Greenwich UK
Greenwich was one of my favorite places to visit. The park is very beautiful as are the buildings/structures. I stood at the Prime Meridian, with one foot on the east hemisphere and one on the west. A prime meridian is a line of longitude that divides the sphere (earth) into two hemispheres; Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere
Greenwich Gates
Picture from internet
Wolf Statue
Picture from internet
James Wolf Statue - Greenwich Park
*I remember walking up to and past this statue. I debated on whether to take a picture. I didn't know anything about the man. I took tons of pictures (film, not digital).
Major General James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army Officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759. The son of a distinguished general, Edward Wolfe, he had received his first commission at a young age and saw extensive service in Europe where he fought during the War of the Austrian Succession. His service in Flanders and in Scotland, where he took part in the suppression of the Jacobite Rebellion, brought him to the attention of his superiors. The advancement of his career was halted by the Peace Treaty of 1748 and he spent much of the next eight years on garrison duty in the Scottish Highlands. Already a brigade major at the age of eighteen, he was a lieutenant-colonel by the age of twenty-three.
The outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756 offered Wolfe fresh opportunities for advancement. His part in the aborted raid on Rochefort in 1757 led William Pitt to appoint him second-in-command of an expedition to capture the Fortress of Louisbourg. Following the success of the Siege of Louisbourg he was made commander of a force which sailed up the Saint Lawrence River to capture Quebec City. After a long siege Wolfe defeated a French force under Marquis de Montcalm allowing British forces to capture the city. Wolfe was killed at the height of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham due to injuries from three musket balls.
Wolfe's part in the taking of Quebec in 1759 earned him posthumous fame, and he became an icon of Britain's victory in the Seven Years War and subsequent territorial expansion. He was depicted in the painting The Death of General Wolfe, which became famous around the world. Wolfe was posthumously dubbed "The Hero of Quebec", "The Conqueror of Quebec", and also "The Conqueror of Canada", since the capture of Quebec led directly to the capture of Montreal, ending French control of the country.
Royal Naval Observatory
Royal Naval Observatory
I took this picture. We didn't go inside but it is a lovely building and Greenwich was a lovely park. I see why people of London loved going there. The parks are great spaces to enjoy nature.
Wikipedia
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG;[1] known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, moved from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park, overlooking the River Thames. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and is best known as the location of the prime meridian, and thereby gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time. The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list.[2] ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.[1]
The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II, with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August. The site was chosen by Sir Christopher Wren.[3] At that time the king also created the position of Astronomer Royal, to serve as the director of the observatory and to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." He appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal. The building was completed in the summer of 1676.[4] The building was often called "Flamsteed House", in reference to its first occupant.
The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in stages in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now maintained as a museum.
The establishment of a Royal Observatory was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor General at the Ordnance Office, persuaded King Charles II to create the observatory, with John Flamsteed installed as its director.[7] The Ordnance Office was given responsibility for building the Observatory, with Moore providing the key instruments and equipment for the observatory at his own personal cost. Flamsteed House, the original part of the Observatory, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, probably assisted by Robert Hooke, and was the first purpose-built scientific research facility in Britain. It was built for a cost of £520 (£20 over budget) out of largely recycled materials on the foundations of Duke Humphrey's Tower, the forerunner of Greenwich Castle, which resulted in the alignment being 13 degrees away from true North, somewhat to Flamsteed's chagrin.
The original observatory at first housed the scientific instruments to be used by Flamsteed in his work on stellar tables, and over time also incorporated additional responsibilities such as marking the official time of day, and housing Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office.
Moore donated two clocks, built by Thomas Tompion, which were installed in the 20 foot high Octagon Room, the principal room of the building. They were of unusual design, each with a pendulum 13 feet (3.96 metres) in length mounted above the clock face, giving a period of four seconds and an accuracy, then unparalleled, of seven seconds per day.
Greenwich Meridian
British astronomers have long used the Royal Observatory as a basis for measurement. Four separate meridians have passed through the buildings, defined by successive instruments.[8] The basis of longitude, the meridian that passes through the Airy transit circle, first used in 1851, was adopted as the world's Prime Meridian at the International Meridian Conference on 22 October 1884 (voting took place on 13 October).[9] Subsequently, nations across the world used it as their standard for mapping and timekeeping. The Prime Meridian was marked by a brass (later replaced by stainless steel) strip in the Observatory's courtyard once the buildings became a museum in 1960, and, since 16 December 1999, has been marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky.
