I have been to Richmond many times for work before, but never really realized how close this is to the UNESCO world heritage site of Kew Gardens.  This site is basically at the end of Richmond and you could almost walk to it if you had an hour.  I was just in time to get into the park and the main green house as they closed around 6pm.  These green houses and gardens contain samples from plants from all around the world that had been collected by various British scientists over the years while the British built their empire and traveled all around the world.  It has some very nice gardens with a variety of plants and gardens.  Of course, one of the plants I was most impressed with was the gunnera which we had in our front yard when I was growing up and I found in this park.  It took me a while to find the UNESCO sign, but I finally found one in one of the guidebooks.

This site is known from one of the first World’s Fair sites in 1851 but probably not the highlight for people visiting London.  It is a bit out of the way for people visiting downtown London.  The site is however close to Heathrow the major airport in town.