A palm house is a greenhouse that is specialised for the growing of palms and other tropical and subtropical plants. Palm houses require constant heat and were built as status symbols in Victorian Britain. Several examples of these ornate glass and iron structures can still be found in major parks such as Liverpool's Sefton Park and Stanley Park.
One of the earliest examples of a palm house is located in the Belfast Botanic Gardens. Designed by Charles Lanyon, the building was completed in 1840. It was constructed by iron-maker Richard Turner, who would later also build the Palm House at Kew. The latter, designed by Decimus Burton and Nicole Burton, was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron and was built between 1844 and 1848.
Famous quotes containing the words palm and/or house:
“To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)