The Red Notebook

BBC: UK launches Darwin heritage bid

The laboratory where Charles Darwin developed his famous theory of evolution is to be the UK’s 2009 nomination for a World Heritage Site.

Down House, in Bromley, south-east London, includes his home, experimental garden and surrounding land.

This is great news. Congratulations, well done, and good luck to all concerned.

Something tells me I’ll be visiting Downe again some time this year. It has been far too long.

See also: My Down House photos [slideshow]

The following information just received from Down House (more information soon on their website):

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, English Heritage is unveiling a major new investment programme at Down House, Darwin’s family home for 40 years and the very place where he wrote and published his theory of evolution that changed the face of science.

Rare and unique collections, including many of Darwin’s personal possessions, will be on display in a new exhibition on the first floor, covering Darwin’s life, his scientific work and the controversy it provoked. Visitors can also have an intimate glimpse into Darwin’s own scientific origins through an impressive and detailed replica of his cabin on board HMS Beagle—the vessel which was to be his home for almost 5 years as he voyaged the world gathering evidence for his work. See the famous Beagle notebooks on display for the first time and interact with these rare manuscripts via exciting new digital interactive displays.

A brand new handheld multimedia tour of the house and gardens will also bring to life the world in which Darwin lived and worked, providing a fascinating insight into the many delightful ways he gathered evidence using his own family and the surrounding environment as inspiration, helping shape the theories that continue to influence to this day.

English Heritage has recently restored the gardens—Darwin’s ‘Outdoor Laboratory’—to their appearance during his time at Down House. Visitors can walk along his famous ‘thinking path’, the Sandwalk, and see some of his outdoor experiments recreated in the garden and greenhouse, used to highlight the processes of natural selection. Also take time to marvel at the array of orchids and carnivorous plants on display, and witness a hive of activity in the bee observatory.

Charles Darwin to his son, William, 7th July, 1859:

Mamma went up yesterday & brought down two such patterns, of the exact colour of mud, streaked with rancid oil, that we have all exclaimed against them; & I have agreed to take anything in preference & we have settled on a crimson flock-paper with golden stars, though unseen by me.—

Even the placid Darwin drew the line at streaky, brown wallpaper.

Ahem! The Friends of Charles Darwin’s latest member has a very interesting address.

Utterly cool!

Darwin’s ugly house

On this date in 1842, Charles Darwin turned his back on the hustle and bustle of London and moved into his new home, Down House, in the village of Down (later Downe) in Kent. His wife Emma had moved in three days earlier.

In a letter to his sister, Emily written a few months earlier, Darwin decribed at length the attractions of the village, then continued:

The house stands very badly close to a tiny lane & near another man’s field— Our field is 15

Bromley Times: Security review at historic house

An irreplaceable first edition of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species will be kept under lock and key after its return to the scientist’s former home.

The national treasure was recovered by police in August, following its theft from Down House, Luxted Road, Downe, in 2004. However, it will not go back on display for at least six months while security at the English Heritage site is reviewed.

A spokesman said: “We will be changing the room around to increase security next year and we may exhibit it then.”

The book in question was presented by Charles Darwin to his great friend, Sir Charles Lyell, whose Principles of Geology was a constant source of inspiration to Darwin during the Beagle voyage. Although Lyell never fully accepted Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection, he was a constant supporter of Darwin, and urged him to publish his theory. Lyell was one of the three great inspirational figures whose photographs hung on Darwin’s study wall at Down House.

The two great scientists are buried a couple of feet from each other in Westminster Abbey.

The man convicted of stealing Lyell’s first edition of Origin of Species, Amir Ladak, was caught thanks to fingerprints obtained from an attempted theft at Sotheby’s. Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, an early pioneer of fingerprint evidence, would have been delighted. Ladak’s sentence: 100 hours of community service and a £3,000.

I’d have thrown away the key.