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The Great Britain Guide

Gardens · South West England

The Eden Project

Also known as: Prosiect Eden, Tionscadal Éidin, Edenva

Cornish biomes housing the world's largest covered rainforest.

The North Bio-dome at the Eden Project, Cornwall - geograph.org.uk - 5726310

Andrew Tryon — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
1 h–2.5 h
Best time of year
Spring & summer (Apr–Sep)

About

The Eden Project is the visitor attraction in a former china clay pit near St Austell, Cornwall, opened in 2001. Its two giant geodesic biomes house the world's largest covered rainforest and a Mediterranean climate house, with a third outdoor garden of UK temperate planting. The structure — a sequence of bubble-shaped ETFE-cushion domes — has become a landmark of regenerative architecture.

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From the Wikipedia article

The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit. The complex is dominated by two huge enclosures consisting of adjoining domes that house thousands of plant species, and each enclosure emulates a natural biome. The biomes consist of hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) inflated cells supported by geodesic tubular steel domes. The larger of the two biomes simulates a rainforest environment (and is one of the largest indoor rainforests in the world) and the second, a Mediterranean environment. The attraction also has an outside botanical garden which is home to many plants and wildlife native to Cornwall and the UK in general; it also has many plants that provide an important and interesting backstory, for example, those with a prehistoric heritage. There are plans to build an Eden Project in the seaside town of Morecambe, Lancashire, with a focus on the marine environment.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

, from the main entrance]] The clay pit in which the project is sited was in use for over 160 years. In 1981, the pit was used by the BBC as the planet surface of Magrathea in the TV series the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. By the mid-1990s the pit was all but exhausted. The initial idea for the project dates back to 1996, with construction beginning in 1998. The work was hampered by torrential rain in the first few months of the project, and parts of the pit flooded as it sits 15 m below the water table. The rail link was never built, and car parking on the site is still funded from revenue generated from general admission ticket sales. A bus service links the site to St Austell…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
50.3619, -4.7450
Address
Cornwall, England
Established
2001

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is The Eden Project?
The Eden Project is in South West England, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 50.3619°, -4.7450°.
When was The Eden Project built?
The Eden Project dates to 2001. It was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw.
Who designed The Eden Project?
The Eden Project was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw.