Herbarium Complex, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Hunter House and Wings C, B and A, including the entrance gates and railings

Herbarium Complex, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Herbarium Complex comprises several connected buildings spanning over 150 years of development: the late 18th-century Hunter House and purpose-built herbarium wings constructed in 1877, 1902–1903, and 1932.

Hunter House

Hunter House is a late 18th-century building adapted for the royal household around 1820 and subsequently altered for use by the Botanic Gardens, certainly in 1877 and possibly in the 1850s, with further modifications in 1902–1903 and the late 20th century. It is constructed of red-brown stock brick laid in Flemish bond with red brick, rubbed brick, and stone dressings. The roofs are slate and tiled hipped roofs, with felted and glazed flat roofs where the building adjoins later wings.

The house is arranged around a central entrance hall with a stair hall at the rear. More richly finished rooms occupy the full-height bowed bay centrally placed on the west elevation, which formerly overlooked the gardens, while more functional spaces face east, formerly overlooking the service yard. The building has three storeys and a basement. The entrance front spans seven bays, with the outer bays projecting and square on plan. A tall hipped roof covers the front of the house, shallower hipped roofs extend over the rear, and a flat, partly glazed roof adjoins the adjacent wings. A single chimney stack is positioned at the rear. Rooms flank the entrance on either side, leading to smaller rooms or closets in the outer bays. On the first floor, the front three rooms now form a single space, retaining the separate rooms at each end. The upper floor has been subdivided from a single space into a series of small offices and a corridor behind. A secondary 18th-century stair on the east side of the building runs from first to second floors.

The south and west elevations feature red brick quoins and a plain brick parapet. The principal south elevation additionally has a deep moulded cornice above the first floor and a plat band above the basement. The entrance, at a slightly raised ground floor level, is reached by a flight of five stone steps with a simple steel or iron balustrade. The doorway has a pedimented Ionic doorcase with dentil ornament on the pediment. The entrance appears to have been reduced slightly to accommodate a pair of glazed doors with wide margin lights above low, near-flush moulded panels. Windows on the south elevation are slightly recessed in openings with flush red brick dressings, rubbed brick flat arches, and stone cills. Ground and first floor windows also have rubbed brick aprons, and all feature scrolled foliate keystones. Ground and first floor windows are six-over-six pane sashes with slender glazing bars and without horns; the upper floor has two-over-six sashes. The hipped roof over the front section is concealed behind the parapet.

The west elevation is essentially symmetrical, with a single bay on each side of a full-height bowed bay containing three windows, plus an additional single bay to the south representing the return of the projecting bay on the south elevation. The architectural treatment is simplified, lacking the cornice, and windows have plain rather than foliate keystones; aprons on the bowed bay have been removed. The bow contains three-over-six sashes from basement to first floor, with a central entrance featuring a pair of six-panelled doors at basement level, and three-over-three sashes on the upper floor. The flanking bays have six-over-six sashes on the principal floors and three-over-six on the upper floor. On the southernmost bay, all openings except the upper floor have blind openings in similarly dressed reveals.

The east elevation is irregular, with the southern corner bay projecting and a single-storey entrance built against it. The stair bay is lit by six-over-six and three-over-six sashes. Other windows include a six-over-six sash and a small oculus to the south of it, and 19th or early 20th-century paired sashes built against a large external stack to the north.

The entrance hall is lined with full-height 18th-century raised and fielded panelling, a moulded dado rail, and a box cornice, which have been altered where they frame the opening to the rear stair hall. Doors have six fielded panels set in plain moulded architraves. The floor is stone with lozenge insets in slate. The flanking front rooms have coved cornices. The doorcase in the westernmost room (G3), opening onto the principal west-facing room (G9), has a broad plain architrave and a door with six raised and fielded panels. The original bow-fronted room has been subdivided to create G9 and the adjoining corridor G8, with the cornice of moulded panels and rosettes running across both spaces. Principal doors are wide and set in panelled architraves, one with foliate acanthus leaf moulding and a shallow cornice. The room has deep skirtings and a marble chimneypiece with crisp stylised floral motifs.

The stair is 18th-century in origin, remodelled in 1877 when the added rear wing of the house was demolished, and probably also in the early to mid-20th century. It is an open string, dog-leg stair that splays toward the base and rises to first floor level with a tall intermediate landing at the rear. It has columnar fluted newels, tapering turned balusters (two per tread), a moulded rail, and strings with moulded panels offset from the treads above. The dado has raised and fielded panels between stylised fluted pilasters, with large moulded wall panelling above, some with Adamesque wall treatment of plaster ornament, beneath a coved cornice. At half-landing level are dummy doorcases with flaring moulded cornices and six-panelled doors. The entrance to the central first-floor room, flanked by pilasters within full-height fielded panelling, has been blocked and lined with panelling; rooms on each side have six-panel doors in moulded architraves. At first floor level, the ceiling cornice appears to be of 18th-century form with later enrichment. The west-facing room (F2) has moulded architraves and a suspended ceiling and has lost its chimneypiece. The secondary eastern stair is 18th-century, with plain columnar newels, tapering turned balusters on tall bases (two per tread), and a deep moulded rail. It has richly carved foliate tread ends, and the newels have drop finials. The balustrade at the upper landing has been altered. The central section of the front range is opened up as a single space with a continuous moulded cornice; some doorcases are deeply moulded. A 19th-century iron spiral staircase with barley sugar twist balusters rises from the south-western room (F4) to the room above. The front range of upper floor rooms and the corridor behind have a deep and continuous boxed and coved cornice reflecting the 19th-century use of the upper floor as a single space. The west-facing room (S10) has a mid-19th-century marble chimneypiece.