Since the first triangulation of Great Britain in the period 1783–1853, Ordnance Survey maps have been based on an earlier version of the Greenwich meridian, defined by the transit instrument of James Bradley. When the Airy circle (5.79 m to the east) became the reference for the meridian, the difference resulting from the change was considered small enough to be neglected. When a new triangulation was done between 1936 and 1962, scientists determined that in the Ordnance Survey system the longitude of the international Greenwich meridian was not 0° but 0°00'00.417" (about 8 m) East.[10] Besides the change of the reference line, imperfections of the surveying system added another discrepancy to the definition of the origin, so that the Bradley line itself is now 0°00'00.12" East of the Ordnance Survey Zero Meridian (about 2.3m).[11]
This old astronomical prime meridian has been replaced by a more precise prime meridian. When Greenwich was an active observatory, geographical coordinates were referred to a local oblate spheroid called a datum known as a geoid, whose surface closely matched local mean sea level. Several datums were in use around the world, all using different spheroids, because mean sea level undulates by as much as 100 metres worldwide. Modern geodetic reference systems, such as the World Geodetic System and the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, use a single oblate spheroid, fixed to the Earth's gravitational centre. The shift from several local spheroids to one worldwide spheroid caused all geographical coordinates to shift by many metres, sometimes as much as several hundred metres. The Prime Meridian of these modern reference systems is 102.5 metres east of the Greenwich astronomical meridian represented by the stainless steel strip, which is now 5.31 arcseconds West. The modern location of the Airy Transit is 51°28′40.1″N 0°0′5.3″W[12]
International time from the end of the 19th century until UT1 was based on Simon Newcomb's equations, giving a mean sun about 0.18 seconds behind UT1 (the equivalent of 2.7 arcseconds) as of 2013; it coincided in 2013 with a meridian halfway between Airy's circle and the IERS origin: 51°28′40.1247″N 0°0′2.61″W.[
Prime Meridian
So here I stand skinny and smiling and loving life. I don't remember who took the picture with my camera. I'm standing on the line with one foot in the western longitude and the other on the eastern longitude. The line goes down the wall and down to the ground.
Wikipedia
A prime meridian, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London,[1] was established by Sir George Airy in 1851. By 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In October of that year, at the behest of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., United States, for the International Meridian Conference. This conference selected the meridian passing through Greenwich as the official prime meridian due to its popularity.[note 1][2] However, France abstained from the vote, and French maps continued to use the Paris meridian for several decades. In the 18th century, London lexicographer Malachy Postlethwayt published his African maps showing the "Meridian of London" intersecting the Equator a few degrees west of the later meridian and Accra, Ghana.[3]
The prime meridian passes through the Airy transit circle (51°28′40.1″N 0°0′5.3″W)[4] of the Greenwich observatory. It was long marked by a brass strip in the courtyard, now replaced by stainless steel, and since 16 December 1999, it has been marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky.
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers show that the marking strip for the prime meridian at Greenwich is not exactly at zero degrees, zero minutes, and zero seconds but at approximately 5.3 seconds of arc to the west of the meridian (meaning that the meridian appears to be 102 metres east of this line). In the past, this offset has been attributed to the establishment of reference meridians for space-based location systems such as WGS 84 (which GPS relies on) or that errors gradually crept into the International Time Bureau timekeeping process. The actual reason for the discrepancy is that the marking strip is indeed at astronomical longitude zero degrees, zero minutes, and zero seconds[note 2]—but GPS receivers show geodetic longitude (specifically ITRF/WGS 84)
Prime Meridian Monument
Picture from internet
Greenwich Mean Time and the time Ball
Picture from internet
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was until 1954 based on celestial observations made at Greenwich, and later on observations made at other observatories. GMT was formally renamed as Universal Time in 1935, but is still commonly referred to as GMT. It is now calculated from observations of extra-galactic radio sources.
To help mariners at the port and others in line of sight of the observatory to synchronise their clocks to GMT, Astronomer Royal John Pond installed a very visible time ball that drops precisely at 1 p.m. (13:00) every day atop the observatory in 1833. Initially it was dropped by an operator; from 1852 it was released automatically via an electric impulse from the Shepherd Master Clock.[14] The ball is still dropped daily at 13:00 (GMT in winter, BST in summer).[15]
The ball has several dents sustained during renovations; the builders assumed the historic ball was to be discarded and played football with it.
Greenwich Mean Clock
I took this picture of Diedra who stayed 2 rooms down from me. She attended the University of Louisiana Once she cooked red beans and rice for us at our dorm kitchen. She was very outgoing. The lady in the room between us was Patsy McGahey. She was 55 in 1983 and I was amazed that Patsy would go to London for 6 weeks. Now that I am in my 50's, I'd go in a heartbeat, if only I were retired.
The Cutty Sark
The Cutty Sark was interesting. It was a ship that was in water, with concrete around it. So - it had a concrete 'moat' and where the grass would be, is water. LOL. I took the first picture below. Since I've been there they added a glass enclosure around the bottom. I walked around and enjoyed looking at the ship. We couldn't get on it and I understand that. It was a beautiful ship. I truly wish I'd spent time reading about England before going. Knowing more of the history would have made the trip even more enjoyable.
Cutty Sark
Wikipedia
Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development, which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion.
