Chelsea Physic Garden

The Chelsea Physic Garden was established in sixteen seventy-three by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. They chose this riverside site to provide a warm, fertile environment for growing medicinal herbs and training their apprentices. The location was critical because the Thames allowed for safe, easy travel to central London, helping students avoid the dangerous marshes that surrounded the city at the time. The garden functioned as an outdoor classroom where apprentices learned to identify plants that could heal and those that could kill.