Down House
Encyclopedia
Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin
and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution
by natural selection
which he had conceived in London before moving to Downe.
It stands next to Luxted Road 0.25 mile (0.402335 km) south of Downe
, a village
14.25 miles (22.9 km) south east of London's Charing Cross
. In Darwin's day Downe was a parish
in Kent
: it subsequently came under Bromley Rural District
, and since 1965 is part of the London Borough of Bromley
.
The house, garden and grounds are in the guardianship of English Heritage
, have been restored and are open to the public.
family, who are thought likely to have built a farmhouse there. Some flint
built walls may date from this period. The date for this is given as 1681, but a 1933 history of Downe parish states that in 1651 Thomas Manning sold an area of land including the property to John Know the elder for £345, a price which is unlikely to have included a house. John Know was a yeoman in good standing, and probably built a house on the property. In 1653 it was inherited by his son Roger, then in 1743 the marriage of Mary Know passed the property to the family of Bartholomew of West Peckham
in the Weald. In 1751 Leonard Bartholomew sold the uninhabited house on to Charles Hayes of Hatton Garden
.
The property was acquired by the businessman and landowner George Butler in 1778, and it is thought that he rebuilt and enlarged the house: in 1781 he paid the highest window tax
in Downe. Around this time it was apparently called the Great House. After Butler died in 1783 the property changed hands several times, then in 1819 it went to Lieut.-Col. John Johnson, C.B., colonel of engineers in the Hon. East India Company
, Bombay
establishment. In 1837 Johnson emigrated to "Lake Erie
near Dunville in Upper Canada
", and passed what was now called Down House on to the incumbent parson
of the parish, the Rev. James Drummond. The house was re-roofed and brought into good order under the supervision of Edward Cresy, an architect who lived nearby. Around 1840 Drummond left the property vacant and put it up for auction, but it was unsold and lay empty for two years.
preferred living in the countryside, and they had two children, William Erasmus
(b. 1839) and Anne
(b. 1841). Darwin approached his father for financing, and with the caution that he should try living in an area for some time before being committed to a move, was given approval to start house hunting. Charles and Emma sought somewhere about 20 miles (32.2 km) from London with railway access, such as Windsor, Berkshire
, and came close to buying one near Chobham, Surrey
.
On Friday 22 July 1842 Charles and Emma visited Down House. They slept at "a little pot-house" in the village, which was also "a grocers-shop & the land-lord is the carpenter", and returned to London on Saturday afternoon, then on the Sunday Darwin wrote to tell his sister of their first impressions. Though there were plenty of trains on the 10 miles (16.1 km) line from London to the nearest station, from there it was a long, slow and hilly 8.5 miles (13.7 km) drive to Downe. The small quiet village was away from main roads, and though local scenery was beautiful on a good day, the "house being situated on rather high table-land, has somewhat of desolate air ... The charm of the place to me is that almost every field is intersected (as alas is our's) by one or more foot-patths— I never saw so many walks in any other country".
The three storey house itself stood "very badly close to a tiny lane & near another man's field", and was "ugly, looks neither old nor new" but on the ground floor it had a "Capital study" and a dining room facing east, and a large drawing room
facing west, with plenty of bedrooms upstairs. Darwin believed that the price was about £2,200
and he could lease it for one year to try it out.
That Friday was cold and gloomy, and Emma was at first disappointed with the "desolate" scenery as well as being "dreadfully bad with toothache, headache", that evening, but liked the house and grounds better than Charles, finding it "not too near or too far from other houses". On the Saturday the weather improved, and "she was so delighted with the scenery for the first few miles from Down, that it has worked great change in her."
The house had obvious faults, but they were both weary of house-hunting, and it was cheap. Emma preferred a more expensive house in Surrey, and may have hoped that Darwin's father would increase the loan, but life in crowded dirty London was becoming more unpleasant and she was pregnant so unable to continue the search that year.
With advice from the architect and surveyor Edward Cresy, Darwin opened negotiations, but the Rev. James Drummond refused to lease the property and wanted £2,500
to pay off his mortgage on it. Cresy suggested a bid of £2,100, but Darwin remembered an unsuccessful earlier attempt at purchase, and made an offer of about £2,200 which was accepted. At the end of August they were almost ready to move, and Emma moved in on 14 September 1842, followed by Charles three days later. Emma gave birth to Mary Eleanor on 23 September, and they were all getting on well – even Darwin's brother Erasmus who had said the place should be called “Down-in-the-Mouth” had altered his opinion, but they were saddened when baby Mary died on 16 October.
