The Origins of Darwin Green

Origin of the Names in Darwin Green

Darwin Green is a reference to Charles Darwin (1809–1882), the famous naturalist, geologist, and biologist. But do you know where the names of the streets and buildings in the development come from? The builder company hasn’t published the origin of the names, but here’s our guess:

Balfour Lane

Darwin compared Francis Maitland Balfour (1851–1882), embryologist, naturalist, and fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, with Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), implying respect for his expertise in comparative anatomy. He died aged 30 while attempting the first ascent of the Aiguille Blanche, in the Mont Blanc massif. He was the younger brother of Arthur Balfour (1848–1930), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905.

He appears to be unrelated to John Hutton Balfour (1808–1884), a distinguished Scottish botanist and Professor of Botany, who – during his studies at the University of Edinburgh – joined the Plinian Society, a natural history club for students that Charles Darwin attended at the same period.

Beagle Road

HMS Beagle was the ship that carried Darwin around the world, for a five-year trip that established the scientist’s status as an eminent geologist and naturalist, and played a key role in the formation of his theories on evolution.

Cornford Drive

Frances Cornford (1886–1960), née Darwin, classicist and poet, was Charles Darwin’s granddaughter. She is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, like several others of Darwin’s family.

Crick Road

Francis Crick (1916–2004) was a molecular biologist whose joint discovery of the helical structure of the DNA molecule, announced at the Eagle pub in 1953, earned him a Nobel Prize. His grandfather Walter Drawbridge Crick (1857–1903), English businessman, amateur geologist and palaeontologist, corresponded with Charles Darwin.

Darwin building

A direct reference to Charles Darwin. Darwin had ties with Cambridge: he studied at Christ’s College from 1828 to 1831 before leaving for his famous voyage, and once returned he spent a few months (mid-December 1836 to early March 1837) in Cambridge to arrange expert classification of his collections while preparing his own research for publication.

Evolution Court

Darwin was instrumental to the conception of the theory of evolution by natural selection. He developed his theory over the twenty years following his voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

Falmouth Avenue

Falmouth is a town on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall. On 2nd October 1836, HMS Beagle anchored at Falmouth, thus ending its second trip and bringing back Darwin to England.

Falmouth Close

See Falmouth Avenue.

Galton Road

Francis Galton (1822–1911), explorer, statistician, and eugenicist, was Darwin’s half-cousin. He studied mathematics at Trinity College in Cambridge, and is credited for ideas that became the basis of behavioural genetics.

Hawking building

This is probably a reference to the theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), whose ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey, between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

Henslow Crescent

The Reverend John Stevens Henslow (1796–1861) was an Anglican priest, botanist and geologist, interested in the variation within species of plants. He was Darwin’s friend and academic advisor, and Darwin described their friendship as the most important circumstance in his whole career. Henslow was the first person to be offered the position of naturalist on the voyage of HMS Beagle, which he declined because of family responsibilities. He suggested Darwin as a suitable naturalist instead.

Horace Walk

Sir Horace Darwin (1851–1928) was an engineer specialising in the design and manufacture of precision scientific instruments, and the ninth child of Charles Darwin. He was also a Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and was elected Mayor of the city between 1896 and 1897.

Jenyns Drive

An English clergyman, author, and naturalist, the Reverend Leonard Jenyns (1800–1893) was another scholar mentored by John Stevens Henslow. Jenyns was the second person to be offered the position of naturalist on the second voyage of HMS Beagle but turned down the offer due to ill health and parish duties. He and Henslow suggested Charles Darwin as his replacement.

Lawrence Weaver Road

Sir Lawrence Weaver (1876–1930) was an English architectural writer and civil servant. He founded the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in 1919 under the motto “better seeds: better crops” to help safeguard food supplies after World War I. Built in 2011, Lawrence Weaver Road predates the Darwin Green development, which explains why it has no ties with Darwin.

Lewis building

This is a tricky name, because there’s no apparent well-known relationship between Darwin and anyone named Lewis. Based on the names of the neighbour buildings (Hawking, Darwin, Newton), we suppose it could be a scientist and/or an individual buried in Westminster Abbey. A good candidate would be C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), writer, literary scholar, and theologian, who authored The Chronicles of Narnia. He held a chair at Magdalene College in Cambridge from 1954 to 1963, and was honoured, 50 years after his death, with a memorial in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Newton building

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was a scientist whose legacy is too long to list in this paragraph but includes the laws of motion and universal gravitation. He was a fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and served twice as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge. After his death he was buried in Westminster Abbey, where Darwin later joined him.

Patagonia Way

The southern end of South America, Patagonia is a region spreading over Argentina and Chile. About his voyage aboard HMS Beagle, Darwin wrote: “The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830 – to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific – and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the World.”

