T

here’s more to Chelsea than fancy boutiques and Premier League football clubs, you know.

A few metres off the Kings Road is Chelsea Physic Garden, a three-and-a-half acre haven dedicated to the study of medicinal plants. Five thousand different species in fact.

They’ve all been squeezed into this living museum and, when confronted by a couple of their Latin names, you’ve got to feel sorry for the apprentice apothecaries who came here to train in the 17th-century. Don’t worry, though, you won’t be tested on them.

Our favourite spot is the pond rock garden, built using stone taken from the Tower of London, no less. But it’s not just Londoners who come here to soak up the tranquillity; it’s also a refuge for wildlife as well, with cabbage white butterflies, grey herons and dragonflies among the creatures who call the place home.