*Picture from internet.
Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF, United Kingdom
National Maritime Museum
I took this picture of the Maritime Museum. We went inside and enjoyed looking at all the exhibits.
Wikipedia
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world.
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, London, is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings form part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, and it also incorporates the Royal Observatory and 17th-century Queen's House. In 2012, Her Majesty the Queen formally approved Royal Museums Greenwich as the new overall title for the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and the Cutty Sark. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the National Maritime Museum does not levy an admission charge, although most temporary exhibitions do incur admission charges. The Museum was created by the National Maritime Act of 1934 Chapter 43,[2] under a Board of Trustees, appointed by H.M. Treasury. It is based on the generous donations of Sir James Caird (1864–1954). King George VI formally opened the Museum on 27 April 1937 when his daughter Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II accompanied him for the journey along the Thames from London. The first Director was Sir Geoffrey Callender..
Collection:
Since earliest times Greenwich has had associations with the sea and navigation. It was a landing place for the Romans; Henry VIII lived here; the navy has roots on the waterfront; and Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in 1675 for "finding the longitude of places". The home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian since 1884, Greenwich has long been a centre for astronomical study, while navigators across the world have set their clocks according to its time of day. The Museum has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea comprising more than two million items, including maritime art (both British and 17th-century Dutch), cartography, manuscripts including official public records, ship models and plans, scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for time-keeping and astronomy (based at the Observatory). Its British portraits collection is exceeded in size only by that of the National Portrait Gallery and its holdings relating to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and Captain James Cook, among many other individuals, are unrivalled.
An active loans programme ensures that items from the collection are seen in the UK and abroad. Through its displays, exhibitions and outreach programmes the Museum also explores our current relationship with the sea and the future of the sea as an environmental force and resource.
The Museum aims to achieve a greater understanding of British economic, cultural, social, political and maritime history and its consequences in the world today. The museum plays host to various exhibitions, including Ships Clocks & Stars in 2014, Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution in 2015 and Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity in 2016.[4][5][6]
The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes items taken from the German Naval Academy Mürwik after World War II, including several ship models, paintings and flags. The museum has been criticized for possessing what has been described as "Looted art".[7][8] The Museum regards these cultural objects as "war trophies", removed under the provisions of the Potsdam Conference.
The Museum awards the Caird Medal annually in honour of its major donor, Sir James Caird
Greenwich Palace
My memories of the Greenwich Palace.
The one story I remember hearing about this castle was that one of the Queens allowed the palace to be built or spread out to the sides and then forward to the Thames River. As you notice there is an open view to the river in front of the 2 story middle structure. The Queen would not allow her view of the river to be impeded. This picture was taken by me in 1983. The castle is downhill from the Observatory and Maritime museum. It was a nice walk. The Cutty Sark is located near (as seen in the picture).
The History of
Greenwich Palace
By John Timbs
The Tudor Palace at Greenwich
At the commencement of his reign, the Manor of Greenwich, with its appurtenances, came into the possession of King Henry VII. Henry, on some frivolous pretence, committed the then owner, Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV, in close confinement to the nunnery of Bermondsey, where, some years after, she ended her life in poverty and solitude. Henry enlarged the Palace, added a brick front towards the waterside and finished the Tower in the Park begun by Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (see illustration above).
In 1487, on the second day preceding the coronation of Henry VII, the Queen came from Greenwich by water, royally attended. Among the barges of the City Companies, which accompanied the procession, was "in especial, a barge called the Bachelors' Barge, garnished and apparelled passing all others; wherein was ordained a great red dragon, spouting flames of fire into the Thames, and many gentlemanly pageants, well and curiously devised to do her highness sport and pleasure with."
King Henry VIII was born at Greenwich on June 28th, 1491, and baptised in the parish church by the Bishop of Exeter, the Lord Privy Seal. This monarch exceeded all his predecessors in the grandeur of his buildings and rendered the Palace magnificent. Perhaps, from partiality for the place of his birth, Henry resided chiefly at Greenwich, neglecting the Palace of Eltham which had been the favourite residence of his ancestors. Many sumptuous banquets, revels and solemn jousts, for which his reign was celebrated, were held at his Manor of Pleazaunce. On June 3rd, 1509, Henry's marriage with Catherine of Aragon, was solemnised here at the Greyfriars' Church. In 1511, on May-Day, "the King lying at Greenwich, rode to the wood to fetch May; and after, on the same day and two days next ensuing, the King, Sir Edward Howard, Charles Brandon and Sir Edward Neville, as challengers, held jousts against all comers. On the other part, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Essex and Devonshire with others, as defendants, ran against them, so that many a sore stripe was given, and many a staff broken."
