The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along with the Yorkshire Museum which they contain. The gardens are held in trust by the City of York Council and are managed by the York Museums Trust. They were designed in a gardenesque style by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith, and contain a variety of species of plants, trees and birds. Admission is free. A variety of events take place in the gardens, such as open-air theatre performances and festival activities. There are several historic buildings in the gardens. They contain the remains of the west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum, including the Multangular Tower and parts of the Roman walls. In the same area there is also the Anglian Tower, which was probably built into the remains of a late Roman period fortress. During the Middle Ages, the tower was expanded and the Roman walls were incorporated into York's city walls. Most of the other buildings dating from the Middle Ages are associated with St Mary's Abbey, including the ruins of the abbey church, the Hospitium, the lodge and part of the surviving precinct wall. The remains of St. Leonard's Hospital chapel and undercroft are on the east side of the gardens. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society constructed several buildings in the gardens during the 19th and early 20th century, including the Yorkshire Museum and its octagonal observatory. The museum houses four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy. History The gardens, which were given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by the British Royal Family in 1828, occupy part of the former grounds of St. Mary's Abbey. The society acquired the land to build a museum to house its collections; the Yorkshire Museum was completed in 1830. The land was granted to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society under the condition that botanical gardens would be established on the site. These were created during the 1830s in a gardenesque style design by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith. They originally contained a conservatory, a pond and a menagerie, which was destroyed when a bear escaped from it and had brief control of the area. The then Princess Victoria visited the gardens in 1835, the year that