Segment: Chelsea Physic Garden
Episode: Into the Midnight Sun Ep 4
Air Date: 3rd November 2019
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane

Viking offers an excursion to the Chelsea Physic Garden, the oldest botanical garden in London.

• Dating back to the 17th Century, the Chelsea Physic Garden was founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1673, and contains the oldest Alpine garden in England.
• The gardens were purchased in 1712 by Sir Hans Sloane, a famous physician, naturalist and founder of the British Museum. He was inspired to create a garden of medicinal plants, which includes the Pharmaceutical Garden and the Garden of World Medicine.
• A well-travelled man, he saw the women of Jamaica taking the beans from the cocoa tree, drying and crushing them, and mixing them with milk. This was then given to children as a form of medicine to treat a wide range of ailments.
• Sir Hans sold this medicine recipe to Cadbury, making him a small fortune and allowing a benevolent fund to be set aside for the long-term care and maintenance of the gardens.
• The gardens are home to a collection 5,000 edible and medicinal plants, including the largest outdoor fruiting olive tree in Britain. Olives are better suited to the Mediterranean conditions, but the gardens offer a much more moderate climate, allowing the tree to flourish – in 1976 it delivered a crop of 7lbs.
• Highlights include the Garden of Edible and Useful Plants, and the World Woodland Garden.
• The glasshouses hold a collection of tropical plants from around the globe, including Australian beauties such as the Man Fern.