Darwin's Downe is an Up

Staycation Day 2 was also a winner. We visited another happy home, the Darwin's of Down House in Downe, Kent — but also part of another Outer London Borough, in this case Bromley. Perhaps it is in London, but it is off the edge of the A-Z map so I could be confused about the status. Lots of places seem to be both in London and in Kent, South of the Thames and both in London and in Essex, North of the Thames, but in the North and in the West, the old county of Middlesex was dissolved, so we are only in London here in Hampstead.

We are huge admirers of Darwin and visiting Down House was on the list of things to do next for years now.  As trip planner, its location always confused me. Is it London? Must we drive? Where is it on the A-Z? The property is part of English Heritage's portfolio, and their directory says use public transport if possible because the site is isolated with little parking available. The directions then go on to say the nearest train station is 5-6 miles away, so you must then take a bus, but not on Sunday when the bus doesn't run. And where does the bus go if the site is so isolated. Doesn't sound like a good bet for public transport to me, and driving was definitely the right decision.

The Weed Garden of Natural Selection

Last year of course was the Bicentennial Celebration for Darwin's birth 12 February 1809 (Yes the same birthday as Abraham Lincoln.), and we swore we would finally make the pilgrimage to Down House and never did. Now I am glad we waited because there were so many commemorative exhibits around the world, the House must have been stripped bare. And what a lovely house. The family moved to Downe in 1842, and the House is an airy, light filled Georgian design with French doors opening to the garden in both the sitting room and the dining room. Across the hall, at the front of the house, are Darwin's study and the adjoining Billiard Room where he played with his butler when needing a break from shifting humankind's world view of itself.

English Heritage who have managed the house for only about 15 years have done a wonderful job of interpreting the crucial role of the house in Darwin's work. Once he moved in, he rarely left Down House until his death. The experiments that form his theories were all done in the garden or the surrounding countryside. The audio guide for the House Tour is well done, but the audio guide for the garden tour is brilliant. Narrated by journalist/BBC presenter Andrew Marr, the guide walks you through a dozen areas where important experiments were done from counting weeds to marking the heavy lifting done by earthworms at the Wormstone.

Thinking..........

The tour concludes with a walk along Darwin's Thinking Path at the foot of the garden where he walked three times a day.

The next time we go, I want to walk into the house site by way of one of the published circular walks through the surrounding countryside.

So two happy homes in two days, yesterday's Dickinson House was tiny and notable for its arts and crafts, today's was larger and filled with important mementos, but both exuded the warmth of comfort.