The John Roan School

Vanbrugh Castle is a house designed and built by John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on Maze Hill on the eastern edge of Greenwich Park in London, to the north of Blackheath, with views to the west past the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich down to the Thames reaching as far as the Houses of Parliament.

Maze Hill is an area in Greenwich and Blackheath, in south-east London, lying to the east of Greenwich Park, and west of the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath. It is part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and takes its name from the main thoroughfare, Maze Hill. It gives its name to Maze Hill railway station. The road is believed to have taken its name from Sir Algernon May, who lived nearby until 1693, or after Robert May who lived there in 1683. 'Moys Hill' is marked on Rocque's 1745 map, 'Maize Hill' on Greenwood's 1827 map, and 'Maze Hill' on Bacon's map of 1888.While working as Surveyor to the Royal Hospital, the architect Sir John Vanbrugh lived (1719-1726) in a house of his own design, now known as Vanbrugh Castle, overlooking the park on what is now Maze Hill. Immediately to the north of Vanbrugh Castle was Mayfield Lodge, once used to print The Kentish Mercury, and from 1861 a Rescue Society for Females home (marked as ‘female reformatory’ on maps) which was demolished in 1906.The southern end of Maze Hill is adjacent to an area marked on Rocque's 1745 map as 'Vanbrugh Fields', with his name surviving in local street names including 'Vanbrugh Park' and 'Vanbrugh Hill'. Royal Ordnance Factories F.C. played some matches at Maze Hill. One of the two sites of the comprehensive secondary school, The John Roan School, is situated at the southern end of Maze Hill (the other is on Westcombe Park Road). Greenwich District Hospital (and its predecessor, St Alfege's Hospital) was sited at the northern end of Maze Hill until its closure in 2001 and demolition in 2006; the site is now occupied by a residential development surrounding a Royal Borough of Greenwich leisure centre, library and services complex. The southern part of Maze Hill (plus Westcombe Park) falls within the Blackheath Westcombe ward of the Royal Borough of Greenwich; the northern area of Maze Hill is in Peninsula Ward.

Queen Elizabeth's Oak was a veteran oak tree in Greenwich Park, London. Seeded in the 12th century, the tree formed part of the grounds of the Palace of Placentia, home to the Tudor royal family. Henry VIII is said to have danced around the tree with Anne Boleyn. Their daughter Elizabeth I, after whom the tree is named, is said to have picnicked beneath its canopy, or else within its hollow trunk. When the palace grounds became Greenwich Park, the hollow tree was used as a prison for criminals caught on the grounds. The tree died in the 19th century but was left standing, partly supported by ivy. It fell in a storm in June 1991 and has been left lying where it fell, protected by a fence and marked with a plaque.

Maze Hill railway station is in Greenwich, London, and is situated on the Greenwich Line connecting suburbs (e.g.: Deptford, Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich, to Dartford, Kent) along the south side of the River Thames with central London stations (London Bridge, Cannon Street and Charing Cross). The station is in the Maze Hill area of Greenwich, and is the closest station to Greenwich Park, being about 150m east of the north-east corner of the park. It is 4 miles 38 chains (7.2 km) down the line from London Bridge.

The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it was typically held in April but has now moved to October. The largely flat course is set around the River Thames, starting in Blackheath and finishing at The Mall. Hugh Brasher (son of Chris) is the current Race Director and Nick Bitel its Chief Executive. The race has several components: it has a mass race for the public, professional races for men and women long-distance runners, elite level wheelchair races for men and women, plus a 3-mile mini marathon event for under-17 athletes. The mass race is the largest marathon event in the United Kingdom and its third largest running event (after the Great North Run and Great Manchester Run). There is a significant charity running aspect to the marathon, with participants helping to raise over £1 billion since its founding, including £66.4 million at the 2019 London Marathon which was the highest amount for a single-day fund-raising event.Since 2006, the elite race has been part of the World Marathon Majors, which includes six of the world's top level marathon races. The London Marathon has seen the marathon world record broken on seven occasions: Khalid Khannouchi broke the men's record in 2002, while women's records have been broken by Grete Waitz (1983), Ingrid Kristiansen (1985), Paula Radcliffe (2002, 2003, 2005) and Mary Jepkosgei Keitany (2017). The current elite course records are held by Eliud Kipchoge (2:02:37 in 2019) and Paula Radcliffe (2:15:25 in 2003). The current wheelchair course records are held by Marcel Hug (1:26:27 in 2021) and Manuela Schär (1:39:52 in 2021). The 2020 London Marathon was postponed and only allowed elite participants due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The race often has a title sponsorship, sponsored by Virgin Money for several years, it is branded the "TCS London Marathon" for 2022.

Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers 74 hectares (180 acres), and is part of the Greenwich World Heritage Site. It commands fine views over the River Thames, the Isle of Dogs and the City of London (Simon Jenkins rated the view of the Royal Hospital with Canary Wharf in the distance as one of the top ten in England).The park is open year-round. It is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In 2020, it was awarded a National Lottery grant to restore its historic features, build a learning centre, enhance the park's biodiversity, and provide better access for people with disabilities.

Greenwich ( (listen) GREN-itch, GRIN-ij, GRIN-itch, or GREN-ij) is a town in south-east London, England, located in the historic county of Kent and the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross. 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 demolished to be replaced by the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained a military education establishment 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. Historically an ancient parish in the Blackheath Hundred of Kent, the town formed part of the growing conurbation of London in the 19th century. When the County of London, an administrative area designed to replace the Metropolitan Board of Works, was formed in 1889, the parish merged with those of Charlton-next-Woolwich, Deptford St Nicholas and Kidbrooke to create the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. When local government in London was again reformed in 1965, it merged with most of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, creating what is now the Royal Borough of Greenwich, a local authority district of Greater London.

St Alfege's Hospital was a hospital that operated in the Maze Hill area of east Greenwich in southeast London. It operated as the Greenwich Union Infirmary from 1874 to 1929. It was briefly known as the Greenwich and Deptford Hospital before becoming St Alfege's Hospital in 1931. It was then superseded by Greenwich District Hospital in 1968.

Greenwich District Hospital was an acute district general hospital situated in the Maze Hill district of Greenwich, London. It was built in the 1960s on the site of St Alfege's Hospital, Greenwich.

The Peter Harrison Planetarium is a 120-seat digital laser planetarium, situated in Greenwich Park, London and is part of the National Maritime Museum. It opened on 25 May 2007.The planetarium uses Digistar 3 software with blue, red and green lasers and grating light valve (GLV) technology to create a 4,000 pixel strip. This strip is swept to produce a 5,000 by 4,000 pixel image, refreshed 60 times per second. The image is projected through a fisheye lens onto the dome of the planetarium.This planetarium is housed inside a 45-ton bronze-clad truncated cone, with the north side tilted at 51.5o to the horizontal (the latitude of Greenwich), the south side pointing at the local Zenith (i.e. at 90 degrees to the local horizon) and the top being slanted to be parallel to the celestial equator. The construction stands parallel to (but 50 metres east of) the prime meridian. It was conceived under the then Director, Roy Clare CBE, as the centrepiece of the "Time and Space" project, a £17.7m re-development of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and funded with a £3.25m grant from the Peter Harrison Foundation.

The Greenwich 28-inch refractor is a telescope at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, where it was first installed in 1893. It is a 28-inch ( 71 cm) aperture objective lens telescope, otherwise known as a refractor, and was made by the telescope maker Sir Howard Grubb. The achromatic lens was made Grubb from Chance Brothers glass. The mounting is older however and dates to the 1850s, having been designed by Royal Observatory director George Airy and the firm Ransomes and Simms. The telescope is noted for its spherical dome which extends beyond the tower, nicknamed the "onion" dome. Another name for this telescope is "The Great Equatorial" which it shares with the building, which housed an older but smaller telescope previously.The telescope was re-commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1975 after it was brought back from Herstmonceux in Sussex. It was placed in the renovated original dome at Greenwich for the tricentennial celebration of the observatory.

The Shepherd Gate Clock (51°28′41″N 0°00′05″W) is mounted on the wall outside the gate of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich building in Greenwich, Greater London. The clock, an early example of an electric clock, was a slave mechanism controlled by electric pulses transmitted by a master clock inside the main building. The network of master and slave clocks was constructed and installed by Charles Shepherd in 1852. The clock by the gate was probably the first to display Greenwich Mean Time to the public, and is unusual in using the 24-hour analog dial. Also it originally showed astronomical time which started at 12 noon not midnight. The gate clock distributed the time publicly; another time signal of the observatory was the time ball, since 1833. The time ball only signalled 1.00pm (13:00), but could be seen from afar. Eventually the idea of distributing time signals via wires led to more and more electrical distribution of time signals by this method. Time signals, besides from their general importance in the affairs of business, were especially important for running ships and trains punctually. The situation was exacerbated by a lack of accuracy in many clocks compared to modern time-keepers.