Darwin's home
and workplace nominated for World Heritage Site status in the
bicentenary of his birth
DEPARTMENT FOR
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT News Release (015/09) issued by COI News
Distribution Service. 30 January 2009
Darwin's home
and workplace, Darwin's Landscape Laboratory, has been chosen
as the UK's 2009 nomination to become a World Heritage Site,
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham announced today.
2009 is the bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the 150th
anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, 'On the
Origin of Species'.
Darwin's Landscape Laboratory, situated in the London
Borough of Bromley, comprises Charles Darwin's house,
experimental garden and the seven kilometres of countryside
immediately around his property. It was used for Darwin's
important scientific investigations for forty years after his
round-the-world voyage on HMS Beagle in the 1830s. It was here
that Darwin developed and demonstrated his theory of evolution by
natural selection through the study of plants and animals in
natural settings and under human management.
Andy Burnham said:
"Darwin's contribution to our
understanding of the natural world is unrivalled. His life of
science was based on meticulous research in and around his home
and the surrounding farmed valleys. These still survive as the
tangible context for his original scientific insight. They remain
- 200 years exactly after his birth - an inspiration to shape the
thinking of future generations on our approach to biodiversity,
ecosystems and the role nature can play in helping people adjust
to the effects of climate change.
"World Heritage Sites are usually associated with cultural
landmarks like the Great Wall of China and Stonehenge or
outstanding natural landscapes like the Grand Canyon National
Park. But it is also essential to acknowledge scientific endeavour
and discovery, which are both key components in our understanding
of environmental conservation. The World Heritage Committee called
for nominations for the World Heritage List to recognise and
celebrate outstanding achievements of science and Darwin's
Landscape Laboratory nomination does just this. I am delighted to
submit this formal nomination."
Leader of Bromley Council, Councillor Stephen Carr said:
"We are delighted that Darwin's Landscape Laboratory is
being nominated as a World Heritage Property in recognition of its
importance to the work of Charles Darwin. The nomination includes
the farms, fields, and woodland around Down House within our
borough and will help protect the Darwin legacy as well as
demonstrating the importance of rural countryside and wildlife to
London's differing environment. Bromley residents will know
how special the Borough is and it is remarkable that we can walk
in the historic woods and country around the village of Downe,
just as Darwin did over one hundred years ago. It is essential
that we maintain and protect the natural environment for our
future generations" said.
Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, Chairman of English Heritage said:
"English Heritage is delighted that the Darwin Landscape
Laboratory bid is being submitted to UNESCO as the UK's 2009
nomination to become a World Heritage Site. Visitors to Down
House, near Orpington in Kent which is managed by English
Heritage, can see where Darwin carried out many of his ground
breaking experiments as well as where he wrote the book that shook
the world: 'On the Origin of Species'.
"The bid highlights the importance of careful observation
and the need to look at everyday surroundings in a rigorous way.
These are as relevant today as they were then.
"A new exhibition which opens to the public on Friday 13
February at Down House will help to bring Darwin and his
fascinating theories to life using the latest technology."
The nomination document for Darwin's Landscape Laboratory
was prepared by the London Borough of Bromley working in close
partnership with local bodies and English Heritage. The
nomination, together with those from other countries submitted by
UNESCO's deadline of 1 February 2009, will be assessed by
expert advisers to the World Heritage Committee over the next 18
months. A final decision on inscription will be made by the World
Heritage Committee at its annual meeting in the summer of 2010.
Notes for editors
1. Darwin's Landscape Laboratory is the site where the
modern scientific study of natural life was pioneered with the
development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. It is
an intimate farmed valley landscape surrounding Charles
Darwin's home at Down House in the Kent North Downs. Charles
Darwin walked in the Downe and Cudham valleys every day and
studied them intensely for the forty years of his scientific
maturity. Many landscape features bear unique witness to the
evidence he collected for his world-changing ideas in the natural
sciences that were developed at Down House.
2. Following a five year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle
including five weeks observing and collecting on the Galapagos
Islands in the Pacific, Darwin settled in London and then in 1842,
moved 16 miles south to Down House to allow him to further his
scientific exploration and to cater for his growing family. The
surrounding farmed landscape and its varying geology and soil
types also enabled him to access, via numerous footpaths and
lanes, a wide variety of plants and wildlife, the raw materials
for his research and scientific work. Finding everything he needed
for his science he seldom left the locality until his death in
1882. The farmed landscape, together with Down House and its
gardens were thus his workplace for his greatest period as an
experimental scientist.
