Down House

Art & Culture tagsCretaceous tagsFamily Friendly tags

The home of Charles Darwin, Down House is the place where he wrote On the Origin of Species. The beautiful house and grounds, set amongst the Chalk hills outside London, were also the site of numerous experiments carried out by Darwin.

Opening times vary, please check before visiting

Prices vary, check website for details. Adults £17.20, Children (5-17) £10.40, Family (2+3) £37.60, Family (1+3) £23.10; Free for English Heritage members

Accessible by public transport

Café

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Facilities

Car parking
Disabled parking
Picnic area
Toilets
Visitor information available
Accessible footpaths
Cycle parking

Geosite details

Darwin conducted many experiments whilst living at Down House, including a 29-year-long study on the Chalk itself. calculate the rate of erosion of the Chalk of the Weald-Artois Anticline. Darwin once proposed that chalk had been formed by the burrowing of worms (like every good scientist, he wasn’t right about everything!).

The 'Big Bang'

13.8 billion years ago

Earth formed

4.6 billion years ago

540 million years ago

The Cambrian explosion of life: animals evolved and diversified as never before on Earth.

Devonian

419 million years ago

390 million years ago the oldest rocks you can see in the Geopark date back to the Middle Devonian. They are still quarried today in the Marquise basin in France.

Carboniferous

359 million years ago

Around 325 million years ago the Geopark was near the equator. The swamp forests from that period are preserved as coal, which was formerly mined in the Marquise basin in France as well as in East Kent and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

Permian

299 million years ago

Triassic

252 million years ago

210 million years ago the Geopark was in the centre of the Pangaea supercontinent, and dinosaurs roamed the land!

Jurassic

201 million years ago

150 million years ago the Geopark was submerged under the sea, the sands, clays, limestones, and sandstones that compose the Boulonnais region in France were deposited.

Cretaceous

145 million years ago

Over about 40 million years from 100-60 million years ago, Chalk formed at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea where the Geopark is located today. This was the first step towards the formation of our distinctive chalk landscape, which defines much of the Geopark.

Palaeogene

66 million years ago

Tectonic activity around 40 million years ago uplifted the territory of the Geopark by dozens of metres, creating an extensive chalk landscape that connected France and Great Britain.

Neogene

23 million years ago

Quaternary

2.6 million years ago

450,000 years ago, a megaflood destroyed the chalk ridge connecting Calais and Dover, creating the iconic white cliffs of the Geopark we see today

Getting here

Down House

Down House, Luxted Rd, Downe, Orpington, BR6 7JT

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