Down House

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. The house stands next to Luxted Road 0.25 miles south of Downe, a village 14.25 miles south east of London's Charing Cross, which was still known as Down when he moved there in 1842. In Darwin's day Downe was a parish in Kent: it subsequently came under Bromley Rural District, and since 1965 has lain within 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.