Darwin Bicentennial Events Around The UK

Birth of the Great Man and 150th Anniversary of the Great Book Celebrated

Charles Darwin's Bicentennial is being marked in different ways all over Britain in 2009. The year also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the world's most famous and important books - On The Origin of the Species.

All over England, an enormous number of exhibitions, festivals and special events are planned, beginning with the great man's birthday on February 12 and extending throughout the year.

Celebrations and commemorations began with evensong at Westminster Abbey, attended by Darwin's descendanta, with the placing of a wreath of very special flowers on Darwin's grave in the Abbey. The flowers, Helleborus and Berberis Darwinii were grown in Darwin's own garden at Down House in Kent, where he researched and wrote his book. They are both species that Darwin discovered in South America in 1885, during the voyage of the Beagle.

Here's a quick rundown of Darwin events around the country

• Shrewsbury Darwin's birthplace celebrates with an annual Darwin festival of exhibitions, discussions and lectures, evern February. Here's what else to expect in 2009:
  • The Darwin Town Trail leads to special spots that were important in his life. In 2009, special waymarkers, embedded in the pavements near key spots were sponsored by the Royal Mail, which also issued a commemorative stamp.
  • Quantum Leap a new sculpture, scheduled to be unveiled in mid May, is intended to represent Darwin’s ground breaking scientific ideas and his impact on the scientific world. The work, designed by Pearce & Lal, will be nearly 40 feet high and 60 feet long, and is said to have cost £350,000. The design, open to interpretation, has already been likened to a shell, human vertebrae, DNA, and a dinosaur's skeleton.
  • Watch a film about Darwin's Shrewsbury
  • Keep up to date with Darwin news and events in Shrewsbury
  • Cambridge Darwin spent his undergraduate years at Cambridge University. This year, the University commemorates Darwin with the Cambridge Darwin Festival, July 5-10. It's being described as a festival of science, society, literature, history, philosophy, theology, art and music arising from the writings, life and times of Charles Darwin. Expect talks, performances, workshops, exhibitions and tours. presented through talks, discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and tours.
  • Down House in Kent was Darwin's family home for 40 years. It was here that his landscape garden (currently nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status) served as his outdoor research laboratory and he wrote his explosive work in the study. The house, managed by English Heritage, is open to the public and this year, for the first time, so is the garden. In additional a new exhibition Uncovering Originexplores the development of Darwin's ideas and the controversy they caused. There are new interactive multimedia tours, narrated by David Attenborough and Andrew Marr and a full scale reproduction of Darwin's cramped cabin on The Beagle
  • OxfordIn 1860, a famous debate on evolution and religion took place here between Thomas Huxley, biologist and writer, and Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is running several Darwin events during the bicentenery year including a new exhibition and a number of interactive, family-friendly programs.
  • Darwin - Big Idea, Big Exhibition runs until April 9 at the Natural History Museum in London. A statue of the Great Man that was housed in a side corridor for many years has been moved to a place of honor in the great hall.
  • Family Events and Activities All sorts of events, from giant puppet shows and children's theater to interactive museum exhibitions and zoo trails are planned all over the country, throughout the spring and summer. Check out Enjoy England's list of family-friendly Darwin events
  • Darwin Festivals and Events Besides The Shrewsbury and Cambridge Darwin Festivals, a number of annual science and cultural festivals are commemorating Darwin this year.
    • National Science and Engineering Week, March 6-15. More than 3,500 events around the country sponsored by the British Science Association.
    • Cambridge Science Festival March 9-22
    • Music and Evolution The Cambridge Music Festival, November 8-29, 2009
    • Bristol Festival of Ideas from late February to May, a series of talks, debates and lectures around Bristol with an international list of respected thinkers, movers and shakers. The festival, in Darwin's Bicentenery year is celebrating its own Centenery.
    • Evolution Rocks!The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival, May 23, 24.
    • The Bristol Festival of Nature, June 6 and 7.
  • Check out a list of Darwin tributes and celebrations from the arts - music, theatre, art and poetry.
  • Find out how Museums and galleries around the country are marking Darwin's Bicentenery year.
  And did you know that Darwin was a geologist too?