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Summer Lectures at Chelsea Physic Garden

To celebrate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Sir Hans Sloane we are holding a series of evening lectures on our Late Opening Wednesdays 30 June – 25 August, 6.45pm until 8pm, £15 (Garden admission included) / £10 Friends.

The Garden will be open from midday-10pm with last admission at 8.30pm. on these dates, the Shop will close at 6pm and there will be a special menu offer at the Cafe from 6.30pm on these evenings: £23 for three courses (excluding drinks & service).

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Born in Killyleagh in Northern Ireland, of Scottish parents, Sloane developed a lifelong love of nature. As a young man he travelled to the Caribbean, bringing back new discoveries including a recipe for drinking chocolate. He was President of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society and founder of the British Museum. In 1722 he set the rent of Chelsea Physic Garden at £5 a year, for as long as it be used for the study of useful plants. Without this bequest it is unlikely Chelsea Physic Garden would still survive.

We thank all our guest speakers for taking part in what should be an illuminating series of lectures.

Wed 30 June
Sir Hans Sloane: Entrepreneurship and Science in the 17th Century. Sloane’s reputation rests upon his distinguished medical career, his Presidency of the Royal Society and his botanical interest. Professor Lisa Jardine will argue it was commercial ingenuity, typical of his age, which underpinned his career.

Wed 7 July
Sloane’s Herbarium at The Natural History Museum.
Dr Charlie Jarvis is an international authority on the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who visited Sloane and Chelsea Physic Garden in 1736. His talk will focus on the importance of Sloane’s herbarium.

Wed 14 July
Sloane the Physician.
Dr Tim Cutler will put Sloane’s medical career into context. Tim studied medicine at Cambridge and Guys Hospital and has represented the Royal College of Physicians on the Advisory Board of Chelsea Physic Garden since 1998.

Wed 21 July
The Importance of Plant Illustration: 1660 to 2010
Dr Phil Cribb studied botany at Cambridge and Birmingham and went on to work at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As Patron of the Chelsea Physic Garden’s Florilegium Society he has an enduring interest in botanical illustration which forms the basis of his talk.

Wed 28 July SOLD OUT
Scents of History: Perfumery in Britain since Sloane.
Perfumery experts William Andrews and John Bailey will explore the part perfume has played over the centuries and will fill our nostrils with scents that would have been familiar to Sir Hans Sloane.

Wed 4 Aug
Chocolate Money: Sloane’s Caribbean Cacao
Professor James Delbourgo explores the historical nexus of science and empire in Sloane’s botanical work on Cacao in late 17th century Jamaica and London, and its relationship to ‘Sir Hans Sloane’s Milk Chocolate’, first marketed in the 18th century.

Wed 11 Aug
Sloane, Quinine and the Battle Against Malaria
Chelsea Physic Garden has been growing cinchona (the source of quinine) since Sloane’s time.
Professor Monique Simmonds who works at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, is an expert on ethnobotany and on the plants which have been used to combat this life-threatening disease.

Wed 18 Aug
Sloane‘s Legacy in the International Year of Biodiversity.
Colin Tudge, biologist and author, is well known for his books on natural history. He explores what Sloane might have made of our concerns about habitat and species loss in the 21st century.

Wed 25 Aug
From Sloane to A History of the World in 100 Objects: Sloane’s Museum Then and Now.
Dr J D Hill is Head of Research at the British Museum. He explores Sloane’s original collection that formed the heart of the British Museum, and asks how the museum responds to Sloane’s founding vision today.

How To Book

Tickets are £10 each for Friends and £15 each for non-Friends
(which includes admission to the Garden on the day). Friends may purchase as many non-Friends tickets as they like for each
lecture, in addition to their own ticket.

We recommend that you book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Sold out lectures will be indicated in the Events section of our website. We regret that the Lecture Room is currently only accessible via stairs. Tickets will be sent to you at least a week in advance of each lecture.

  • Postal bookings: please complete and return the booking form (PDF/53Kb)
  • Email bookings: Send your Friend number, quantity and type (ie Friend/non-Friend) of tickets required for each lecture, together with your debit or credit card number, expiry date, valid from date, security (CVV) code and issue number (Switch/Solo only), to: friends@chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk.
  • Phone bookings: Call 020 7352 5646 ext 228 with your debit or credit card details (weekdays 10am–5pm).

To book at table for dinner at the Café, please call 07983 251 458.

Additionally, throughout 2010, there will be a number of lectures, talks, workshops, walks and trails as part of the Local Heroes project which, along with the Royal College of Physicians and The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, we are celebrating the life of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), his life, travels and discoveries, and his links with us.
Information about other forthcoming Scientific and Horticultural lectures in London can be found in these places: