Home of Charles Darwin - Down House

Such a tranquil place, beautiful gardens and grounds, meals and drinks also available, soup was beautiful. But the history is amazing, the rooms are all accessible and the greenhouse was simply wonderful. But walking on the sandwalk where Darwin walked was very special indeed.

An unprecedented experience… we can say that we did the right thing by leaving Preston to go to the Kent countryside, to visit the home of one of the most brilliant minds the world has ever known. Down House is worth every public transport to get to it.

The museum tells us part of the history of Darwin and his family, the dining room is an art in itself (redundant). Lots of interaction for children and this is what catches the little ones' attention. The details inside the house impressed us.

Walking around the house, you can realize how much nature impacts the quality of life of those who want to live outside a concrete jungle. My little one was enchanted by the sheep. Hats off to the Natural History Museum and everyone who helps preserve this legacy.

Great guided tour, around 45mins in the house. The guide is very good at story telling and has a rich knowledge about Darwin.
The garden and greenhouse is beautiful!
Great outing place for a couple of hours

The house of Charles Darwin, converted into a museum. It was a fascinating experience exploring the rooms and viewing the displays.
From the collection of his belongings, the microscope in the study, the billiard room, to the living room with a piano where his wife Emma played. The whole thing is a journey into the life of Charles Darwin, we get to learn of his family history, the people and the ideas who influenced him, his journey around the world, we see how he collected everything in order to come with his theory of Evolution. It's the making of a mastermind.

As a Charles Darwin fan myself, I felt enlightened and inspired to be here. It was an honour to visit his house.

It's also wonderful to know that he was an avid backgammon player such as myself. Lol.

Audio guides are available for some of the rooms that go into some details.

There is a cafe where you can sit and have a hot drink.

There is also a little souvenir shop.

Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any photos while you are inside. Oh well, rules are rules, we must comply.

Overall, a wonderful place with so much we can learn from. I recommend.

Thoroughly enjoyed the visit, having expected it to be less interesting. The location is lovely, & there is much more outdoor space than you might expect (useful if you take energetic youngsters). Car park is quite small - probably pre-booking is a good plan in the summer when it's busier. We went in half term: there were a number of families, but we arrived late morning & there were still a couple of parking spaces.
Suggested tour starts upstairs in the house where there is an exhibition & many of Darwin's artefacts. Audio-visual featuring David Attenborough & others is quite moving. Downstairs, there are audio headsets available with the main narrative provided by Mr Attenborough. Various contributors talk about specific items (eg paintings). There is also an audio tour of the garden.
Greenhouse is fabulous (see photos).
Tea room is really good: sandwiches, soups, cakes & a veggie main course, all homemade & delicious. Staff friendly & welcoming.
Half a day enough for a visit, but could be combined with other places in the area (or a walk in good weather).

Loved it! Very interesting. The grounds were lovely.... fabulous gardens. Enjoyed coffee on the veranda and lunch in the tea room. A nice day out.

Came to the house at first open, thought we should only be there for two hours. But to a nice surprise the kids loved it. Both the exhibition, especially with the special staircase thing for the kids, but also the garden, the worm trace, and the laboratory with the flowers. But also the tea room had good food and the staff were very friendly. Like the youngest kid said it felt good to walk and be there and feel the feelings, joy and harmony that have been.

Absolute beautiful place to visit (inside & out). The English Heritage have done a fabulous job restoring the property.
Our visit was even better when we realised Sir David Attenborough narrated the Information round the museum.
You really do get a true insight on how Darwin and his family loved. If you have chance, book yourself on guided garden tour (only so many slots available), the garden keeper is very knowledgeable. 100% recommend, and will definitely return in the future.

Very well maintained property with friendly and helpful staff. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures indoors. You can easily spend a couple of hours here going through Darwins life and walking the gardens. The gardens would have been much more colourful earlier in the year. We went on a Sunday and it was not crowded. There is plenty of place to park and a nice cafe that serves sandwiches and beverages.

We've been here a number of times. It's an incredible treasure. The museum and the helpful, kind and very knowledgeable staff!

The kids and I had a fab afternoon at Down House! We did the Easter clue hunt and the children found it great fun trying to work out the clues and searching for each one. The hunt took us all through the house and 95% of the beautiful grounds. All except the orchard but we explored that separately once we were done. The exhibits are excellent with plenty of info and interesting pieces. The display cabinets are overflowing with historical artifacts and memorabilia. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Each one in great spirits and were wonderful with the children! Always makes a huge difference when we are exploring. We finished off our visit with ice creams and coffees in the tea room and it was so lovely to have the option of sun or shade on the cute little patio or you could sit completely inside. Lots of choice for drinks, food, cakes and ice creams! Just fab! Will 1000% recommend and hope to visit again really soon!

A fascinating place to visit. I thought I knew a lot about Darwin but learnt even more and enjoyed the audio tours of the house and gardens. Lots to see. Lovely cafe and gift shop stocking some unusual preserves which I bought as presents. The gardens were lovely and all the staff were friendly and helpful making suggestions to enhance our visit. So much to see we were there until it closed! Free entry for members of English Heritage. Photos cannot be taken in the house but souvenir guidebooks are available.

This was a great visit. The grounds we enjoyable to walk around.

Not the very fine House itself of Charles Darwin but this visit was for the sunning Vegetable Garden looking fabulous in late June.

Mixing poppies and wild flowers to attract the bees - inspired

We were spending time on the downs looking at the areas Darwin studied Orchids - stunning then, stunning now - and were we watched wild Fallow Deer passing through! Magical

Very interesting location with a lot of history. The explanations about Darwin’s life are very digestible and not too dry, yet providing you with a lot of information. The house and the garden itself are also beautifully maintained. I wouldn’t mind living there myself to be honest! The staff were all equally friendly, helpful and delightful.

Gorgeous trip. English Heritage is SO much nicer than National Trust and Darwin’s house is very special. Such an interesting man.
Shout out to the absolutely lovely lady working in the cafe. Unsure of her name but Eastern European accent, dark hair and clearly very proud of what they make in the cafe from home grown produce. A lovely, friendly, happy soul.
Worth a visit!

Stunning house and grounds! The plants were beautiful with so many verities! There was a really nice picnic area and the cafe was small so had to wait for a table but cream tea was delicious. The house is really well kept, plenty on display, and lots of information about him and his family. Really enjoyed it and spent about 4 hours here.

I had an incredible day at Charles Darwin Down House, you can easily spend 1 1/2 days wondering and learning and reading. It’s perfectly setup. Also the house could be kept in even better conditions.

We visited Down House with my daughter who is a part time wheelchair user. We found the site to be mostly accessible to us. Some of the paths are quite rough and one had a large tree root growing across it. The house itself has level access and a lift to upstairs, although we didn't use it. There is a reasonably sized accessible toilet.

The gardens were stunning and it was amazing to be walking the same paths that Darwin walked. I loved the vegetable garden and the greenhouse. The gardens are quite near a private airport so there was some noise but it was easy to ignore. The house was very homely and you felt close to the family who lived there.

There is a very nice cafe with hot food and outdoor seating.

Visited Down House today for the first time and it's a lovely place to see. Beautiful gardens to wander around and fascinating look into Charles Darwin.