With its unique place in the history of science and evolution, Down House, the family home of world-renowned scientist Charles Darwin, is a must-see. Stand in the study where Darwin wrote ‘On the Origin of Species’, stroll through the gardens that inspired him, and peek into his private life. Let Sir David Attenborough take you on an interactive multimedia tour around the house, and discover how the great man developed his ground-breaking theories.
Down House was the home of the great scientist Charles Darwin, who lived here for 40 years until his death in 1882. Soon after he moved to the house with his young family in 1842, he and his wife, Emma, began to extend and improve it to create the house they wanted. The extensive gardens were remodelled to create a sheltered garden, and Darwin used them as his open-air laboratory. It was here, in the peace and privacy of the Kent countryside, that Darwin developed his landmark theory of evolution by natural selection and wrote his groundbreaking work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859).
The 18th-century House
Down House was built in the early 18th century, probably on the site of a 17th-century house. It faced east and was a simple box shape.
In the late 18th century the house was extensively modernised, probably soon after George Butler, a rich businessman and landowner, bought it in 1778. He built a new kitchen and service block onto the south end and rearranged and improved the principal rooms on the ground floor, moving the main entrance to the north side of the house and the staircase to its present position.
The house seems to have changed hands several times after Butler’s death in 1783. Nathanial Godbold, a property speculator from Fulham, acquired it in 1818 and rented it out to John Johnson, colonel of engineers in the Honourable East India Company, who later bought it.
The Revd J Drummond, vicar of Down, bought the house in 1837. He commissioned the architect and civil engineer Edward Cresy (1792–1858), who lived locally, to make some improvements, installing a new roof, two bathrooms, a stable yard and a cottage.
