Chelsea Physic Garden

This guide to Chelsea Physic Garden in London starts with London's apothecaries leasing riverside acres in 1673 to grow the plants their apprentices needed to study medicine firsthand. It follows the garden's early flourishing, its near-collapse when funds dried up decades later, and the naturalist Hans Sloane, who had trained here himself and later owned the land next door. You'll hear about the deal he struck to keep the garden alive, and the gardener Philip Miller who arrived the same year. Best explored slowly, bed by bed, along the walled paths.