Published: 16 January 2006
Darwin’s Heritage
Darwin at Downe - Darwin's home and workplace - has been chosen as the UK's 2006 nomination for becoming a World Heritage Site Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has announced.
Nominations for inscription on the World Heritage List are made by the appropriate States Parties and are subject to rigorous evaluation by expert advisers to the World Heritage Committee, 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 812 World Heritage Sites in 137 States Parties. Some 628 are cultural sites, 160 are natural and 24 are mixed.
Darwin at Downe, situated in the London Borough of Bromley, comprises Charles Darwin's house, experimental garden and the countryside immediately around his property used for Darwin's important scientific investigations for forty years after his round-the-world voyage of HMS Beagle in the 1830s.
Here Darwin developed and demonstrated his theory of evolution through the study of plants and animals in natural settings and under human management.
Tessa Jowell said:
"I am delighted that the United Kingdom is nominating Darwin at Downe, Charles Darwin's home and surrounding landscape, as a World Heritage Site. Darwin was one of the greatest scientists of the modern age and his contribution to our understanding of the natural world is unrivalled.
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 the Darwin at Downe nominations does just this.
I am delighted to submit this formal nomination."
The outstanding universal value of the nominated Site is directly linked with the influence of Darwin's ideas and writing on the life sciences and biodiversity.
Darwin's publication The Origin of Species (1859) is widely recognised as one of the most influential books of all time which transformed scientific and wider public thinking about natural life and humans' place in the natural world.
The change in thinking that the book brought about was a historic stage in the development of the modern understanding of life on earth and human nature.
The nomination document for the Darwin at Downe property, which formally outlines the case for its inscription as a World Heritage Site, was submitted to the World Heritage Centre in Paris on 12 January. This nomination, together with those from other countries submitted by UNESCO's deadline of 1 February 2006 will be assessed by expert advisers to the World Heritage Committee over the next 12 months.
Final decisions will be made by the World Heritage Committee at its annual meeting in the summer of 2007.
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 & presentation.
Further information
Darwin at Downe website
Current UK sites
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
World Heritage Sites: The 1999 Tentative List of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
English Heritage
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