Darwin made extensive alterations to the house and grounds. An angled bay forming a large bow front extending up through all three storeys at the west elevation of the house extended the drawing room and rooms over it, giving improved views and lighting: Darwin wrote telling his cousin that the first brick was laid on 27 March 1843. By 27 April work was in hand to lower the lane by as much as 2 foot (0.6096 m) and build new flint boundary walls, which together with earth mounds and shrubbery made the east garden more private. A strip of the field was made into a kitchen garden including the experimental plot of ground, and later the greenhouses.
In September 1843 the Darwin family increased with the birth of "Etty"
in the house, where all their remaining children were born: George
in 1845, "Bessy" in 1847, Francis
in 1848, Leonard
in 1850, Horace
in 1851, and their 10th child Charles Waring Darwin
who was born in 1856, but died in 1858.
Between 1845 and 1846 Darwin altered the service wing to the south of the main block, getting the kitchen area rebuilt with the addition of a butler's pantry, and a schoolroom and two small bedrooms on upper floors. The outhouses were rebuilt, and a mound to the west side was removed with a new mound being added to the east to give protection from the wind.
On their first visit Darwin had noted that "The great Astronomer Sir J. Lubbock is owner of" 3000 acres (12.1 km²) "here, & is building a grand house a mile off", but thought that he would be too reserved or proud to visit them. In fact, Sir John William Lubbock
had brought home a "great piece of news", and while his son was initially disappointed that the news was just that Darwin was coming to Down House and not a new pony, young John Lubbock
soon became close friends with Darwin and a frequent visitor to Down House.
In 1846 Darwin rented from Sir John William Lubbock a narrow strip of land of 1.5 acre (0.607029 ha) adjoining the Down House grounds to the southwest, and had it planted. He named it the Sandwalk Wood. One side was shaded by an old shaw
with oak
trees, and the other looked over a hedge to a charming valley. Darwin had a variety of trees planted, and ordered a gravel path known as the "sandwalk" to be created around the perimeter. Darwin's daily walk of several circuits of this path served both for exercise and for uninterrupted thinking. He set up a number of small stones at one point on the walk so that he could kick a stone to the side each time he passed, so that he did not have to interrupt his thoughts by consciously counting the number of circuits he had made that day. The sandwalk also served as a playground for his children. A wooden summerhouse was built at the lower end of the sandwalk. In 1874, Darwin gave a piece of pasture land to Sir John Lubbock (the son) in exchange for ownership of the Sandwalk Wood. From 1849 Darwin used it to continue his walking exercise on return from Dr. Gully's
hydrotherapy
treatment.
A new extension at the north end of the house was added in 1858, providing a large new drawing room facing west which became a comfortable family room, and two bedrooms over. The former drawing room was converted into a new dining room
, and the old dining room next to the kitchen became a billiard
room.
Darwin's interest in the Fertilisation of Orchids
led him to get a new heated greenhouse
constructed under the supervision of John Horwood, the gardener of Mr Turnbull at The Rookery: this was completed in February 1863. In 1872 a verandah
was added to the west side of the new drawing room, and in 1877 a new billiard room was added to the east of this block, with the hallway being extended to form a new entrance hall and Georgian-style porch facing east. The new billiard room was converted to a new study in 1881, and the old study where Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species was converted into a smoking room
. In the same year Darwin bought a strip of land to the north of the property, beyond his orchard, and had a hard tennis court and a new wall built.
Charles Darwin died at the house in 19 April 1882, aged 73. Emma
also died there in 1896.
In February 1897 the house was advertised to be let, furnished, at a rent of "12 guineas per week, including gardeners." From 1900 to 1906 George Darwin
rented the house out to a Mr Whitehead, who was the first owner of a motor car in Downe.
was established at the house in February 1907, co-founded by the headmistress Miss Olive Margaret Willis (1877–1964) with her friend Alice Carver. The school began with five mistresses and one girl, but was soon successful. It occupied the house until 1 April 1922, when it moved to larger premises at Hermitage Rd, Cold Ash, Newbury
. One of the school's houses is named Darwin.
by its president Sir Arthur Keith
, the surgeon Sir George Buckston Browne
(1850–1945) bought Down from the Darwin heirs for £4,250 in 1927. He spent about £10,000 on repairs and on 7 January 1929 presented it to the British Association together with an endowment of £20,000 to ensure its preservation in perpetuity as a memorial to Darwin, to be used for the benefit of science and open to visitors free of charge. Down House was formally opened to the public as a museum at a tea on 7 June 1929. In 1931 Buxton Browne gave the Royal College of Surgeons
an endowment fund and land adjacent to the Down House property to establish the Buckston Browne Research Farm, a surgical research station.
