At home with Darwin... 200 years on

By Christine McGourty Science correspondent, BBC News

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Inside Charles Darwin's Kent home

Charles Darwin's home, Down House , in Kent, is set to reopen to the public this week with a new permanent exhibition marking the bicentenary of his birth.

The country mansion has been closed for renovations, but the house and extensive gardens have now been restored in a project led by English Heritage.

Many of the rooms contain original furniture and artefacts giving a true flavour of Darwin's life as a country gentleman, family man and scientific revolutionary.

Darwin moved to Down House in 1842, and stayed until his death

Darwin moved to Down with his wife Emma in 1842, six years after returning from his famous voyage on HMS Beagle. He lived and worked there for four decades, until his death. It was here that he wrote many of his groundbreaking works including On The Origin of Species.

His great, great granddaughter Sarah Darwin, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in London, is hugely impressed with the results: "It's very evocative. I think you get a very strong feeling of his family life here," she said.

"He was living and working at home and you can imagine the noise his children would have made. The house would have been very alive with people and ideas."

Potting balls

Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, chairman of English Heritage, said the new