📍Kew Palace, Royal Botanic Gardens, Richmond TW9 3AE, UK
1781 – 1818“I preferred a quiet family life to the glitter of court, and Kew was where we lived it. In 1781 I bought the old red-brick Dutch House beside the gardens, built by a merchant in 1631, to give our growing family more room; Charlotte and I had fifteen children, and Kew became our summer home, a place of lessons, walks, simple meals and family life far from the formality of London. I loved farming and botany — they called me Farmer George — and the gardens at Kew grew greatly in my time, with plants arriving from all over the world. We would walk to Queen Charlotte's Cottage in the grounds to rest and take tea. Kew was also where I was cared for in the dark episodes when my mind failed me, in 1788 and later, a place of refuge and of sorrow. Charlotte fell ill on a journey in 1818 and stayed here, and spent her last months in her bedroom at Kew. The house, the smallest of the royal palaces, is now cared for by Historic Royal Palaces.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today