Plymouth Close

On his second voyage, the one with Darwin on board, HMS Beagle departed Devonport, Plymouth Sound, near Plymouth, on 27 December 1831. Plymouth was also the birth town of William Elford Leach (1791–1836), a zoologist and marine biologist who paved the way for Darwin’s work.

Randal Way

This may relate to Randal Keynes (1948–2023), conservationist, author, and great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin. Randal was born in Cambridge, and authored Annie’s Box, a book about the relationship between Darwin and his daughter Annie, who died at the age of 10, probably of tuberculosis.

Sedgwick Crescent

The Reverend Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, a fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and one of the founders of modern geology. He guided Charles Darwin in his study of geology and its practical methods on a field trip to North Wales, before the voyage of the Beagle. A conservative cleric, Sedgwick was never reconciled to Darwin’s ideas on the origin of species. In spite of this, the two scholars remained on good terms. The Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge also bears his name.

Shrewsbury Road

Shrewsbury is a town in Shropshire, where Charles Darwin was born and went to school, and where his father was a prosperous doctor.

Wallace Way

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was a naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist, and illustrator. He was a friend to Darwin, and he independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection. A joint paper on the subject was presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society in 1858, but drew little reaction. This pushed Darwin to publish his book On the Origin of Species: the first edition in 1859 became a best-seller and went into six editions in Darwin’s lifetime.

Wedgewood Avenue

With a close spelling: Josiah Wedgwood II (1769–1843), son of Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), was Charles Darwin’s uncle and convinced Robert Darwin (1766–1848), Charles’ father (and Josiah’s brother-in-law), to approve and fund Charles’ place on HMS Beagle. The Darwin and Wedgwood families were closely allied. Charles’ mother, Susannah Darwin (1765–1817, née Wedgwood), was sister to Josiah Wedgwood II, and Charles married Emma Darwin (1808–1896, née Wedgwood), Josiah’s daughter.

We don’t know about “Wedgewood” (with an “e”). Could it be a mistake?

Wren House

Wrens belong to a family of small brown passerine birds. During his voyage, Darwin collected a specimen that he described as a Galápagos “wren”, but turned out to be another closely allied species of finch.

Origin of the Names in Franklin Gardens

Street names in Franklin Gardens mostly have a connection with Darwin, or with biology. As for the name of the development, it is unclear who Franklin refers to. We like to believe the name comes from Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), a chemist whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, and more. She was largely unrecognised during her life, but has earned posthumous recognition since the end of the 20th century. Or maybe the name relates to Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, political philosopher, and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, who had established a lifelong friendship with Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), Charles' grandfather.

Now, here’s our guess for the streets:

Bearsden Avenue

Bearsden is a town north-west of Glasgow, in Scotland. We couldn’t find any ties with Darwin.

Covington Way

Syms Covington (1816–1861) was a fiddler and cabin boy on HMS Beagle. He became an assistant to Charles Darwin and was appointed as his full-time personal servant in 1833, for £30 a year. He assisted Darwin in preserving specimens during the voyage on the Beagle.

Down House Drive

Down House is the former home of Charles Darwin, south of Downe, a village south-east of London. This was Darwin’s retreat from the busyness of London, and the place where he died in 1882. Down House, its garden and grounds are now open to the public.

Galapagos Road

The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, part of the Republic of Ecuador. During its second voyage, HMS Beagle took Darwin to the archipelago, where the scientist studied the geology of the islands as well as many animal species. This eventually led to his proposal of the theory of evolution. One of the islands is named after Darwin.

Genome Close

A genome is the complete set of genetic instructions required to build an organism.

Iguana Way

The Iguanidae is a family of lizards, including, for example, the Galápagos land iguana, some of the largest lizards in the world. During his voyage, Darwin studied these iguanas and described them as “ugly animals”. He also reported that someone called marine iguanas “imps of darkness”.

Malthus Close

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In An Essay on the Principle of Population, he theorised that the population would double every 25 years, but food production would fail to follow, leading to famine unless birth rates decreased. His work played a role in the development of Darwin and Wallace’s ideas: Darwin observed that population growth would lead to a “struggle for existence” where “favourable variations” prevailed.

Nature Road

That’s, you know, nature. Darwin’s theory of evolution contributed to changing the understanding we have of nature.

Tahiti Road

Tahiti is the largest and most populated island in French Polynesia, a set of volcanic archipelagos in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. Darwin visited the island during his voyage on HMS Beagle.

Wallace Road

See Wallace Way in Darwin Green.

Origin of the Names in King’s Court

Burlton Road

Yeoman Drive