The old botanical garden or herb garden was implemented on a broadband of 6 hectares located between the gate of Schaerbeek and Rogierplein, instead of a pest garden and a swampy area where the Rahlenbeek flowed. It was covered with ponds, small woods, fields and gardens. The first plans of the garden were designed by architect CH Petersen (1792-1859) and then edited by Meeus JB, one of the founders of the Royal Horticulture Society.
The current botanical garden was opened at the beginning of September 1829. The Belgian State decided in 1870 to purchase the garden in order to protect the panorama and to safeguard both the scientific objective of the Botanical Garden and its status as a public pedestrian park. The park was also decorated with 52 statues between 1894 and 1898, supervised and partly executed by Charles Van der Stappen and Constantin Meunier. In 1939, due to lack of space, the botanical garden moved to the domain of Bouchout (93 ha) in girl. And in 1958, the famous landscape gardener Rene Pechère redeveloped the existing garden for the World Exhibition. In order to accommodate the different levels of the garden, the garden was divided into three parts: an upper part in a French style, the intermediate level in an Italian style and a third part, up to the pond, in an English style. His intention was to preserve the broad outlines of the former structure and the remarkable trees and to blend them harmoniously with the new architecture of the buildings in the area. René Pechère laid the foundation for the new function as a public city garden.