At Christmas 1516, the King gave a festival "with great solemnity, dancing, disguisings and mummeries, in a most princely manner." At this entertainment was introduced the first Masquerade ever seen in England. The following account of it, and the other festivities of this Christmas, may not prove uninteresting, as it is very characteristic of the splendours of that period: "The King, this year, kept the feast of Christmas at Greenwich where was such abundance of viands served, to all corners of any honest behaviours, as hath been few times seen. And against New Year's night was made, in the hall, a castle, gates, towers and dungeon, garnished with artillery and weapons, after the most warlike fashion. And on the front of the castle was written, Le Fortresse dangerus, and within the castle were six ladies clothed in russet satin laid all over with leafs of gold, and every hood knit with laces of blue silk and gold. On their heads, coifs and caps all of gold. After this castle had been carried about the hall and the Queen had beheld it, in came the King with five others apparelled in coats, the one half of russet satin spangled with spangles of fine gold, the other half rich cloth of gold. On their heads, caps of russet satin, embroidered with works of fine gold bullion. These six assaulted the castle. The ladies, seeing them so lusty and courageous, were content to solace with them and, upon further communication, to yield the castle. And so they came down and danced a long space. And after, the ladies led the knights into the castle and then the castle suddenly vanished out of their sights. On the day of the Epiphany at night, the King with eleven others, were disguised after the manner of Italy, called a mask: a thing not seen before in England. They were apparelled in garments long and broad, wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold. And after the banquet was done, these maskers came in, with six gentlemen disguised in silk bearing staff torches, and desired the ladies to dance. Some were content and some, that knew the fashion of it, refused, because it was not a thing commonly seen. And after they danced and commoned together, as the fashion of the mask is, they took their leave and departed, and so did the Queen and all the ladies." - Hall's Chronicle.
Other jousts were held, as also in 1517 and 1526. In 1512, the King had kept his Christmas at Greenwich "with great and plentiful cheer," in a most princely manner; also in l521, 1525, 1527, 1533, 1537 and 1543. On February 8th, 1516, Princess Mary, afterwards Queen, was born here, and, on May 13th, the marriage of Mary, Queen Dowager of France (Henry's sister), with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was publicly solemnised in the parish church. In 1527, the embassy from the French King to Henry VIII was received here. This embassy, that it might correspond with the English Court in magnificence, consisted of eight persons of high quality, attended by six hundred horse. They were received with the greatest honours, "and entertained after a more sumptuous manner than had ever been seen before." On September 7th, 1533, the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen, was born here. In 1536, on May Day, after a tournament, Anne Boleyn, the mother of the Princess Elizabeth, was arrested here by the King's order. Henry signed her death warrant at Greenwich and she was beheaded on the 19th of the same month at the Tower of London. On January 6th, 1540, Henry's marriage with Anne of Cleves was solemnised here "and about her marrying ring was written, 'God send me well to keep.'" This was a most unpropitious alliance, for Henry took a dislike to Anne of Cleves immediately after their marriage. Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the wise and faithful minister of this ungrateful king, was beheaded in the Tower, in 1540, because he had been the principal promoter of this marriage.
A procession from Greenwich to Westminster, immediately after the nuptials of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, is thus chronicled by Holinshed: "The fourth of Feburary (1540), the King and she removed to Westminster by water, on whom the Lord Mayor and his brethren, with twelve of the chief companies of the City, all in barges gorgeously garnished with barters, pennants and targets, richly covered and furnished with instruments sweetly sounding, gave their attendance. And by their way, all the ships shot off. And likewise, from the Tower, a great peal of ordnance went off lustily." The King, after Parliament was ended, kept a solemn Christmas at Greenwich to cheer his nobles and, on the twelfth day at night, came in the hall, a mount, called the Riche Mount. The Mount was set full of rich flowers of silk. The branches were green satin and the flowers, flat gold of damask, which signified Plantagenet. On the top stood a goodly beacon giving light. Round about the beacon, sat the King and five others, all in coats and caps of right crimson velvet, embroidered with flat gold of damask, the coats, set full of spangles of gold. And four woodhouses drew the mount, till it came before the Queen, and then the King and his company descended and danced. Then, suddenly the mount opened and out came six ladies, all in crimson satin and plunket embroidered with gold and pearl, and French hoods on their heads, and they danced alone. Then the lords of the mount took the ladies and danced together, and the ladies re-entered, and the mount closed, and so was conveyed out of the hall. Then the King shifted him, and came to the Queen, and sat at the banquet which was very sumptuous." - Hall.
The fortunes of Duke Humphrey's Tower were very changeful. It was sometimes the habitation of the younger branches of the royal family, sometimes the residence of a favourite mistress, sometimes a prison, and sometimes a place of defence. As mentioned, Mary of York, fifth daughter of Edward IV, died at the Tower in Greenwich Park, in 1482. In 1543, the King entertained twenty-one of the Scottish nobility here, whom he had taken prisoners at Salem Moss, and gave them liberty without ransom. King Edward VI resided at this Manor, where he kept his Christmas in 1552. He died here on July 6th, 1553.
