The Chelsea Physic Garden was established in London in 1673. It was called the Apothecaries' Garden because the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries needed it to grow plants for medicines.^[1] It is a four acre physic garden, and is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Britain. The University of Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was founded in 1670.

Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plants. The largest fruiting olive tree in Britain is there, protected by the garden's heat-trapping high brick walls. The gardens claim to have the world's northernmost grapefruit growing outdoors.

The Garden became in 1983 a registered charity,^[2] and was opened to the general public for the first time.

The garden is Grade I listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England by English Heritage.^[3]