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Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It is located in Downe in the London Borough of Bromley, a suburb 14.2 miles (22.8 km) south east of Charing Cross. It was in the house that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution by natural selection. It is now a museum. grid reference TQ431611

The history of Down House

Down House was originally built as a farmhouse around 1650, and it was extended in 1778.

Darwins at Down

Darwin moved from London to the suburbs in the midst of labour riots, buying the house for £2,200 from the Rev. James Drummond, who had asked for £2,500. They moved in on the 14th September, 1842. The Darwin family then consisted of Charles, his wife Emma and their children William Erasmus (b. 1839) and Anne (b. 1841). Emma was heavily pregnant with Mary Eleanor, who was to be born on 23 September but to die less than a month later on 18 October.

The other Darwin children, many of whom would later achieve notability in their own right, would be born in the house: "Etty" (born 1843), George (born 1845), "Bessy" (born 1847), Francis (born 1848), Leonard (born 1850), Horace (born 1851) and Charles Waring Darwin (1856 – 1858).

The Darwins added to the house in various ways. On 24 March 1843, construction work started on a large bay window at the front of the house. A new drawing room was added in 1858, and at the same time an extension was added to the main entrance. The former drawing room was converted into a new dining room, and the old dining room became a billiard room. In 1872 a verandah was added to the side of the drawing room. In 1877, a new study, entrance hall and Georgian-style porch were added and the old study where Darwin wrote The Origin was converted into a smoking room.

Charles Darwin died at the house in 19 April 1882, aged 73. Emma also died there in 1896.

Downe House School

A girls' boarding school was established at the house in 1907 by a Miss Olive Willis (1877-1953), but was moved away in 1922. One of the school's houses is named Darwin.

A museum to Darwin

The house was bought in 1927 by the surgeon Sir George Buckston Browne (1850-1945), who presented it to the British Association for the Advancement of Science together with an endowment to ensure its preservation in perpetuity as a memorial to Darwin. Down House was formally opened as a museum on the 7th June, 1929.

Buckston Browne's endowment proved insufficient and the expense of maintenance led to the British Association in turn donating the house to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 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.

Down House today

Down House was acquired in 1996 by English Heritage, 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. It is open from the first Wednesday of February until, usually, the last Sunday before Christmas. Through out January the house undergoes a 'deep clean'.

Down House and the surrounding area has been nominated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to become a World Heritage Site. It went through public consultation in 2006 and a decision had been expected in the last three days of June 2007. However, ICOMOS warned the UK government that the House might not meet the criteria for scientific sites on the register, and so (in a press release issued on 30 May 2007) the UK government Department of Culture, Media and Sport announced that it was withdrawing the bid this time and resubmitting it in 2009.([1] and [2])

External links

51°19′52″N 0°03′10″E / 51.33100°N 0.05264°E / 51.33100; 0.05264

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 ** [http://www.downehouse.berks.sch.uk/introduction/history.html History of Downe School]
 * [http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=123 ([[Kent Wildlife Trust]])]
+* [http://www.prepreview.com/school/Downe_House.html Downe School Review by Oxbridge Educated Insiders]
 {{coor title d|51.33100|N|0.05264|E|region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TQ431611)}}<!-- Note: WGS84 lat/long, converted from OSGB36 grid ref -->