3. The farmland and woodland management of the two small valleys
linked by high ground has been sustained since Darwin's time.
There are no main roads or railway stations in the area and it has
escaped much of the 20th century development associated with
London's hinterland. The landscape and buildings remain
remarkably unchanged since Darwin's death.
4. Darwin's evolutionary understanding of human origins set
out in The Descent of Man and The Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals were both written at Downe. They explained our
shared ancestry with animals and made a strong case for the unity
of the human races.
5. The candidate World Heritage Site, included in the UK
Tentative List in 1999, was first submitted to UNESCO as Darwin at
Downe in 2006. The Government withdrew this nomination in 2007
following concerns raised by the World Heritage Committee's
Advisory Body, the International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS), relating to the outstanding universal value of the site.
The nomination has now been revised following careful
consideration of the issues raised by ICOMOS and in the light of
an expert international expert meeting, hosted by the UK on behalf
of the World Heritage Committee in January 2008, to consider the
appraisal of potential sites with scientific values for inclusion
on the World Heritage List.
6. The revised nomination, Darwin's Landscape Laboratory,
fulfils the UK's commitment to support the World Heritage
Committee's aim of increasing representivity on the World
Heritage List, particularly in the categories of cultural
landscapes and sites which recognise and celebrate achievements of science.
7. The concept of World Heritage Sites is at the core of the
World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, to which
over 180 nations belong. Through the Convention, UNESCO seeks to
encourage the identification, protection and preservation of the
cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of
outstanding value to humanity. The Convention required the
establishment of the World Heritage List, under the management of
an inter-governmental World Heritage Committee as a means of
recognising that some places, both natural and cultural, are of
sufficient importance to be the responsibility of the
international community as a whole. As a member of the Convention,
States Parties are pledged to care for their World Heritage sites
as part of protecting their national heritage.
8. Nominations for inscription on the World Heritage List are
made by the appropriate States Parties. They are subject to
rigorous evaluation by expert advisers to the World Heritage
Committee: The International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS) for cultural sites and/or the World Conservation Union
(IUCN) for natural sites. Decisions on the selection of new World
Heritage Sites are taken by the World Heritage Committee at its
annual summer meetings. There are currently 878 World Heritage
Sites in 145 States Parties. Some 679 are cultural sites, 174 are
natural and 25 are mixed.
9. Inclusion in the World Heritage List is essentially honorific
and leaves the existing rights and obligations of owners,
occupiers and planning authorities unaffected. A prerequisite for
World Heritage Site status is, nevertheless, the existence of
effective legal protection and the establishment or firm prospect
of management plans agreed with site owners to ensure each
site's conservation and presentation.
10. In December 2008 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
launched 'Identifying, protecting and promoting our world
heritage', a consultation to examine the costs and benefits,
rights and responsibilities of World Heritage Site status, the
balance currently achieved between them, and the implications for
the future management, promotion and funding of such sites. The
closing date for responses to the consultation is 25 February
2009. http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/consultations/5629.aspx
11. Bid partners include: Department of Culture, Media and Sport,
London Borough of Bromley, English Heritage, International Council
on Monuments and Sites, Mayor of London, London Development
Agency, Natural England, Natural History Museum, Woodland Trust,
Kent Wildlife Trust, London Wildlife Trust, Charles Darwin Trust
and Downe Residents Association.
12. The UK's World Heritage Sites are currently:
Cultural
* Ironbridge Gorge
* Stonehenge, Avebury &
Associated Sites
* Durham Castle & Cathedral
* Studley
Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
* Castles
& Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd
* Blenheim
Palace
* City of Bath
* Frontiers of the Roman Empire
(1987 Hadrian's Wall; 2005 Upper German-Raetian Limes; 2008
The Antonine Wall)
* Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey
& St Margaret's Church
* Tower of London
*
Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey & St
Martin's Church
* Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
*
Maritime Greenwich
* Heart of Neolithic Orkney
* The
Historic Town of St George & Related Fortifications,
Bermuda
* Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
* Derwent Valley
Mills
* Saltaire
* New Lanark
* Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew
* Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City
* Cornwall and
West Devon Mining Landscape
Natural
* Giant's Causeway
* St Kilda (dual Natural
and Cultural site)
* Henderson Island
* Gough and
Inaccessible Islands
* Dorset and East Devon Coast
Press enquiries
Bromley: 020 8461 7670
English Heritage:
0207 973 3295
DCMS Public enquiries 020 7211 6020
http://www.culture.gov.uk
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
http://www.culture.gov.uk