Greenwich

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.

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.

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.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passes through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list. ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and the clipper ship Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II, with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August. The site was chosen by Sir Christopher Wren, a former Savilian Professor of Astronomy; as Greenwich Park was a royal estate, no new land needed to be bought. At that time the king also created the position of Astronomer Royal, to serve as the director of the observatory and to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." He appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal. The building was completed in the summer of 1676. The building was often called "Flamsteed House", in reference to its first occupant. The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in stages in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now maintained almost exclusively as a museum, although the AMAT telescope became operational for astronomical research in 2018.

The historic prime meridian or Greenwich meridian is a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. The modern IERS Reference Meridian widely used today is based on the Greenwich meridian, but differs slightly from it. The prime meridian was first established by Sir George Airy in 1851, and by 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In October of that year, at the behest of US President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., United States, for the International Meridian Conference. This conference selected the meridian passing through Greenwich as the official prime meridian due to its popularity. However, France abstained from the vote, and French maps continued to use the Paris meridian for several decades. In the 18th century, London lexicographer Malachy Postlethwayt published his African maps showing the "Meridian of London" intersecting the Equator a few degrees west of the later meridian and Accra, Ghana. The plane of the prime meridian is parallel to the local gravity vector at the Airy transit circle (51°28′40.1″N 0°0′5.3″W) of the Greenwich observatory. The prime meridian was therefore long symbolised by a brass strip in the courtyard, now replaced by stainless steel, and since 16 December 1999, it has been marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky. Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers show that the marking strip for the prime meridian at Greenwich is not exactly at zero degrees, zero minutes, and zero seconds but at approximately 5.3 seconds of arc to the west of the meridian (meaning that the meridian appears to be 102.478 metres east). In the past, this offset has been attributed to the establishment of reference meridians for space-based location systems such as WGS 84 (which GPS relies on) or that errors gradually crept into the International Time Bureau timekeeping process. The actual reason for the discrepancy is that the difference between precise GNSS coordinates and astronomically determined coordinates everywhere remains a localized gravity effect due to vertical deflection; thus, no systematic rotation of global longitudes occurred between the former astronomical system and the current geodetic system.

Greenwich Castle was a hunting lodge used during the reign of Henry VIII, located in Greenwich Park, in Greenwich, England. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich now stands on the site. Greenwich Castle was apparently a favourite place for Henry VIII to house his mistresses, as it was within easy travelling distance of Greenwich Palace at the foot of the hill.The castle was previously known as Duke Humphrey's Tower after its builder, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, a younger brother of King Henry V.

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 equestrian events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held between 28 July and 9 August at Greenwich Park. Medals were awarded in three disciplines for both individual and team competitions.Great Britain was the most successful nation, topping the medal table with three golds and five medals in total. They were particularly dominant in team events, taking two gold medals and a silver medal from three team events.

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.

The Statue of Yuri Gagarin in Greenwich, London, is a zinc statue depicting the cosmonaut wearing a spacesuit and standing on top of a globe. The figure was originally unveiled on 14 July 2011 at a temporary location in the Mall, close to Admiralty Arch and facing the statue of Captain James Cook. It was later moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at a site overlooking the Prime Meridian line, and was unveiled at the new location on 7 March 2013. There had been an unsuccessful proposal to move it to Manchester.The 3.5-metre (11 ft) high statue is a replica of an original by Anatoly Novikov in Lyubertsy, where Gagarin was trained as a foundry worker. The statue was a gift to the British Council from the Russian space agency Roscosmos as a part of several cultural events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. The original location of the statue was chosen to be where Gagarin first met the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

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.

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.