Buckston Browne's endowment for the house proved insufficient and the expense of maintenance led to the British Association in turn donating the house to the Royal College of Surgeons, which administered the adjacent Surgical Research Station, in October 1953. In 1962 Sir Hedley Atkins
(1905–1983), later President of the Royal College of Surgeons, moved into the house together with his wife and assumed the role of honorary curator.
In May 1954 Down House itself was designated as a Grade I Listed Building and in September 1988 the garden and Sandwalk was added to the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England
at Grade II.
, with a grant from the Wellcome Trust
. It was restored with funds raised by the Natural History Museum
from many trusts, and from a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
, and reopened to the public in April 1998.
Down House and the surrounding area has been nominated by the UK government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS) to become a World Heritage Site
. It originally went through public consultation in 2006 and a decision had been expected in the last three days of June 2007. However, ICOMOS warned the DCMS that the House might not meet the criteria for scientific sites on the register, and so in May 2007 the DCMS announced that it was withdrawing the bid with the intention of resubmitting it later. The bid was resubmitted in January 2009, with a decision expected in the summer of 2010.
The house can be reached by public transport from central London, as it is located within Transport for London
travel Zone 6. The 146 bus service from Bromley South railway station
(daily) terminates nearby at Downe Village, and the R8 bus from Orpington railway station
(excluding Sundays) stops on request outside Down House.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
by natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
which he had conceived in London before moving to Downe.
It stands next to Luxted Road 0.25 mile (0.402335 km) south of Downe
Downe
Downe is a village in the London Borough of Bromley in London, UK.Downe is south west of Orpington and south east of Charing Cross. Downe lies in a wooded valley, and much of the centre of the village is unchanged; the former village school now acts as the village hall.-Darwin:Charles Darwin...
, a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
14.25 miles (22.9 km) south east of London's Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
. In Darwin's day Downe was a parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
: it subsequently came under Bromley Rural District
Bromley Rural District
Bromley was a rural district in north-west Kent, England from 1894 to 1934. Its area now forms part of the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London. It did not include the main settlement of Bromley; which constituted the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
, and since 1965 is part of the London Borough of Bromley
London Borough of Bromley
The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...
.
The house, garden and grounds are in the guardianship of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, have been restored and are open to the public.
The history of Down House
In the 17th century, a parcel of land including most of the current property was acquired by a Kentish yeomanYeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
family, who are thought likely to have built a farmhouse there. Some flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
built walls may date from this period. The date for this is given as 1681, but a 1933 history of Downe parish states that in 1651 Thomas Manning sold an area of land including the property to John Know the elder for £345, a price which is unlikely to have included a house. John Know was a yeoman in good standing, and probably built a house on the property. In 1653 it was inherited by his son Roger, then in 1743 the marriage of Mary Know passed the property to the family of Bartholomew of West Peckham
West Peckham
West Peckham is a village in the local government district of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The River Bourne flows through the extreme west of the parish, and formerly powered a paper mill and corn mill . The Wateringbury Stream rises in the parish...
in the Weald. In 1751 Leonard Bartholomew sold the uninhabited house on to Charles Hayes of Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is a street and area near Holborn in London, England. It is most famous for being London’s jewellery quarter and centre of the UK diamond trade, but the area is also now home to a diverse range of media and creative businesses....
.
The property was acquired by the businessman and landowner George Butler in 1778, and it is thought that he rebuilt and enlarged the house: in 1781 he paid the highest window tax
Window tax
The window tax was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces , as a result of the tax.-Details:The tax was introduced in England and Wales under...
in Downe. Around this time it was apparently called the Great House. After Butler died in 1783 the property changed hands several times, then in 1819 it went to Lieut.-Col. John Johnson, C.B., colonel of engineers in the Hon. East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, Bombay
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
establishment. In 1837 Johnson emigrated to "Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
near Dunville in Upper Canada
Dunnville, Ontario
Dunnville is an unincorporated community of 6,000 people located near the mouth of the Grand River in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada, near the historic Talbot Trail...