Queen Elizabeth made several additions to the Palace, where she kept a regular Court. It became her principal residence and is said to have been where Sir Walter Ralegh famously threw his cloak over a puddle so the Queen would not get her feet wet. On July 2nd, 1559, Elizabeth was entertained by the citizens of London with a muster of 1400 men and a mock fight in Greenwich Park. On the 10th of the same month, she gave a joust, a mask and a sumptuous banquet in the Park, to several Ambassadors, Lords and Ladies. At a Council held at Greenwich the same year, it was determined to be contrary to law for any Nuncio from the Pope to enter this realm.
On June 29th, 1585, she received here, the Deputies of the United Provinces who offered her the sovereignty of the Low Countries which, from motives of state policy, she declined to accept. In 1586, she received the Danish Ambassador at Greenwich and on July 25th, 1597, the Ambassador from the King of Poland. In 1587, it was at Greenwich that Elizabeth signed the death warrant of Mary, Queen of Scots.
A curious picture of the Queen and her Court at Greenwich appears in Paul Hentzner's Journey into England, in 1598, and the account of his reception by Elizabeth is minute and characteristic.
The Queen's House and Royal Naval College, Greenwich
King James I erected a new brick front to the Palace, towards the gardens, and his Queen, Anne of Denmark laid the foundation of the 'House of Delight' - now called the 'Queen's House' - near the Park. In this house, the Governor of Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital afterwards resided and it is now the centre building of the National Maritime Museum. In 1606, the Princess Mary, daughter of James I, was christened at Greenwich with great solemnity.
King Charles I resided much at the Palace previous to the breaking out of the Parliamentary War and Henrietta Maria, his Queen, finished the House near the Park begun by Anne of Denmark. Inigo Jones was employed as the architect, and it was completed in 1635, as appears by a date still to be seen on the front of the building. It was furnished so magnificently that it far surpassed all other houses of the kind in England. King Charles left the Palace with the fatal resolution of taking his journey northward and the turbulent state of the times prevented him from again visiting it. Greenwich Castle was considered a place of some strength and consequence by the Parliament in the time of the Commonwealth. They were unsuccessful in trying to sell the place and, instead, turned it into a biscuit factory! On the restoration of King Charles II, in 1660, this manor, with the park and other royal demesnes, again reverted to the crown. The King, finding the old palace greatly decayed by time and the want of necessary repairs during the Commonwealth, ordered it to be taken down and commenced the erection of a most magnificent palace of freestone, one wing of which was completed (now forming, with additions, the west wing of the University of Greenwich Maritime Campus) and where he occasionally resided, but made no further progress in the work. The Architect he employed was Webb, son-in-law of Inigo Jones, from whose papers the designs were made.
In 1685, it was made part of the jointure of Queen Mary, consort of King James II, but remained in the same state till the reign of William and Mary. The joint monarchs preferred the Royal residences at Kensington and Hampton Court. They had what remained of the old palace incorporated into a splendid new Naval Hospital, with which the history of the site thence merges. This later became the Royal Naval College and is currently the centre piece of the Maritime Campus of the University of Greewich.
Greenwich Palace Part 1: The Medieval Palace
Edited from John Timbs' Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales (1870)
Discover the Queen's House in Greenwich
in December 1999.
Though viewable externally from the waterfront and the Royal Park, the Queen's House is currently closed to the public due to building alterations. It will, however, reopen in December, ready for the Millennium Celebrations, when it will house an exhibition of 'The Story of Time'.
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Greenwich UK wikipedia
Greenwich (/ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ/ (About this sound listen), /ˈɡrɪnɪdʒ/, /ˈɡrɪnɪtʃ/ or /ˈɡrɛnɪdʒ/ is an area of south east London, England, located 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross. It is located within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, to which it lends its name.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was rebuilt as the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained an establishment for military education until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934. Greenwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created
History
The place-name 'Greenwich' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 918, where it appears as Gronewic. It is recorded as Grenewic in 964, and as Grenawic in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1013. It is Grenviz in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Grenewych in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291. The name means 'green wic or settlement' (from the Latin 'vicus').
The settlement later became known as East Greenwich to distinguish it from West Greenwich or Deptford Strond, the part of Deptford adjacent to the Thames,[4] but the use of East Greenwich to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th century. However, Greenwich was divided into the registration subdistricts of Greenwich East and Greenwich West from the beginning of civil registration in 1837, the boundary running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Crooms Hill, although more modern references to "East" and "West" Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West Greenwich council ward. An article in The Times of 13 October 1967 stated:
East Greenwich, gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel, remains solidly working class, the manpower for one eighth of London's heavy industry. West Greenwich is a hybrid: the spirit of Nelson, the Cutty Sark, the Maritime Museum, an industrial waterfront and a number of elegant houses, ripe for development.
Manor of East Greenwich
Royal charters granted to English colonists in North America, often used the name of the manor of East Greenwich for describing the tenure (from the Latin verb teneo, hold) as that of free socage. New England charters provided that the grantees should hold their lands "as of his Majesty’s manor of East Greenwich." This was in relation to the principle of land tenure under English law, that the ruling monarch (king or queen) was paramount lord of all the soil in the terra regis, while all others held their lands, directly or indirectly, under the monarch. Land outside the physical boundaries of England, as in America, was treated as belonging constructively to one of the existing royal manors, and from Tudor times grants frequently used the name of the manor of East Greenwich, but some 17c. grants named the castle of Windsor. Places in North America that have taken the name "East Greenwich" include a township in Gloucester County, New Jersey, a hamlet in Washington County, New York, and a town in Kent County, Rhode Island.
Early settlement
Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House, in Greenwich Park, are thought to be early Bronze Age barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To the east between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small area of red paving tesserae protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and 300 coins were found dating from the emperors Claudius and Honorius to the 5th century. This was excavated by the Channel 4 television programme Time Team in 1999, broadcast in 2000, and further investigations were made by the same group in 2003.
The Roman road from London to Dover, Watling Street crossed the high ground to the south of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier Celtic route from Canterbury to St Albans. As late as Henry V, Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a safe anchorage in the river.
Viking
During the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danish fleet anchored in the River Thames off Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here they attacked Kent and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury, making Archbishop Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich, at that time within the county of Kent. They stoned him to death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body, until the blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and completed in 1718. Some vestiges of the Danish camps may be traced in the names of Eastcombe and Westcombe, on the borders of nearby Blackheath.
Norman
The Domesday Book records the manor of Grenviz in the hundred of Grenviz as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux; his lands were seized by the crown in 1082. The name of the hundred was changed to Blackheath when the site of the hundred court was moved there in the 12th century. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here since before 1300, when Edward I is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the Virgin Mary.
Plantagenet
Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry V granting the manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died at Greenwich in 1426. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's half-brother and the regent to Henry VI in 1447; he enclosed the park and erected a tower on the hill now occupied by the Royal Observatory. It was renamed the Palace of Placentia or Pleasaunce by Henry VI's consort Margaret of Anjou after Humphrey's death. The palace was completed and further enlarged by Edward IV, and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth.
Ultimately it was because the palace and its grounds were a royal possession that it was chosen as the site for Charles II's Royal Observatory, from which stemmed Greenwich's subsequent global role as originator of the modern Prime Meridian.
Tudor
The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII) and Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over nearby Eltham Palace, the former principal royal palace. He extended Greenwich Palace and it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves at Greenwich, and both Mary (18 February 1516) and Elizabeth (7 September 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also died there at age 15.
The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence. Both she and her sister Mary I used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned the Spanish Armada campaign there in 1588.
Stuart
Adriaen van Stalbemt's A View of Greenwich, c. 1632. Royal Collection, London.
James I carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to his wife Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace.
Charles I granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom Inigo Jones completed the Queen's House. During the English Civil War, the palace was used as a biscuit factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum, the palace and park were seized to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector.
By the time of the Restoration, the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II, but only the King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park and founded and built the Royal Observatory.
Prince James (later King James II & VII), as Duke of York and Lord Admiral until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys, he proposed the idea of creating a Royal Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II, who in 1692-1693 commissioned Christopher Wren to design the Royal Hospital for Seamen (now the Old Royal Naval College). The work was begun under her widower William III in 1696 and completed by Hawksmoor. Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark continued to patronise the project.
Hanoverian
George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George II granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater, which allowed the building to be completed by 1751.
In 1805, George III granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage school), which amalgamated in 1821-1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum, it was renamed the Royal Hospital School by Queen Victoria in 1892.
George IV donated nearly 40 paintings to the hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in the Painted Hall. These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National Maritime Museum. Subsequently, William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors and visitors to the gallery.
Victorian and Edwardian
Queen Victoria rarely visited Greenwich but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert personally bought Nelson's Trafalgar coat for the Naval Gallery.
In 1838 the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) completed the very first steam railway in London. It started at London Bridge and had its terminus at London Street (now Greenwich High Road). It was also the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first ever elevated railway, having 878 arches over its almost four mile stretch. In 1853 the local Scottish Presbyterian community built a church close by. The church was extended twice in the 1860s during the ministry of the increasingly well known Dr Adolph Saphir, eventually accommodating a thousand worshippers. In 1864 opposite the railway terminus, theatrical entrepreneur Sefton Parry built the thousand seater New Greenwich Theatre. William Morton was one of its more successful managers. The theatre was demolished in 1937 to make way for a new Town Hall, now a listed building under new ownership and renamed Meridian House. Greenwich Station is at the northern apex of the Ashburnham Triangle, a residential estate developed by the Ashburnham family, mainly between 1830 and 1870, on land previously developed as market gardens. It is now a designated conservation area. The present Greenwich Theatre, further to the east, was constructed inside the shell of a Victorian music hall. Beginning life In 1855 as an annexe to the Rose and Crown, the music hall was rebuilt in 1871 by Charles Crowder and subsequently operated under many names.
