South London Botanical Institute

The South London Botanical Institute is a small charity housed in a Victorian villa on Norwood Road, Tulse Hill. Its compact garden holds thematic planting beds, a greenhouse and a range of plants that families can look at up close, with microscopes available for examining seeds, flowers and other specimens. Inside, the botanical library and open-access herbarium of pressed plant specimens give older children a glimpse of how botany was studied over the last two centuries. Throughout the year the institute runs open garden days, drop-in afternoons, plant walks and craft-style workshops, including botanical art and pressed-plant activities, many of them free or low cost and welcoming all ages. It also runs structured two-hour school workshops for primary and secondary pupils. Families are best suited to the event days rather than casual visits, as the building is not yet wheelchair accessible.