A MAJOR public fundraising campaign has been launched to help save two of Scotland’s most significant heritage buildings.
It is now 200 years since the Tropical Palm House was built in Edinburgh – the tallest palm house in Britain at the time – and the centuries have taken a heavy toll.
A huge restoration is now under way but additional funds are needed for its completion and without public help, the Palm Houses are still at risk, according to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).
The two buildings are considered to be outstanding examples of late Georgian and Victorian engineering, part of Scotland’s built heritage and of unique architectural significance.
The octagonal Tropical Palm House, constructed in 1834, is the oldest glasshouse at the Inverleith site, while the 22m iconic Temperate Palm House – reputed to be the tallest stone-built glasshouse in Europe – opened in 1858.
RBGE is home to one of the world’s richest collections of living plants, with more than 130,000 in its care and 13,500 distinct species in cultivation built up over centuries from across the globe.
The Palm Houses along with the research glasshouses are home to 30% of the unique collection and offer protection against a loss of genetic diversity and the risk of extinction for species threatened in the wild.
The public fundraising campaign aims to raise £250,000 to support the £21m restoration of the Palm Houses which began in 2021 with the careful removal for safekeeping of around 800 plants, some of which are endangered in their native habitats.
Challenges included the safe removal of large palms such as the Trachycarpus princeps. At more than eight metres tall, RBGE’s specimen is believed to be the tallest in cultivation outside its native China and the tallest plant to be successfully moved from the Palm Houses.
Also successfully moved for safekeeping was the Wollemia nobilis, an evergreen genus of conifer native to Australia that is now critically endangered in its native habitat.
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The restoration also involves the replacement of almost 6000 panes of glass and now over 400 scaffolding boards – more than half a mile in length – fill the interior and encase the exterior of the buildings.
Around 500 square metres of crumbling sandstone and 140 metres of rusty rainwater goods such as drainpipes and guttering will be repaired or replaced throughout the two structures.
More than 600 square metres of structural ironwork – including the 18 elegant arched windows on the Temperate Palm House, narrow spiral staircases and vertigo-inducing aerial walkways – will also be refurbished.
Finally, the restored ironwork will be painted and plants reintroduced. With the partition that divided the two houses now removed, the two buildings will be reunited as one for the first time in a generation, allowing visitors to enjoy the combined beauty of their architecture.
The Palm Houses will reopen towards the end of the Edinburgh Biomes project, scheduled for completion in 2028.
As well as the replacement of the research houses and the restoration of the Palm Houses and 1960s modernist Front Range Glasshouses, the Biomes project will provide a more efficient energy centre, new cutting-edge facilities to support RBGE’s research into plant pests and pathogens, and a new destination glasshouse to inspire the scientists, horticulturists and conservationists of the future.
“We are immensely grateful to the generous support we have received so far from our funders and we are now asking the public to help us preserve these iconic symbols of the garden, an almost 200-year-old part of Scotland’s architectural heritage,” said Emma Lacroix, RSGE director of development and communications.
“The restoration will help to protect our precious botanical collections, a key resource for our scientists and horticulturists in their fight against biodiversity loss and the climate emergency. We really need your help. Please support our appeal today and save the Palm Houses for future generations.”
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