Modern and the present
George V and Queen Mary both supported the creation of the National Maritime Museum, and Mary presented the museum with many items.
The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI), laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it moved out to Holbrook, Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the school. The king was accompanied by his mother Queen Mary, his wife Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) and the Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II.)
Princess Elizabeth and her consort Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (who was ennobled Baron Greenwich on marriage in 1947) made their first public and official visit to Greenwich in 1948 to receive the Freedom of the Borough for Philip. In the same year, he became a trustee of the National Maritime Museum. Philip, now the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron. The Duke of Edinburgh has also been a patron of the Cutty Sark (which was opened by the Queen in 1957) since 1952.
During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, the Queen embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee River Pageant. In 1987, Her Majesty was aboard the P&O ship Pacific Princess when it moored alongside the Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th anniversary celebrations.
To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3 February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The status was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family, the location of the Prime Meridian and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Governance
Main article: Royal Borough of Greenwich
A map showing the wards of Greenwich Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.
Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of The Thames. Along with Blackheath Westcombe, Charlton, Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, and Woolwich Common, it elects a Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich; currently the MP is Matthew Pennycook.[25]
Geography
Topography
The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To the south, the land rises steeply, 100 feet (30 m) through Greenwich Park to the town of Blackheath. The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the Blackheath Beds, that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcrop—with sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river.
Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek and Deptford to the west; the former industrial centre of the Greenwich Peninsula and the residential area of Westcombe Park to the east; the River Thames to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south.
Riverfront
File:RFA Argus arriving at Greenwich, 24 June 2017.ogvPlay media
RFA Argus being towed to Greenwich in June 2017
The Cutty Sark (a clipper ship) has been preserved in a dry dock by the river. A major fire in May 2007 destroyed a part of the ship, although much had already been removed for restoration. Nearby for many years was also displayed Gipsy Moth IV, the 54 feet (16.5 m) yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, Gipsy Moth IV was removed from Greenwich, and after restoration work completed a second circumnavigation in May 2007. On the riverside in front of the north-west corner of the Hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic explorer Joseph René Bellot.
Boats at Greenwich at the end of the Great River Race
The Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender moored on the riverfront at Greenwich in 2015
Near the Cutty Sark site, a circular building contains the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel, opened on 4 August 1902. This connects Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs on the northern side of the River Thames. The north exit of the tunnel is at Island Gardens,[32] from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen.
Rowing has been part of life on the river at Greenwich for hundreds of years and the first Greenwich Regatta was held in 1785. The annual Great River Race along the Thames Tideway finishes at the Cutty Sark. The nearby Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is home to Curlew Rowing Club and Globe Rowing Club.
The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of the buildings are let to the University of Greenwich and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music. Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall, this was painted by James Thornhill, and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart. The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor, within the King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999.[33]
Trinity Hospital, Greenwich
To the east of the Naval College is the Trinity Hospital almshouse, founded in 1613, the oldest surviving building in the town centre.[34] This is next to the massive brick walls and the landing stage of Greenwich Power Station. Built between 1902 and 1910 as a coal-fired station to supply power to London's tram system, and later the London underground, it is now oil- and gas-powered and serves as a backup station for London Underground.[35] East Greenwich also has a small park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce, which was formerly the burial ground of Greenwich Hospital.
The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) was built on part of the site of East Greenwich Gas Works, a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula.[36] It is next to North Greenwich tube station, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east from the Greenwich town centre, North West of Charlton. Pear Tree Wharf was associated with the gas works, being used to unload coal for the manufacturing of town gas, and is now home to the Greenwich Yacht Club. The Greenwich Millennium Village is a new urban regeneration development to the south of the Dome. Enderby's Wharf is a site associated with submarine cable manufacture for over 150 years.
Greenwich Park
Main article: Greenwich Park
Behind the former Naval College is the National Maritime Museum housed in buildings forming another symmetrical group and grand arcade around the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones. Continuing to the south, Greenwich Park is a Royal Park of 183 acres (0.7 km2), laid out in the 17th century and formed from the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia.[37]
Spiral staircase and lantern at the Queen's House in Greenwich
The park rises towards Blackheath and at the top of this hill is a statue of James Wolfe, commander of the British expedition to capture Quebec.[38] Nearby a major group of buildings within the park includes the former Royal Observatory, Greenwich; the Prime Meridian passes through this building. Greenwich Mean Time was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by Coordinated Universal Time. While there is no longer a working astronomical observatory at Greenwich, a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m., and there is a museum of astronomical and navigational tools, particularly John Harrison's marine chronometers.
The Ranger's House lies at the Blackheath end of the park and houses the Wernher Collection of art, and many fine houses, including Vanbrugh's house lie on Maze Hill, on the western edge of the park.
