Several members of the WCoTA and their guests enjoyed a wonderful guided tour of the Chelsea Physic Garden on Thursday 19 May, organised by Bob Harland.  The garden is reputed to be one of the oldest botanical gardens in the UK. Since 1673, when Chelsea was a village outside of London, Chelsea Physic Garden has occupied four acres of land on the edge of the Thames. First established by the Apothecaries, and long held by The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries  in order to grow medicinal plants, this extraordinary garden has had a wide reaching impact around the world.

 
It was a beautiful dry, warm day for our visit on 19 May. Our guide, Claire, one of the many wonderful volunteers working at the garden, gave us an incredibly informative tour, explaining the history of the garden and the medicinal purposes of the many plants in the garden. Some of the treatments provided by these plants have proved, by science and research, to be well founded treatments and cures. Others have proved to be nothing more than folklore, or even poison! We speculated that some old treatments may have been effective through the power of belief (the placebo effect) rather than through their actual properties. 
 

After the excellent tour we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch, al fresco, at the Garden Café. It was the perfect day for a light lunch and a glass or two of Rose! If you haven’t visited The Chelsea Physic Garden, I would thoroughly recommend it.

 

 
Lorraine Parkin