Celebrating Capability Brown: half term at Kew Gardens

Capability Brown is the most famous of all English landscape gardeners. He may even be the most famous of all time. His designs dominated the latter half of the 18th century - there were over 170 of them.

Alongside Blenheim Palace, Aynhoe Park, Belvoir Castle, Holkham Hall, Stowe School, Hampton Court and Harewood House, Browns carefully manicured landscape style transformed Kew Gardens. Working in the botanical gardens during the 1760s, Brown gave life to his idealised view of nature, moulding the flow of the landscape into a shape that is still admired to this day.

This summer there were 100s of events held to celebrate the great gardener's 300th birthday. This October half term, Kew is joining in the celebrations with it's a family friendly event, taking visitors around the gardens in a horse-drawn carriage. On top of which, there's other family friendly activities taking root in Kew for half term. The full list is below.

Celebrate Capability Brown's 300th birthday
Thursday 27th October - Sunday 30th October

Join the horse and transplanter tours and travel through the Gardens accompanied by Capability Brown himself, his gardeners and a bell crier. There will also be a tree planting ceremony hosted by the Horticulture team and Matthew Biggs (he of the Gardeners Question Time fame) and plant a Tulip Tree in the memory of the great landscape gardener. Families will also be invited to make their very own badge using botanical illustrations and discover more about Brown and his work by examining some old maps and images of the gardens.

Pollinator Day
Saturday 29th October

There's more going on in Kew this half term, including Pollinator Day on Saturday 29th October 10:30 - 4:30pm. Join in a day of free activities to highlight the importance of pollinators in our everyday lives, sharing scientific findings form a ground-breaking global report.

Halloween at Kew Garden: Ghosts, Myths and Oddities Explorer Halloween Tour
22nd Oct - 31st Oct

Kew's Explorer land train is leaving the station this Halloween to take visitors on a tour of the spooks and spectres hiding in the corners of Kew Gardens. Joined by Senior Conservator Jonathan Farley, who has loved the gardens and heard its stories for over 20 years, guests listen to terrifying ghost tales, myths and historical oddities as the train rattles round. So as twilight slithers though the tree branches and night time descends on the gardens, climb aboard and discover a whole new (under) world.