Below the main stair, stone stairs with worn treads and a simple steel balustrade lead to the basement, where the west-facing rooms have York stone paving and a chimney breast in B1.

Wing C (1877)

Wing C was built in 1877 by John Lessels and designed to complement Hunter House. It was altered in the early 20th century. The wing is clad in buff stock brick with red brick, rubbed brick, and stone dressings. It has patent concrete floors installed in the early 20th century as a fire deterrent and a steel frame roof clad in slate.

The wing is aligned north-south, rectangular on plan, and attached to the rear of Hunter House. It is arranged on three storeys over a basement. Above ground floor level, the herbarium has two galleried levels reached by spiral stairs, with storage and work spaces in each window bay.

The east elevation has eight bays, the west elevation has seven bays (the eighth being internal), all beneath a hipped roof concealed behind a plain brick parapet. Both elevations have red brick quoins on the outer corners, and windows have flush red brick quoins, flat rubbed brick arches, and stone cills. Windows are slightly recessed; those on the ground and first floors are six-over-six sashes, those on the first floor are three-over-three.

The galleried storage space is arranged on three levels around an atrium measuring six by two bays. Originally narrower, the galleries were extended by a bay in 1902–1903, reducing the size of the atrium. They are supported on the original 19th-century fluted cast iron columns with stylised foliate heads, but have simple early 20th-century tubular steel balustrades, all painted red. Cast iron spiral stairs at the north-west and south-east corners have ornate shafts and balustrades with foliate panels, also painted red. Before the early 20th-century reordering, the gallery balustrades were of similar design. The building has a lightweight steel truss roof. The floors are patent concrete laid with parquet. Three-tier built-in storage cabinets arranged perpendicular to the windows create naturally-lit work bays, which also have lower cabinets providing work surfaces, while larger low cabinets are set out in the atrium. The majority of the cabinets are painted deal; some later additions are metal. In the lobby within the southernmost bay of the building is a built-in timber cabinet arranged on three levels with projecting end bays. The cornice is inscribed PRESENTED BY THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

Wing B (1902–1903)

Wing B was built in 1902–1903 by the Office of Works and architecturally echoes Hunter House. It is faced in buff stock brick with red brick dressings. The main block has a hipped slate roof; the narrower link block has a flat roof.

The wing is aligned east-west and laid out on three storeys and a basement. The herbarium has three galleried levels, echoing the 1877 building, and is connected to Hunter House by the narrower link block, comprising a corridor lined with storage, additional offices, entrance to Wing Q, and a lift shaft at the rear.

The south elevation of the main block has eight bays articulated by giant order pilasters with red brick dressings, supporting a deep dentilled cornice above the first floor, while plain pilasters support a simple moulded cornice to the parapet. Window openings have red brick reveals and rubbed brick segmental arches with stone keystones, with horned six-over-six sashes on the ground and first floors, three-over-three on the upper attic floor, and segmental headed vents to the basement. The three-bay link block is set back and without bay articulation. Windows are similar, with smaller six-over-six sashes on the upper floor; all have rubbed brick aprons. The fenestration pattern is repeated on the plain north elevation of the herbarium block, whereas the link block has been altered by an inter-war and later 20th-century extension and the addition of the Japanese-inspired lift shaft and entrance to Wing Q.

The galleried storage space is arranged on three levels around an atrium measuring six by two bays, supported on fluted cast iron columns with foliate capitals and with simple tubular steel balustrades, reached by plain spiral stairs, all painted red. It has a lightweight steel truss roof. Floors are concrete laid with parquet. As in the 1877 wing, storage is arranged in tiered cabinets between the window bays providing naturally-lit workspaces, and in cabinets on the floor of the atrium.

Wing A (1932)

Wing A was built in 1932 by the Office of Works in a neo-Georgian manner. It is faced in hand-made buff and red-brown brick laid in Flemish bond, with red brick and stone or concrete dressings. It has a flat roof.

The wing is laid out on four storeys with a basement, with the west elevation in nine bays and the south elevation in three bays. It is aligned north-south and set back from Wing B.

The symmetrical southern elevation has a central three-storey canted bay in red brick with flared sides and stone or concrete coping to the parapet, which obscures a flat roof, and deep red brick quoins on the outer angle of the range. Windows are horned sashes in exposed boxes. In the canted bay these are eight-over-eight panes with red brick arches with shaped heads. The outer bays have six-over-six horned sashes in red brick surrounds beneath flat arches, except for the upper floor which has three-over-six and a central four-over-eight sash beneath soldier courses. There is an entrance with glazed doors in the right-hand bay. The wing has a plain parapet with stone or concrete coping. The west elevation is similarly treated, with the addition of three-over-six basement windows in the northern three bays.

Functionally detailed galleried storage space is arranged on four levels around an atrium lit by clerestorey windows. The galleries are supported on concrete piers set back behind steel balustrades painted black with a timber rail. Stairs to the lower level have a steel frame, timber treads, and a steel balustrade with a moulded timber rail that returns to form the gallery balustrade.

Entrance Gates and Railings

The entrance gates and railings to the Herbarium on Kew Green are refurbished steel, wrought and cast iron gates and railings with decorative panels and dogbars and with spearhead finials, set on a stone plinth. These continue without a break to enclose Hanover House (also part of the Royal Botanic Gardens site) to the east.