", and passed what was now called Down House on to the incumbent parson
Parson
In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization...
of the parish, the Rev. James Drummond. The house was re-roofed and brought into good order under the supervision of Edward Cresy, an architect who lived nearby. Around 1840 Drummond left the property vacant and put it up for auction, but it was unsold and lay empty for two years.
1842-1906: Darwins at Down
The Darwin family in 1841 was finding their London house increasingly cramped: both Charles and his wife EmmaEmma Darwin
Emma Darwin was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, scientist and author of On the Origin of Species...
preferred living in the countryside, and they had two children, William Erasmus
Darwin — Wedgwood family
The Darwin–Wedgwood family is actually two interrelated English families, descended from the prominent 18th century doctor, Erasmus Darwin, and Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the pottery firm, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, the most notable member of which was Charles Darwin...
(b. 1839) and Anne
Anne Darwin
Anne Elizabeth "Annie" Darwin was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles and Emma Darwin. According to biographers, she was a delightful child who brought much happiness to her parents. Eminent Darwin scholar E...
(b. 1841). Darwin approached his father for financing, and with the caution that he should try living in an area for some time before being committed to a move, was given approval to start house hunting. Charles and Emma sought somewhere about 20 miles (32.2 km) from London with railway access, such as Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
, and came close to buying one near Chobham, Surrey
Chobham, Surrey
Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, about 15 minutes drive from the London railway line stations at Woking to the south and Sunningdale to the north...
.
On Friday 22 July 1842 Charles and Emma visited Down House. They slept at "a little pot-house" in the village, which was also "a grocers-shop & the land-lord is the carpenter", and returned to London on Saturday afternoon, then on the Sunday Darwin wrote to tell his sister of their first impressions. Though there were plenty of trains on the 10 miles (16.1 km) line from London to the nearest station, from there it was a long, slow and hilly 8.5 miles (13.7 km) drive to Downe. The small quiet village was away from main roads, and though local scenery was beautiful on a good day, the "house being situated on rather high table-land, has somewhat of desolate air ... The charm of the place to me is that almost every field is intersected (as alas is our's) by one or more foot-patths— I never saw so many walks in any other country".
The three storey house itself stood "very badly close to a tiny lane & near another man's field", and was "ugly, looks neither old nor new" but on the ground floor it had a "Capital study" and a dining room facing east, and a large drawing room
Drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber", which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642...
facing west, with plenty of bedrooms upstairs. Darwin believed that the price was about £2,200
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
and he could lease it for one year to try it out.
That Friday was cold and gloomy, and Emma was at first disappointed with the "desolate" scenery as well as being "dreadfully bad with toothache, headache", that evening, but liked the house and grounds better than Charles, finding it "not too near or too far from other houses". On the Saturday the weather improved, and "she was so delighted with the scenery for the first few miles from Down, that it has worked great change in her."
With advice from the architect and surveyor Edward Cresy, Darwin opened negotiations, but the Rev. James Drummond refused to lease the property and wanted £2,500
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
to pay off his mortgage on it. Cresy suggested a bid of £2,100, but Darwin remembered an unsuccessful earlier attempt at purchase, and made an offer of about £2,200 which was accepted. At the end of August they were almost ready to move, and Emma moved in on 14 September 1842, followed by Charles three days later. Emma gave birth to Mary Eleanor on 23 September, and they were all getting on well – even Darwin's brother Erasmus who had said the place should be called “Down-in-the-Mouth” had altered his opinion, but they were saddened when baby Mary died on 16 October.
In September 1843 the Darwin family increased with the birth of "Etty"
Etty Darwin
Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin, was a daughter of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood.Etty was born in Down House, Downe in 1843. She was Darwin's third daughter and the eldest daughter to reach adulthood after the eldest Annie died aged 10, and second daughter Mary died before becoming a...
in the house, where all their remaining children were born: George
George Darwin
Sir George Howard Darwin, FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician.-Biography:Darwin was born at Down House, Kent, the second son and fifth child of Charles and Emma Darwin...
in 1845, "Bessy" in 1847, Francis
Francis Darwin
Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin, FRS , a son of the British naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin, followed his father into botany.-Biography:Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848...
in 1848, Leonard
Leonard Darwin
Major Leonard Darwin , a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, was variously a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher.- Biography :...
in 1850, Horace
Horace Darwin
Sir Horace Darwin, KBE, FRS , a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, was a civil engineer.Darwin was born in Down House in 1851, the fifth son and ninth child of the British naturalist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma, the youngest of their seven children that survived to adulthood.He was...
in 1851, and their 10th child Charles Waring Darwin
Charles Waring Darwin
Charles Waring Darwin, who died when he was 18 months old , was the last of the children of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin, their tenth child and sixth son. He was born and died at the family home of Down House in Kent....
who was born in 1856, but died in 1858.
