At the time of its construction, the Temperate House within the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (RBG Kew) was the largest glasshouse in theworld, and it remains the largest extant example from the Victorian period. The restoration project, finished in 2018, called upon the skills of the UK's top experts. To be able to execute such a project, and to justify a major National Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the project team needed to show why the Temperate House was significant, and that it could be restored to enable the continuing cultivation and presentation of rare botanic specimens. This paper describes the restoration programme, covering work to the composite iron, steel, timber, masonry and glass structure, its consolidation and redecoration, and improvements to make it both more sustainable and better able to serve the community.
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