Down House - Downe

Description:

Down House, located in the quiet village of Downe, was the house of Charles Darwin, and where he wrote his most famous work' On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection', the piece of work which revolutionised thinking at the time by introducing the idea of evolution by natural selection, but was also extremely scandalous in a more religious time.

Down House was acquired by English Heritage in 1996 who have transformed the attraction.  The ground floor of the house shows the domestic life that Charles Darwin lived at the time, including the Old Study where Darwin worked, the Drawing Room, Billiard Room and Dining Room. The upper floor provides an interactive area which teaches about his research that led him to write his famous book.  Attractions here include his original manuscript for his most famous work, microscope and his notebooks.  There is also a description of his five year voyage on the Beagle which lead to his studies.  One of the biggest accomplishments of English Heritage is restoring the gardens to their former glory, as they would have been in Darwin's time and include Darwin's outside laboratory, a working beehive and the ‘hothouse', featuring some of Darwin's experiments.