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Darwin's Home and Workplace: Down House and Environs

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Royaume-Uni de Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord (Europe et Amérique du nord)
Date de soumission : 21/06/1999
Critères: (iii)(vi)
Catégorie : Culturel
Soumis par : Dep. For Culture, Media and SportBuildings, Monuments and Sites
Coordonnées Long. 0°03'35" E / Lat. 51°20'10" NGreater London, England
Ref.: 1311

Description

Down House was Charles Darwin's home from 1842 until his death in 1882. Here he studied, thought and wrote his great influential works including The Origin of Species. The grounds and surrounding landscape provided much of the inspiration for his revolutionary insights of the natural world, ecology and bio-diversity, which continue to have significant influence today. Down House, in the London Borough of Bromley, is situated on the North Downs, 16 miles (26km) south east of central London. The area is characterised by dry chalk valleys, country lanes, a rich tapestry of wildlife habitats, small villages and working farms. Despite its close proximity to London, it has remained secluded, retaining the rural charm that first attracted Charles and Emma Darwin. At Down House, a Grade I listed building, Charles Darwin successfully combined scientific discoveries with family life. Located just south of Downe village, the house and grounds survive largely unaltered. A conservation and display project completed by English Heritage in 1998 has preserved the fabric of Darwin's home, recreating the interior and the atmosphere in which he worked. The grounds, laid out by Darwin and his wife, retain the characteristic layout of a Victorian villa garden. The compact estate consists of gardens, lawns, orchards and meadows, and a strip of woodland containing the "Sand-walk", Darwin's famous "thinking path". The estate, and surrounding landscape, played a major role in Darwin’s work, which has great universal importance in the history of the way in which we think about life on earth. The estate is included in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens and much of` it is included in a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) designated by Bromley Council. English Heritage has restored the traditional management regime of the meadow, which still contains many species noted by Darwin. Most of Darwin's observations of earthworms and bees, his experimental cultivations, studies of insect pollination and cross breeding of pigeons were carried out in his own gardens, grounds and environs. The remaining evidence of his work, such as the Worm Stone, greenhouses and Sand-walk, strengthen the authenticity of a landscape within which ground breaking ideas and changes to man's universal understanding of the natural world, global ecology and bio-diversity were developed. The surrounding countryside inspired Darwin and has changed little since he knew it. It contains a variety of cultivated and natural habitats which Darwin explored in his daily walks and rides observing plants, birds and animals. Downe Bank, an area of chalk grassland and woodland on the side of a dry valley, now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), still resembles the "entangled bank" Darwin describes in the final paragraph of The Origin of Species. The High Elms estate, former home of Lord Avebury, an associate of Darwin and sponsor of the Open Spaces Act and the first Ancient Monument Act, consists of 400 acres of aancient woodlands, orchid-ric grasslands, a nature centre and golf course, and is an SSSI owned by Bromley Council. Keston and Hayes Commons are examples of open common land habitats which have become rare in Greater London. Of particular note are the acres of heathland and valley mire and, in conjunction with the adjoining Ravensbourne meadows, the gradation from dry acid grassland to wet neutral grassland. West Kent Golf Club comprises a mosaic of first class calcareous grassland and ancient woodland, providing rich habitats for a variety of plants and animals and is an SNCI managed by the London Wildlife Trust. The Holwood estate is a mosaic of woods, scrub, unimproved grassland, lake and ponds, part of which is an SNCI. Holwood House is listed (Grade 1) and the grounds are on English Heritage's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens; the Iron Age fort, known as "Caesar's Camp" is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The historic villages of Cudham, Downe and Keston, all Conservation Areas, contain many buildings of the 1Sth and 19th centuries, and are characteristic of the hi storic rural landscape that made up Darwin's neighborhood.