Chelsea Physic Garden - Healing with Plants: The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal

This book is intended as a source of information on a wide range of herbal remedies. It is not intended for use as a medicinal guide, a medical reference book or a replacement for professional medical advice. Do not use any remedies on children under the age of 2 years; particular care should be taken if using remedies on children over the age of 2 years.
Patch test any external remedies 24 hours before using to check for allergies. If you have any pre-existing conditions, are pregnant or breastfeeding or are on any medications seek advice from a qualified medical practitioner and herbalist before you try any home remedies. The authors and publishers do not accept any responsibility for loss, harm or damage from the use or misuse of this book or your failure to seek proper medical advice.

Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 on land that was previously a market garden, abutting the River Thames in the then relatively rural Manor of Chelsea. The land was sheltered by walls and benefited from the warm river air, south-facing aspect and good, light soil. In short, it was an ideal spot for a garden. At that point it was simply the Apothecaries Garden, run by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for growing medicinal herbs and training its apprentices how to identify and use them.

Sir Hans Sloane was one of those apprentices, and on completing his training he became the 2nd Duke of Albermarles personal physician, travelling with him to the then English colony of Jamaica. Sloanes observations and collections incorporated many items gathered using slaves and known to the indigenous peoples including quinine, a plant-based compound that can prevent and cure malaria, and a drink using chocolate. These two discoveries, amongst others and his marriage to an heiress of a sugar plantation - would make him a wealthy man on his return to England, when he bought the Manor of Chelsea, including the Garden. Grateful to the Society for his early training, he decreed that it could use the Garden in return for paying a sum of 5 per year in perpetuity, thus securing its future.

Sloanes collections of botanical and zoological specimens, libraries, manuscripts and antiquities were so vast that, when they were bequeathed to the nation on his death in 1753, the British Museum had to be built to house them, with Sloane decreeing in his will that the museum should be free to all. His herbarium (collection of dried plants), now kept at the Natural History Museum and available as an online resource, has been vital to the research of botanists for the last 300 years, including that of Carl Linnaeus (who originated the botanical Latin plant-naming system used to this day). It, like many other natural history collections of the 18th and 19th centuries, depended on the infrastructure of the transatlantic slave trade for its very existence because the regular ships crossing from the Caribbean could bring back new plants and discoveries.

WHAT IS AN APOTHECARY?

The closest modern equivalent of the 17th-century apothecary would be a pharmacist. Originally traders in herbs and spices, over time they became consultants on herbal medicine (the only medicine of the time) for the public who had no space to grow their own herbs, lacked the knowledge and/or could not afford the fees of a qualified physician. The apothecaries kept lists of the medicinal plants that they traded, and their uses and effects. By 1617 the apothecaries of Great Britain were sufficiently influential as to be allowed to incorporate by a Royal Charter, and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries was founded. The Society continued to manage the Chelsea Physic Garden until 1899, and from 1815 to this day has regulatory powers, maintaining its position as an important medical institution.

The Garden is surrounded by brick walls on three sides, with large wrought-iron gates leading out onto Chelsea Embankment and buildings that now house offices and amenities on the northern wall. Originally the Garden would have abutted the river, to make it easier for the apothecaries to load and unload their barge for botanical expeditions and trade. The historic houses of Chelsea loom large outside the walls but entering the Garden is to step into an oasis. It is a healing garden in every sense of the word: the plants grown here illustrate the varied riches and therapeutic powers of the natural world and to spend time among them is to take a breath and enjoy a respite from the hurly-burly of the city beyond.