HISTORY OF BUILDING.
The Royal
Observatory was sited on top of Greenwich Hill at the suggestion of Christopher
Wren, who designed the Octagon Room. A high ceiling was placed on top of this
room so that Thomas Tompions pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was
finally finished in the 1670’s.
In 1833 the time-ball was fitted to the north eastern turret of the Octagon room
as a signal to captains, so they could set their clocks. A few years later the
Magnet House was built and then the Great Equatorial building (housing the 28
inch refracting telescope) was finished.
By 1884 the Royal Observatory’s work in solving the longitude problems was
recognised, when Airys’s Transit Circle, was accepted as the prime meridian,
(Greenwich Mean Time).
Between 1948 to 1957 staff and instruments were moved to Herstmonceux Castle in
Sussex, and the Octagon Room was opened as a museum in 1953. A planetarium was
added in 1965.
Instruments on
view include Halley's 8ft quadrant, Airy’s Transit Circle, and the 28-inch
refracting telescope. Outside, there is the meridian line, which you can
straddle and have one foot in the western hemisphere and the other in the
eastern hemisphere.