Town centre
A curving street with older two- and three-storey buildings on either side. In front is a black London taxicab with an advert; midway down the street is an intersection with heavy traffic. A cupolaed clock tower rises in the rear
Town centre
Georgian and Victorian architecture dominates in the town centre which spreads to the west of the park and Royal Naval College. Much of this forms a one-way system around a covered market, Greenwich Market and the arthouse Greenwich Cinema. Up the hill from the centre, there are many streets of Georgian houses, including the Fan Museum, on Croom's Hill. Nearby at the junction of Croom's Hill with Nevada Street, is Greenwich Theatre. The Greenwich Playhouse closed in 2012
Market
An interior of a building with a translucent glass roof supported by blue-painted steel latticework. On the main floor are a number of different stalls with customers inspecting various wares.
Greenwich Market
There has been a market at Greenwich since the 14th century, but the history of the present market dates from 1700 when a charter to run two markets, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was assigned by Lord Romney (Henry, Earl of Romney) to the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital for 1000 years.
The market is part of "the Island site", bounded by College Approach, Greenwich Church Street, King William Walk and Nelson Road, near the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. The buildings surrounding the market are Grade 2 listed and were established in 1827–1833 under the direction of Joseph Kay. A market roof was added in 1902–08 (and replaced in 2016). Later significant development occurred in 1958–60 and during the 1980s. The landowner, Greenwich Hospital, has been enhancing the Market since 2014 and due to complete in Spring 2016.
Greenwich Mean Time
Main article: Greenwich Mean Time
Royal Observatory with the time ball atop the Octagon Room
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in Greenwich. It is commonly used in practice to refer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone, especially by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service,[44] the Royal Navy, the Met Office and others, although strictly UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT), which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is referred to by the phrase Zulu time.
As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884).[note 1] Note that the synchronization of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".
In 1997, Maritime Greenwich was added to the list of World Heritage Sites, for the concentration and quality of buildings of historic and architectural interest. These can be divided into the group of buildings along the riverfront, Greenwich Park and the Georgian and Victorian town centre.
Greenwich Heritage Centre
Main article: Greenwich Heritage Centre
Greenwich Heritage Centre is a museum and local history resource run by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and is based in Artillery Square, in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, south-east London.
Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre
Pepys Building
The Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre provides an introduction to the history and attractions in the Greenwich World Heritage Site.[49] It is located in the Pepys Building near to the Cutty Sark within the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College (formerly Greenwich Hospital); the building began life as an engineering laboratory for the College. The centre opened in March 2010, and admission is free.
The history of the Palace of Placentia.
Models of Christopher Wren's original designs for Greenwich Hospital.
Six of the carved heads originally intended to decorate the exterior of the College's Painted Hall.
Exhibition displays about Maritime Greenwich and its connections with the sea and exploration.
"By Wisdom as much as War" – an exhibition about the history of the Royal Naval College during the years it occupied Greenwich Hospital (1873–1998).
Education
Main article: List of schools in Greenwich
The University of Greenwich main campus is located in the distinctive buildings of the former Royal Naval College. The university has other campuses at Avery Hill in Eltham and at Medway. The Greenwich campus also houses the Trinity College of Music. Secondary schools in the area include John Roan School and St Ursula's Convent School.
Transport
Greenwich station
Rail
Greenwich is served by two National Rail stations, Greenwich and Maze Hill. Both of these stations have services to London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street, London Cannon Street via Bexleyheath, London Cannon Street via Sidcup, Dartford and Gillingham.
Greenwich is also served by the Docklands Light Railway, with services from Greenwich and Cutty Sark to Lewisham, Canary Wharf, Stratford and Bank. Greenwich is also served by North Greenwich tube station which is on the northern tip of the district as well as the whole surrounding borough. The station is on the Jubilee line and has westward services through central London to Stanmore, and eastward services to Stratford.
Buses. Greenwich is served by several Transport for London bus services which links it with areas including Catford, Central London, Elephant and Castle, Eltham, Lewisham, Peckham, New Cross, Sidcup, Thamesmead, Waterloo and Woolwich.
Boat
There are a number of river boat services running from Greenwich Pier, managed by London River Services. The main services include the Thames commuter catamaran service run by Thames Clipper from Embankment, via Tower Millennium Pier, Canary Wharf and on to the O2 and Woolwich Arsenal Pier;[50] the Westminster-Greenwich cruise service by Thames River Services; and the City Cruises tourist cruise via Westminster, Waterloo and Tower piers.[51]
Pedestrian and cycle routes
The Thames Path National Trail runs along the riverside. The Greenwich foot tunnel provides pedestrian access to the southern end of the Isle of Dogs, across the river Thames.
W The National Cycle Network Route 1 includes the foot tunnel, though cycling is not permitted in the tunnel itself.
Literature
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