History
Down House appears large and creamy coloured, with heavy bright green plants growing up to a slate roof

English Heritage at Down House and Gardens

Down House and its extensive gardens passed to English Heritage in the mid-1990s and have been in our care ever since. The site has seen many changes since then, and in 2018 we captured images of the house and gardens now to compare to photographs taken on the site around 1995.

Use the sliders below to explore how the site has altered across the last two decades, with the new 2018 imagery overlaid here onto shots taken as the property came to English Heritage.

 

 

The beige front of Charles Darwin's house with a dark driveway in front and viewed through a black metal gate The beige front of Charles Darwin's house with a dark driveway in front and viewed through a black metal gate

The gate and wall remains but the front of the house is now clad in creepers and thoroughly cleaned.

A view of Charles Darwin's sturdy white house building looking up to it from a grassy garden A view of Charles Darwin's sturdy white house building looking up to it from a grassy garden

This view of the reverse of the house from the gardens shows how foliage is now grown in a managed way across the house and the famous mulberry tree, visible on the right, is now supported with a prop. Some trees have also been lost due to natural death or storms across the years.

A view of the main garden at Down House from a second floor window of the house, with a large tree dominating A view of the main garden at Down House from a second floor window of the house, with a large tree dominating and rectangular flower beds beside it

This view, shot from a second floor window of what is now offices, shows how the beds and sundial have been restored to their original historic position. The sundial, by which Darwin would set the clocks of his household, now sits between the flower beds and the veranda where Darwin and his family would sit in wicker chairs.

A gardener in a bright top kneels at a flower bed in front of the veranda at the rear of the beige house A gardener in jeans and shirt kneels at a flower bed in front of the veranda at the rear of the beige house covered in green creeper plants

Gardeners then and now: in both images, a gardener kneels at work in the flowerbeds at the rear of Down House. The 2018 figure is the current head gardener at Down House. The tree on the right hand side of the images (supported by a frame in 2018) is the mulberry tree which survives from Darwin's day, which still produces fruit each summer.

The interior of a greenhouse with white metal struts and some plants in a raised brown soil bed The interior of a greenhouse with turquoise metal struts and lush planting including vines across the ceiling and bright pink flowers

The greenhouse and hothouse have been restored, repainted and richly planted. Darwin added a hothouse in the 1860s so he could experiment on warm-climate plants, and these are stocked today with many of the same plant specimens that Darwin cultivated including orchids, carnivorous plants, wild cucumber and passionflower.

A red brick building in a poor state of repair, with most of the roof missing and some gaps in the walls A smart red brick building with evidence of repair visible through a line of differently coloured bricks along the upper section

These outbuildings within the grounds were, as can be seen, in poor repair by the mid-1990s. The intervening years have seen them carefully repaired and reconstructed, including new roofing and smart blue paint.

A view over the meadow behind Charles Darwin's house, with a dilapidated fence and unkempt grass beyond A view over the meadow behind Charles Darwin's house, with a neat gate in the fence and wild grasses beyond

Changes made to Darwin's gardens over the decades include the restoration of his ‘thinking path’, the Sandwalk, where he strolled and contemplated and, beyond the Sandwalk, this meadow behind the house.