1980), pp 66-74

M Hadfield et al, British Gardeners: A Biographical Dictionary (1981), p 58

R Sidwell, West Midland Gardens (1981), pp 201-3

Phillipa Ballard, An Oasis of Delight: The History of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (1981)

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens & Glasshouses Souvenir Guide, guidebook, (no date, around 1995)

Maps

Beilby, Knott and Beilby, Map of Birmingham, 1828 (Birmingham Reference Library)

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1890; 2nd edition published 1904; 1945 edition
 

Description written: October 1997

Amended: April 1999

Edited: October 1999