Between 1845 and 1846 Darwin altered the service wing to the south of the main block, getting the kitchen area rebuilt with the addition of a butler's pantry, and a schoolroom and two small bedrooms on upper floors. The outhouses were rebuilt, and a mound to the west side was removed with a new mound being added to the east to give protection from the wind.
On their first visit Darwin had noted that "The great Astronomer Sir J. Lubbock is owner of" 3000 acres (12.1 km²) "here, & is building a grand house a mile off", but thought that he would be too reserved or proud to visit them. In fact, Sir John William Lubbock
Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet
Sir John William Lubbock, 3rd Baronet was an English banker, barrister, mathematician and astronomer.He was born in Westminster, the son of Sir John William Lubbock, of the Lubbock & Co bank. He was educated at Eton and then Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1825...
had brought home a "great piece of news", and while his son was initially disappointed that the news was just that Darwin was coming to Down House and not a new pony, young John Lubbock
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....
soon became close friends with Darwin and a frequent visitor to Down House.
Shaw (woodland)
A shaw is a strip of woodland usually between 5 and 15 metres wide.Shaws commonly form boundaries between fields or line a road. They are usually composed of natural woodland and often have diverse woodland ground vegetation similar to other natural woodlands in the area...
with oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
trees, and the other looked over a hedge to a charming valley. Darwin had a variety of trees planted, and ordered a gravel path known as the "sandwalk" to be created around the perimeter. Darwin's daily walk of several circuits of this path served both for exercise and for uninterrupted thinking. He set up a number of small stones at one point on the walk so that he could kick a stone to the side each time he passed, so that he did not have to interrupt his thoughts by consciously counting the number of circuits he had made that day. The sandwalk also served as a playground for his children. A wooden summerhouse was built at the lower end of the sandwalk. In 1874, Darwin gave a piece of pasture land to Sir John Lubbock (the son) in exchange for ownership of the Sandwalk Wood. From 1849 Darwin used it to continue his walking exercise on return from Dr. Gully's
James Manby Gully
Dr James Manby Gully , was a Victorian medical doctor, well known for practising hydrotherapy, or the "water cure". Along with his partner James Wilson, he founded a very successful "hydropathy" clinic in Malvern, Worcestershire, which had many notable Victorians, including such figures as Charles...
hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy, involves the use of water for pain-relief and treating illness. The term hydrotherapy itself is synonymous with the term water cure as it was originally marketed by practitioners and promoters in the 19th century...
treatment.
A new extension at the north end of the house was added in 1858, providing a large new drawing room facing west which became a comfortable family room, and two bedrooms over. The former drawing room was converted into a new dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
, and the old dining room next to the kitchen became a billiard
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
room.
Fertilisation of Orchids
Fertilisation of Orchids is a book by Charles Darwin published on 15 May 1862 under the full explanatory title On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing...
led him to get a new heated greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
constructed under the supervision of John Horwood, the gardener of Mr Turnbull at The Rookery: this was completed in February 1863. In 1872 a verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
was added to the west side of the new drawing room, and in 1877 a new billiard room was added to the east of this block, with the hallway being extended to form a new entrance hall and Georgian-style porch facing east. The new billiard room was converted to a new study in 1881, and the old study where Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species was converted into a smoking room
Smoking room
A Smoking room is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited....
. In the same year Darwin bought a strip of land to the north of the property, beyond his orchard, and had a hard tennis court and a new wall built.
Charles Darwin died at the house in 19 April 1882, aged 73. Emma
Emma Darwin
Emma Darwin was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, scientist and author of On the Origin of Species...
also died there in 1896.
In February 1897 the house was advertised to be let, furnished, at a rent of "12 guineas per week, including gardeners." From 1900 to 1906 George Darwin
George Darwin
Sir George Howard Darwin, FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician.-Biography:Darwin was born at Down House, Kent, the second son and fifth child of Charles and Emma Darwin...
rented the house out to a Mr Whitehead, who was the first owner of a motor car in Downe.
