The overlooked corners inside

• Altazimuth Pavilion

  Standing beside the main buildings, this modest pavilion is easy to overlook next to the neighbouring domes — yet it's the place where Greenwich quietly came back to life as an active observatory. Built in 1896 to a design by William Crisp, it is a Grade II listed building. The installation that brought it back into focus was the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope, which arrived in 2018 and put a working telescope back on the hillside for the first time in decades.

• South Building

  The building known today as the South Building looks like a side wing within the observatory complex, but it opened under a grander name: the New Physical Observatory. Completed in 1899, it was built as Greenwich expanded in the late nineteenth century, extending its work beyond positional astronomy into physical observations. It is now a Grade II listed building, and it stands as evidence of the observatory's growth from the small research post Charles II established to the multi-department institution it became.

• Flamsteed House

  This red-brick building is the oldest purpose-built scientific research facility in Britain. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, with probable assistance from Robert Hooke, it was completed in 1676 on the hill at Greenwich. It takes its name from the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who initially lived, worked, and stored his instruments here. The budget was just £520 — already £20 over — and much of the material was salvaged from older structures; the foundations reused those of an existing Duke Humphrey's Tower, which is why the building sits thirteen degrees off true north, a misalignment that frustrated Flamsteed. The defining space inside is the twenty-foot-high Octagon Room, fitted with two Tompion clocks donated by Sir Jonas Moore, each with a thirteen-foot pendulum mounted above the dial and a four-second beat — accurate to within seven seconds a day, a precision unheard of at the time.

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Yuri Gagarin Statue

  A figure in a spacesuit, standing atop a globe — that is Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human in space. The 3.5-metre zinc statue was presented to the British Council by the Russian space agency Roscosmos in 2011, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Gagarin's flight. It was first unveiled on 14 July 2011 on the Mall, the site where Gagarin had met Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on his 1961 visit to Britain. It was later moved to the Royal Observatory and unveiled again on 7 March 2013, positioned to overlook the Prime Meridian. The work is a replica of a piece by Anatoly Novikov, made in Lyubertsy — the town where Gagarin learned his trade as a foundryman.

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Shepherd Gate Clock

  Mounted on the wall just outside the observatory gate, this is likely the first clock to display Greenwich Mean Time to the public — and its face shows the rare twenty-four-hour dial. The 'slave clock' network it belongs to was installed in 1852 by Charles Shepherd: a master clock inside the observatory sends an electrical pulse every second, driving this gate clock in synchrony. Originally the clock showed astronomical time, counting from noon; it was later changed to the civil GMT that starts at midnight, and it still does not adjust for British Summer Time.

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Great Equatorial Telescope

  The striking onion-shaped dome — it bulges wider than the turret that supports it, which e… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Herschel Telescope Tube

  Beside the outer wall of the South Building, a section of iron tube lies on the ground — t… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: rmg.co.uk · rmg.co.uk

• Dolphin Sundial

  In the courtyard of the Royal Observatory stands a sundial built around two dolphins. It w… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: wikidata.org · wikidata.org · wikidata.org

• Time Ball

  Every day at 1 p.m., a large red ball drops from the top of a mast on the roof of Flamstee… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Prime Meridian Marker

  Set into the paving of the Meridian Courtyard is a stainless-steel line — formerly brass —… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: rmg.co.uk · en.wikipedia.org

• Camera Obscura

  Tucked into a corner of the Meridian Courtyard is London's only publicly accessible camera… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: rmg.co.uk

• Greenwich Meridian

  The unassuming stainless-steel line in the courtyard marks the Prime Meridian defined in 1… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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