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Royal Artillery Institution Observatory

Buildings and structures completed in 1838Buildings and structures in WoolwichGrade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of GreenwichUse British English from March 2026
2015 London Woolwich, Green Hill Barracks 01
2015 London Woolwich, Green Hill Barracks 01

The Royal Artillery Institution Observatory is a Grade II listed building on Green Hill, Woolwich, in south-east London. It was built in 1838 as the first headquarters of the Royal Artillery Institution, a scientific and educational society for officers of the Royal Artillery, founded that year by Lieutenants John Henry Lefroy and Frederick Eardley-Wilmot. From 1839 the building also served as the base for Edward Sabine's global survey of terrestrial magnetism, a programme of simultaneous observations from stations across the British Empire coordinated by the Royal Artillery under the direction of the Board of Ordnance. Sabine, Lefroy, and Eardley-Wilmot were all closely involved in the survey; the building was known for a period as the Magnetic Office, until the survey moved to Kew Observatory in 1871. The observatory was extended in 1853 with the addition of a domed equatorial room. The Royal Artillery Institution moved to larger premises within the main Royal Artillery Barracks in 1854, but continued to use the observatory for astronomical observations until 1926. The equatorial room was subsequently demolished; the original transit room survives, alongside a pedimented annexe that originally housed the Institution's library and reading room. It is a Grade II listed building.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Royal Artillery Institution Observatory (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Royal Artillery Institution Observatory
Green Hill, Greater London Charlton (Royal Borough of Greenwich)

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N 51.484 ° E 0.054 °
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Green Hill
SE18 4BQ Greater London, Charlton (Royal Borough of Greenwich)
England, United Kingdom
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2015 London Woolwich, Green Hill Barracks 01
2015 London Woolwich, Green Hill Barracks 01
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Mallet's Mortar
Mallet's Mortar

Mallet's Mortar was a 19th-century British shell-firing mortar built for the Crimean War, but never used in combat. The mortar was designed by Robert Mallet and was constructed in sections so that it could be more easily transported. Mallet first made his design public in 1854. There was little response from the government until Mallet wrote to the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston in March 1855. Palmerston was taken with the idea and instructed the Board of Ordnance to arrange for the construction of two mortars of Mallet's design. Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company won the contract at a price of £4,300 per mortar. The company's bankruptcy resulted in the work being divided among three firms which managed to deliver the mortars in May 1857. Testing began on 19 October 1857 with further testing taking place on 18 December 1857, 21 July 1858, and 28 July 1858. Each test was brought to an end by damage to the mortar. A total of 19 rounds were fired with a rate of about four shells an hour being achieved. Shell weight was between 2,352 and 2,940 pounds (1,067 and 1,334 kg). In testing with an 80-pound (36 kg) charge it fired the lighter shell a distance of 2,759 yards (2,523 m) with a flight time of 23 seconds. Both mortars are in the collection of the Royal Armouries, the UK's national museum of arms and armour. The gun used for testing is on loan to the Royal Artillery and is located on the corner of Greenhill Terrace and Repository Road (51°29′13″N 0°03′23″E), opposite the entrance to the British Army's Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, while the unfired gun is on display outside the Royal Armouries Fort Nelson near Portsmouth.