The Old Royal Observatory (London)
written by kylewis
on February 11th, 2009
, one comment
(1 vote)
Greenwich park, a world heritage site was the first of the Royal parks, covering 73 hectares, which is an awful lot! It is situated on a hilltop with impressive views across the River Thames to Docklands and the city of London. Behind it lies the open expanse of Black heath. The site is also a grade 1 listed landscape and a site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature
Conservation.
The park itself is also home to many historic buildings, the Old Royal Observatory, the Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum and the Queens House. King Charles’ love of science paved the way for the funding of the Royal
Observatory, named Flamstead House, this was built on the site of Duke Humphrey’s medieval watchtower and named after the first Royal Astronomer, John Flamstead.
Photos can’t be taken inside the observatory unfortunately but there are some incredible telescopes on show which should be of interest to some. The views are fantastic, both those looking out over the Thames and also the ones looking back at the crowds of tourists trying to get a descent photo of themselves standing on the Greenwich Meridien. This is worth a few lomos if nothing else. To the right of the Observatory is a small building with a curtained entrance, this is great fun as it’s a ‘Camera Obscura’, upon entering allow your eyes to adjust and looking down onto a table you will see the rest of Greenwich and the river projected onto the surface.
Magic! It’s interesting listening to peoples comments while in here.. Workshops and events still take place here all the time and it really is worth a visit.
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