@j2bryson @woody

The House Where Darwin Lived

From the late 1920s various attempts were made to preserve Down House as a monument to #Darwin. An institution called #English #Heritage acquired #DownHouse in 1996 and restored it; it is open to visitors year-round and now has a small museum, a shop and a parking lot.

Though it was the home of a wealthy country squire, it was always a family house, not at all showy, and its curators have kept it that way.

There’s a large hallway with cupboards built to store tennis rackets and boots and old manuscripts. Off it branch high-ceilinged family rooms: a billiards room, Darwin’s study, a drawing room, a dining room.

Upstairs is a school room and bedrooms and, on the third floor, servants’ quarters. The high windows have solid-panel shutters that fold back into their frames, so the boundary between inside and outside seems permeable; trees and green are visible everywhere through glass; light pours in.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-house-where-darwin-lived-4277158/