So that everyone can relax and enjoy their visit, things look a bit different.

Our priority is the health and safety of our visitors and staff, so we have put social distancing and hygiene measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Please note that visitors are required to wear a face covering in the Glasshouse Range, toilets and Shop.

Pre-booked tickets
Entry to the Garden is by pre-booked tickets only so that we can control visitor numbers on site. Tickets are available online from our website.

Only visitors with pre-booked tickets will be given admission to the Garden. This also applies to our Friends, who can still enter for free, but must do so with a pre-booked ticket. And if you are bringing children aged 0-16 with you, please ensure that they have (free) pre-booked tickets too.

There are a limited number of tickets available each day to prevent overcrowding. These are released at 10am each Thursday for the following week. There is a high demand for these tickets and you may be disappointed if tickets are unavailable for your preferred day – we apologise in advance, but we hope you will understand that these measures are necessary.

For further information, please visit our Reopening FAQs.

Making the site as safe as possible
We have thought hard about the best, most safe ways for you to enter and move around the Garden. In addition to limiting the number of people on site with pre-booked ticketing, we have put many other measures in place to make visiting as safe as possible:

There are different entrances and exits during busy times to prevent overcrowding at the gates:

• From Hills Road/Station Road, entrance is via the usual gate. At busy times, exit is via the Hills Road service gate (further down Hills Road set into the new fence).
• From Trumpington Road/Brookside, entrance is via the usual gate. At  busy times, exit is via the Brookside Bike Park.

A queuing system is in place at the gates to minimise the need for person-to-person interaction and to maintain a safe flow of people coming into the Garden.

Tickets and Friends membership cards are checked through the (closed) ticket office window.

In the rest of the Garden there is clear signage and queueing systems where necessary to help you get around easily and safely.

We have installed hand sanitiser stations around the Garden and you will also notice additional cleaning at the ticket offices and the toilets.

Areas where it is difficult to maintain social distancing, such as the Winter Garden and Rising Path have limited entry or one way systems and clear signage to ensure social distancing.

The Glasshouse Range is closed from 3 November 2020 until further notice.

Toilets
The toilets in the School’s Garden are open every day and the toilets by the Glasshouse Range are open at the weekends. A queuing system is in place, as well as hand sanitiser for use prior to entering, which is one person or household group at a time. There is also a disabled toilet beside the Brookside Gate.

Surfaces are cleaned regularly by our staff and visitors are required to wear a face covering in the toilets.

Shop, Café and Picnics
The Café is open for you to sit in or takeaway and the Shop at Brookside Gate is open. Both are accepting card payments only.

You are welcome to bring picnics, although we would encourage you to take your rubbish home with you please. The Garden’s picnic benches have been rearranged to allow for social distancing.

 Please do not visit the Botanic Garden if:

• You are currently suffering from a respiratory illness
• You have had recent contact with COVID-19 cases or suspected cases

When you are in the Garden, please respect the social distancing rules and keep a 2m distance from those not part of your household at all times.

The safety of our visitors and staff is our absolute priority and we hope that these actions will enable you to enjoy your visit to the Garden – relaxing, walking and appreciating the beauty of plants.

Your continued support of the Garden at this challenging time is incredibly important to us.

The Garden was closed to the public for 12 weeks and even though we have reopened, it is with limited visitor numbers. A large proportion of our income comes from admissions, our Shop, Café and courses programme, and so without this, but having had the constant costs of maintaining our Collection, estate and staff, we need your support more than ever.

If you would like to make a donation towards maintaining the Garden now and into the future, please click here.