Down and Darwin and Back

Our first full day in London (Wednesday) had us slated for an adventure of trains, buses, and foot travel to visit the home of Charles Darwin, the most revolutionary and important figure in biology. Darwin’s house was interesting, but so was the town where he lived in the English countryside, the town of Down. Half the fun was getting there… it started with boarding a train in Victoria station.

We took that train to Orpington, where we caught the bus through Orpington and the cute hamlet to Down, until we got to Down House.

Once at Down House, we got to tour the rooms where Darwin wrote and researched, ate, slept, and raised his family. As a man of means, Darwin did not really have to work, and he could dedicate himself to his scientific pursuits, which revolved around creating a comprehensive argument for his book “On the Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection.” This is a picture of his study where he worked.

But that photo is actually a photo of a photo in the guidebook, because you are not allowed to take photos in the house (except for one room in the second floor). We did honor that, so I just took a photo of the photo of his study. The room where you could do photography is the one where they also had dressup clothes from the Victorian period. Although these students don’t have those clothes on here, they did try out the hoop skirts and bowler hats…

Darwin also did research out in the garden and in his greenhouses, with some cool experiments on plants, including some remarkable predictive work on orchid pollination.

The greenhouses were a fun place to explore, especially on a cool and rainy English day.

We also walked the grounds, taking a stroll down the “sand walk” where Darwin walked three times a day to clear his head while working.

After the visit, we walked back into town to catch the bus, and had a bit to eat and maybe a pint a the Queen’s Head pub. A good day!

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