Science staff at Kew Herbarium are campaigning against trustees' plans to relocate the Herbarium to a site near Reading.

The cost of this move is estimated at between £50-100 million, according to campaigners.

Kew Herbarium hosts one of the world's largest herbarium collections, with about 7 million specimens collected over centuries of exploration, which are studied by staff and students, as well as by hundreds of visiting national and international researchers each year. 

Kew Gardens propose the move to the Thames Valley Science Park, firstly due to increasing risks of fire, flood and pests and secondly because they are running out of space. The historic buildings mean that mitigations to guarantee that the specimens are protected if these events happen cannot be imposed.

Over the past year, they have evaluated a number of possible sites for the new herbarium and confirmed their intention to relocate the herbarium collections to Thames Valley Science Park (TVSP) in Reading.

A new extension to the Kew Herbarium was opened in 2010, with room to accommodate a further one million specimens and according to staff scienctists, the current accession rates mean this should be enough to see the Kew Herbarium into the 22nd century.

However, staff scientists are opposing the move and have launched a petition, which has gained support from big names, including Alan Titchmarsh.

A plant specimen collected by Charles Darwin in the Kew Herbarium (Photo Credit: Save Kew Herbarium)

Science staff at Kew say the move risks serious damage to Kew's whole purpose, by isolating crucial definitive plant identification from the living collections in the gardens, from the laboratories, the library and the urgent work to improve plant conservation outcomes and research new uses. 

A campaigner from 'Save Kew Herbarium', who wishes to stay anonymous, said that the proposed move would be hugely problamatic for their research.

He said: "A big part of our work is identifying species from around the world and this is really important now because once they have a scientific name resources can be allocated for some form of conservation and this is more and more important as more species are becoming extinct before they are discovered"

"Whilst the move is underway we are not going to be able to do our work identifying the unknown plant species before they become extinct.

"The existing buildings are listed buildings and are really well designed for research and we aren't sure if we'll get that in the new herbariums'

He added: "Staff are really concerned and worried and anxious, when staff respond to senior management they are just fobbed off with excuses or respondes that don't make sense.

"170 staff put their names on a letter to trustees going against this so that shows there's a huge amount of concern amongst the scientists at kew and that's why there is a group of us trying to get attention on this, hoping that the decision will be reversed or suspended."

He added that the move would also make it harder for visiting scientists from other countries to access the site, as well as for scientists who live in London.

He said: "'The Thames Valley Science Park is not really well connected, there's only one bus there an hour and we're told you'd have to walk 20 minutes from there to get to the site. By public transport it will be two hours and 45 minutes from Kew, by car its only about an hour but if you don't drive that's a problem and anyway, we shouldn't be increasing carbon emissions. We have plenty of space at the current site."

A Royal Botanical Garden Kew spokesperson said: "'Kew's herbarium collection is one of the largest of its kind in the world and one of our most valuable resources at the heart of Kew's conservation mission.

'As custodians of this public asset, we have a duty of care which has prompted extensive research over 5 years to establish the best way to protect the collection long-term and address other needs for science facilities and space. The findings were that the status quo was not an option and there was no viable, long-term solution for keeping our herbarium specimens at the current historic site at Kew, as it no longer provides a safe home for this irreplaceable collection."

The Spokesperson added: "In 2021, the RBG Kew Board of Trustees agreed to move the herbarium off-site and to create a new state-of-the-art facility. Thames Valley Science Park (TVSP) in Reading is being considered as a possible new home for this collection.

"The Board will make a final decision once funding is secured, and in the light of further feasibility and due diligence studies that are now being carried out. Staff who work on these collections have been consulted and their views have been taken into account alongside other considerations and constraints throughout the process.

"They will continue to be part of the discussions about any future facility, and we are confident that this is in the best interests of the collection, the institution, and British science at a key moment when we need this kind of national resource to be used to help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change."

Peter Jones, who signed the petition, commented: "Despite 10 years in the job the Director seems not to have understood the importance of Kew's different functions remaining integrated and accessible on the Kew site. RBG Kew has suffered funding crises in the past; if £50-100m is available for this ill-thought scheme it would be better spent seamlessly supporting Kew's ongoing work onsite where it is most effective."

Drew Larson, who also signed the petition said: During my PhD, I traveled from the US to work at the Kew herbarium. Moving the Kew herbarium offsite would greatly undermine the global scientific reputation of Kew Gardens, as well as make conducting biodiversity research in the UK more difficult. This move could dramatically weaken one of the single greatest botanical institutions in the world, and seems to have very little upside."

Find out more about why Kew is considering the relocation here.

View the petition here.