William Andrews Nesfield - Kew Gardens, London

Kew Gardens, London

Three great vistas are Nesfield's signature on today's Kew Gardens, London. In a 'goose foot' pattern radiating from the Palm House, Pagoda Vista was a grassed walk some 850 m (2,800 ft) long; Syon Vista was a wide gravel-laid walk stretching 1,200 m (3,937 ft) towards the Thames; while the third, short, vista fanned from the northwest corner of the Palm House and focused on a single 18th-century cedar of Lebanon towards Kew Palace. Pagoda Vista is lined with paired broadleaved trees with, flanking them and to their exterior, paired plantings of evergreens. Nesfield's idea of being able to both see and walk to the Pagoda along the centre line of Kew Gardens was, in fact, a return to the turn-of-the-century landscape.