Abstract
It has been reluctantly decided to close the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for the present owing to the impossibility of providing adequate air raid shelters in the Gardens. It will be readily understood that should an air raid occur and the Gardens were at all crowded with visitors, grave risks might be incurred. Not only would there be difficulty in evacuating the public before the gates were closed, but there would also be the practical impossibility of their being able to find sufficient shelter outside or means of transport to their homes. Even were it possible to provide air raid shelters, owing to the large extent of the Gardens and the six different means of entrance, the public would scarcely be likely to discover the shelters, however well labelled, at a critical moment, unless a large staff of wardens was available. Since so many of the staff have had to be detailed for guarding the Herbarium and other vulnerable spots in the Gardens, as well as the employees, there is no one who could be detailed to look after a large body of visitors. Adequate steps, it is hoped, have been taken to safeguard the collections in the Herbarium, the museums, etc., and work is proceeding so far as possible on normal lines.
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Nature 144, 504 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144504a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144504a0