Editing Greenhouse (section)

===19th-century England===
[[Image:Laeken Greenhouses.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Greenhouses of Laeken]], [[Brussels]], Belgium, an example of 19th-century greenhouse architecture]]
The largest glasshouses yet conceived were constructed in England during the Victorian era. As a direct result of colonial expansion, the purpose of glasshouses changed from agriculture to horticulture.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Edwin |date=April 27, 2021 |title=The Great Palm House At Kew Gardens London, England 1848-An Encyclopedia Of Architecture and Colonialism |url=https://blogs.ubc.ca/buildingempire/2021/04/27/the-great-palm-house-at-kew-gardens-london-england-1848/ |access-date=April 4, 2023 |website=University of British Columbia}}</ref> The accelerated transfer of plants and horticultural knowledge between colonies contributed to the Victorian fascination with 'exotic' plants and environments.<ref name=":4">Evans, Evie. "Cultivating Colonialism: The Musealisation Of Natural Object In the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, And The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew." (Master's thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2021). FramerFramed. [https://framerframed.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Thesis-Evie-Evans-Cultivating-Colonialism-2021-LR.pdf]</ref> Glasshouses became spectacles to entertain the general public. The curated environments in glasshouses aimed to capture "the Western imagination of an idealised landscape" and support the fantasy of the cultural 'other'.<ref name=":4" /> As a consequence, the collection of plants are believed to be true reflections of the world, yet are actually stereotypical arrangements of 'exotic' plants to symbolize exactly where British colonies are and how far their authority reaches.<ref name=":3" /> To uphold British hegemony, glasshouses became arguments of colonial power which flaunt the "absolute control of colonized environments and flora...[using plants] as a symbol of British Imperial power.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lynden |date=April 26, 2021 |title=The Palm House At Kew Gardens: Iron, Climate Control And Commercialism-An Encyclopedia of Architecture And Colonialism |url=https://blogs.ubc.ca/buildingempire/2021/04/26/the-palm-house-at-kew-gardens-iron-climate-control-and-commercialism/ |access-date=April 4, 2023 |website=University of British Columbia}}</ref>

A prominent design from the 19th century were glasshouses with sufficient height for sizeable trees, called [[palm house]]s. These were normally in public gardens or parks and exemplified the 19th-century development of glass and iron architecture. This technology was widely used in railway stations, markets, exhibition halls, and other large buildings that needed large, open internal area. One of the earliest examples of a palm house is in the [[Belfast Botanic Gardens]]. Designed by [[Charles Lanyon]], the building was completed in 1840. It was constructed by iron-maker [[Richard Turner (iron-founder)|Richard Turner]], who would later build the [[Palm House, Kew Gardens]] at the [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]], London, in 1848. This came shortly after the [[Chatsworth House|Chatsworth Great Conservatory]] (1837–40) and shortly before [[The Crystal Palace]] (1851), both designed by [[Joseph Paxton]], and both now lost.<ref>Pevsner, 235, 238–241</ref>

Other large greenhouses built in the 19th century included the [[New York Crystal Palace]], [[Munich]]'s [[Glaspalast (Munich)|Glaspalast]] and the [[Royal Greenhouses of Laeken]] (1874–1895) for [[King Leopold II of Belgium]]. In Japan, the first greenhouse was built in 1880 by [[Samuel Cocking]], a British merchant who exported [[herb]]s.