Sheffield Botanical Gardens celebrate 190 years of free-to-explore beauty

On 29 June 1836, the gates opened on a new garden off Ecclesall Road, and around 12,000 people visited that first summer. In 2026 Sheffield Botanical Gardens reached its 190th birthday, and it remains one of the city's best-loved green spaces, welcoming up to 300,000 visitors a year.

The gardens were the work of the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society, formed in 1833, which raised £7,500 by selling shares to buy 18 acres of farmland. Robert Marnock laid them out in the Gardenesque style popular in Victorian Britain. Early crowds were lured back with balloon launches, the first in 1837.

Today the Grade II listed gardens cover 19 acres and hold around 5,000 plant species, including three National Plant Collections: Sarcococca, Weigela and Diervilla. Entry is free, as it has been for well over a century.

The highlight for many visitors is the Grade II* listed glass pavilions, designed by Benjamin Broomhead Taylor. Restored and reopened in 2003, they are 90 metres long with 18,060 glass panels, and house plants from temperate regions including the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, Australia, New Zealand and southern Africa. The gardens reopened after large-scale restoration on 20 June 2008, when Michael Palin planted a tree to mark the occasion.

There are surprises around every corner. An art trail includes bronze dinosaur footprints leading to a fossilised tree stump about 300 million years old, the bronze Pan: Spirit of the Wood in the rose garden, and a bear statue in the old bear pit, where two real bears once lived. A riddle by author Berlie Doherty on the Curator's House begins: "step into the garden of surprise."

The gardens are cared for with help from the Sheffield Botanical Gardens Trust, a charity that raises funds for the collections and buildings, and the Friends of the Botanical Gardens. Their programme includes botanical drawing courses, plant swaps and seasonal tours.

The main entrance is on Clarkehouse Road. The gardens open from 8am on weekdays and 10am at weekends, with the pavilions open from 11am to 3.30pm. Events are listed on the Sheffield Botanical Gardens website.