1907-1922: Downe School for Girls
A girls' boarding schoolBoarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
was established at the house in February 1907, co-founded by the headmistress Miss Olive Margaret Willis (1877–1964) with her friend Alice Carver. The school began with five mistresses and one girl, but was soon successful. It occupied the house until 1 April 1922, when it moved to larger premises at Hermitage Rd, Cold Ash, Newbury
Cold Ash, Berkshire
Cold Ash is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire about north of Thatcham and north east of Newbury.In the 2001 Census, Cold Ash had the highest proportion of women to men for any urban area in the United Kingdom.-History:...
. One of the school's houses is named Darwin.
1927-1996: Darwin Museum
From 1924 another girls' school was run in the house by a Miss Rain, but this was unsuccessful and closed in 1927. Following an appeal at that year's Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of ScienceBritish Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
by its president Sir Arthur Keith
Arthur Keith
Sir Arthur Keith was a Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, who became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Hunterian Professor and conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London...
, the surgeon Sir George Buckston Browne
George Buckston Browne
Sir George Buckston Browne FRCS was a British medical doctor and pioneer urologist.In 1927 he bought Charles Darwin's former home Down House and founded the Buckston Brown Research Farm in Downe in 1931. The Buckston Browne Prize is named for him....
(1850–1945) bought Down from the Darwin heirs for £4,250 in 1927. He spent about £10,000 on repairs and on 7 January 1929 presented it to the British Association together with an endowment of £20,000 to ensure its preservation in perpetuity as a memorial to Darwin, to be used for the benefit of science and open to visitors free of charge. Down House was formally opened to the public as a museum at a tea on 7 June 1929. In 1931 Buxton Browne gave the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
an endowment fund and land adjacent to the Down House property to establish the Buckston Browne Research Farm, a surgical research station.
Buckston Browne's endowment for the house proved insufficient and the expense of maintenance led to the British Association in turn donating the house to the Royal College of Surgeons, which administered the adjacent Surgical Research Station, in October 1953. In 1962 Sir Hedley Atkins
Hedley Atkins
Sir Hedley John Barnard Atkins KBE was the first professor of surgery at Guy's Hospital and President of the Royal College of Surgeons.He was the son of Guy's Hospital physician Sir John Atkins and Elizabeth May Hedley...
(1905–1983), later President of the Royal College of Surgeons, moved into the house together with his wife and assumed the role of honorary curator.
In May 1954 Down House itself was designated as a Grade I Listed Building and in September 1988 the garden and Sandwalk was added to the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
In England, the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by English Heritage under the provisions of the National...
at Grade II.
1996 to present: Restored house and garden
Down House was acquired in 1996 by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, with a grant from the Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...
. It was restored with funds raised by the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
from many trusts, and from a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
, and reopened to the public in April 1998.
Down House and the surrounding area has been nominated by the UK government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
(DCMS) to become a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. It originally went through public consultation in 2006 and a decision had been expected in the last three days of June 2007. However, ICOMOS warned the DCMS that the House might not meet the criteria for scientific sites on the register, and so in May 2007 the DCMS announced that it was withdrawing the bid with the intention of resubmitting it later. The bid was resubmitted in January 2009, with a decision expected in the summer of 2010.
Visiting Down House
Down House, its garden and grounds are open to the public and English Heritage members. It is open Wednesday to Sunday from April to the end of October, with daily opening during the months of July and August. The site is closed on weekdays from November until the end of March, with weekend opening only. The house and garden undergoes routine conservation work during its closed periods.The house can be reached by public transport from central London, as it is located within Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
travel Zone 6. The 146 bus service from Bromley South railway station
Bromley South railway station
Bromley South railway station is a major interchange and station in Bromley town centre within the London Borough of Bromley in southeast London. It is in Travelcard Zone 5, and the station and all trains are operated by Southeastern...
(daily) terminates nearby at Downe Village, and the R8 bus from Orpington railway station
Orpington railway station
Orpington railway station serves the town of Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley, and is in Travelcard Zone 6. Located in Crofton Road, the station is a 500m west of the southern end of Orpington High Street....
(excluding Sundays) stops on request outside Down House.
See also
- The Mount, ShrewsburyThe Mount, ShrewsburyThe Mount, is the site of a house in Shrewsbury, officially known as Mount House that belonged to Robert Darwin and was the birthplace of his son Charles Darwin.- Overview :...
- Historic houses in England
- List of English Heritage properties
- Museums in England