Experience nature come to life in the Gardens of Down House, Home to Charles Darwin
Just outside central London stands the family home of world-renowned Victorian scientist Charles Darwin, Down House, a unique building laden with historical and scientific significance. Down House remains much as it was when Darwin lived there. English Heritage have recreated the gardens at Down House as the Darwin's would have seen them. The gardens were Darwin's ‘outdoor laboratory' and he spent many hours there working on the theories he became renowned for. Take a stroll along his ‘thinking path' where he worked on his theories of evolution and wrote On the Origin of Species. Although small many elements of bigger gardens exist including bedding, shrubberies and mixed borders, an orchard, and a traditional kitchen garden including Darwin's ‘Experiment Bed'and greenhouse. Victorian plant varieties are used throughout the garden adding to the period feel and there is an excellent interactive media tour narrated by David Attenborough which brings everything to life
