The Palm House

The Palm House in the Botanic Gardens is a curved glass structure held together by white cast-iron frames. Charles Lanyon designed it in eighteen thirty-nine, years before the famous Crystal Palace in London. The building relies on a unique curvilinear iron technique that allowed for expansive glass panels to house exotic plants. In the eighteen sixties, the botanist David Moore successfully cultivated the first giant water lily in the United Kingdom here, keeping the tropical plant alive in Belfast's damp, cool climate.