Coloured postcard of the Victoria house, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Ink: Greetings from Kew Gardens this scene is from the waterlily House - replete with Gold Fish... Very warm. Had a nice time hree with the S. CLASS.. James [address in Walthamstow supplied]. The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew were formerly the grounds of Kew Palace, and developed as a botanic garden by the Earl of Bute, followed by Sir Joseph Banks; after a report compiled by John Lindley, Joseph Paxton, and John Wilson, they were officially designated the Royal Botanic Gardens, with Sir William Jackson Hooker as their first Director, in 1843. Sir William Chambers' orangery and rocky arch survive, along with various later temples; the major buildings created in the 1840s and after were the Palm House, the Victoria House, and the Temperate House. The rock garden was created in the 1880s