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Palm house is a term sometimes used for large and high heated displaygreenhouses that specialise in growingpalms and other tropical and subtropical plants. InVictorian Britain, several ornate glass and iron palm houses were built inbotanical gardens and parks, usingcast iron architecture. Especially in English-speaking countries outside theBritish Isles, these are often calledconservatories, in the UK mainly a term for small glass structures attached to houses.
Thelarge example, completed in 1848, inKew Gardens, London was arguably the first greenhouse to be built on this scale.[1] It was also the first large-scale structural use ofwrought iron.[2][3][4] The laterTemperate House at Kew is in fact even larger. Other British examples are atLiverpool'sSefton Park andStanley Park.[5] Elsewhere there are theFranklin Park Conservatory inColumbus, Ohio, theRoyal Greenhouses of Laeken in Brussels, thePalmenhaus Schönbrunn in Vienna, and many others.
The rounded shapes of Kew were often followed in the 19th century. Parts of the iron technology there were borrowed fromshipbuilding, so the resemblance of many designs to upturned ships in not entirely coincidental. In the 20th century somepyramidal designs andgeodesic domes were adopted. The "Tropical Pyramid" at theMuttart Conservatory inAlberta (c. 1976) andEden Project in England are respectively examples of these shapes. The term "palm house" tends not to be used, though the function of the buildings remains the same.
The palm house was a stage in the 19th-century development of glass and iron architecture, which was also widely used in railway stations, markets, exhibition halls, and other large buildings needing a large and open internal area.[6] TheAnthaeum, Hove was a very ambitious example, with a hugecupola-topped dome covering more than 1.5 acres (0.61 ha). It was planned byHenry Phillips as avisitor attraction by itself, withAmon Henry Wilds as the architect; both were local men fromBrighton and Hove. However, it collapsed the day before its official opening in 1830.
One of the earliest examples of a palm house is located in theBelfast Botanic Gardens. Designed byCharles Lanyon, the building was completed in 1840. It was constructed by iron-founderRichard Turner, who would later build the Palm House atKew in 1848, to a design byDecimus Burton; this is 62 feet high and 362 long. This came shortly after theChatsworth Great Conservatory (1837–40; 67 feet high and 277 long, demolished in 1920) and shortly beforeThe Crystal Palace (1851), both designed byJoseph Paxton, and both now lost.[7]