Home of Charles Darwin - Down House
The exterior of Charles Darwin's former home with the manicured gardens in the foreground.
A room in Charles Darwin's former home filled with books and scientific objects.
Direction Map

Open Sat - Sun, 10am - 4pm (last entry at 3pm)

See full prices and opening times

What's On

Muffins in a tray, some chocolate, some topped with oats

Food and drink at Down House

The café at Down House serves up hot and cold drinks, delicious cakes, ice creams, alcoholic tipples and children’s lunch bags. For lunch, you can tuck into homemade baguettes from April to October and soups from November to March. We use produce from the kitchen garden for our baguette fillings when in season.

You’ll find the café in the old kitchen, where all the Darwin family’s meals were prepared. There’s plenty of indoor seating in the kitchen and the Butler’s Pantry. If the sun’s shining, there’s outdoor seating on the patio, where Darwin used to receive his regular ‘water cures’.

Take a tour of Charles Darwin's Gardens

Discover Darwin's 'living laboratory', which helped formulate his theory of evolution.

Down House on the English Heritage Podcast

Find out more about family life at Down House on the English Heritage Podcast.

Guidebook: Down House

Price: £5.00

Membership starts from £42

Membership gives you unlimited access to castles and gardens, historic houses and abbeys, and kids go free...

Join Now

UNLIMITED ACCESS TO OVER 400 HISTORIC PLACES

Live and breathe the story of England at royal castles, historic gardens, forts and defences, world-famous prehistoric sites and many others.

FREE ENTRY FOR UP TO SIX CHILDREN

Free entry for up to six children accompanied by an adult member (under 18 years and within the family group).

FREE HANDBOOK TO PLAN INSPIRING DAYS OUT, WORTH £12.95

Complimentary full colour handbook worth £12.95. Plus our award winning Members’ Magazine delivered three times a year.

FREE OR REDUCED ENTRY TO OUR EXCITING EVENTS