Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north.

The establishment of a Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, persuaded King Charles II to create the observatory, with John Flamsteed installed as its director.

Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG) 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.
Credit: Kjetil Bjørnsrud

The Royal Observatory 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 ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list.

The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II. The site was chosen by Sir Christopher Wren, a former Savilian Professor of Astronomy; as Greenwich Park was a royal estate. 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." King Charles 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.

Main source:	Wikipedia
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Henriques Street, E1 Added: 20 Jul 2024 01:13 GMT	Whitechapel (1980 - 1981) Diana Lee-Gobbitt - Artist rented a room at No 1 Berner Street, Whitechapel, opposite Church Passage (Ripper territory) for one year, rent approx 3 pounds pw. Worked as Receptionist for n Indian import/export company in the Watney Markets. Owner of No 1 Berner Street was Sammy Ferrugia, Maltese Taxi company owner. The artist was shown the gambling den in Dutfield’s Yard behind the terrace houses. It was common local knowledge prostitution was high end income for those in the East End during the 1950s. Reply
Haycroft Gardens, NW10 Added: 7 Jul 2024 16:26 GMT	Haycroft Gardens, NW10 My Grandfather bought No 45 Buchanan Gdns in I believe 1902 and died ther in the early 1950s Reply
Haycroft Gardens, NW10 Added: 7 Jul 2024 16:20 GMT	Haycroft Gardens, NW10 I lived in No 7 from 1933 to 1938 Reply
Sylvia guiver Blandford Square, NW1 Added: 4 Jul 2024 14:52 GMT	Grandparents 1937 lived 37 Blandford Square Y mother and all her sisters and brother lived there, before this date , my parent wedding photographers were take in the square, I use to visit with my mother I remember the barge ballon in the square in the war. Reply
Roy Mathieson Southwark Added: 27 Jun 2024 16:25 GMT	St Saviours My great grandmother was born in Bowling Green Lane in 1848. The family moved from there to Earl Terrace, Bermondsey in 1849. I have never been able to locate Earl Terrace on maps. Reply
Buckhurst Street, E1 Added: 26 Jun 2024 13:10 GMT	Buckhurst Street, E1 Mt grandfather, Thomas Walton Ward had a musical instrument workshop in Buckhurst Street from 1934 until the street was bombed during the war. Grandfather was a partner in the musical instrument firm of R.J. Ward and Sons of Liverpool. He died in 1945 and is buried in a common grave at Abney Park Cemetery. Reply
Mike Dowling Undercliff Road, SE13 Added: 15 Jun 2024 15:51 GMT	Family ties (1936 - 1963) The Dowling family lived at number 13 Undercliffe Road for Nearly 26 years. Next door was the Harris family Reply
Evie Helen Erith Added: 13 Jun 2024 00:03 GMT	Vickers Road The road ’Vickers Road’ is numbered rather differently to other roads in the area as it was originally built as housing for the "Vickers" arms factory in the late 1800’s and early 1900s. Most of the houses still retain the original 19th century tiling and drainage outside of the front doors. Reply

LOCAL PHOTOS

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The Greenwich Foot Tunnel in May 2018 Credit: Wiki Commons/Mlanni98 TUM image id: 1620394934 Licence:	Greenwich bath house (1900) This stood near Greenwich station on the later site of the Town Hall. Old London postcard TUM image id: 1657287382 Licence:	This image of Pluto, released on 23 July 2015, clearly shows the now familiar heart-shaped region nicknamed Tombaugh Regio. The photo is actually a combination of observations from the main camera on New Horizons (called LORRI) and the probe’s visible/infrared imager (known as Ralph) which provided data for the colours in the view. The enhanced colours allow scientists to identify differences in the composition and texture of Pluto’s surface, according to a NASA image description. TUM image id: 1620402347 Licence:	Letter to Chuck Berry from Carl Sagan (1986) TUM image id: 1621596953 Licence:	Russell Croman took this detailed photo of the waxing Moon. Credit: Russell Croman TUM image id: 1621874487 Licence:
Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute TUM image id: 1620648753 Licence:	Expedition 44 off to the International Space Station launched on Soyuz TMA-17M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Credit: Roscosmos TUM image id: 1620402649 Licence:	Greenwich Pier Credit: Wiki Commons/Cnbrb TUM image id: 1707497209 Licence:	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. Credit: Anatoly Novikov TUM image id: 1621892426 Licence:	The foothills of the Andes Mountains near the southern coast of Peru were captured by the Kompsat-2 satellite. The Andes stretch from Venezuela down South America’s west coast to the top of Argentina. The mountain rage is the result of the Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates moving under the South American plate—a geological process called subduction. This process is also responsible for the Andes range’s volcanic activity. Credit: KARI TUM image id: 1621890979 Licence:
Star Dunes in Algeria. The image was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 27, 2012. It was made from a combination of near-infrared and visible light. In this type of false-color image, sand is tan and shadows are black or gray. The blue-tinted areas are likely mineral-rich evaporites. The image is centered at 29.8°north latitude, 7.9°east longitude, near the town of Gadamis. As is common with star dunes, some of the dunes have long interlacing arms connecting to nearby dunes. Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS/ASTER Science Team TUM image id: 1621679144 Licence:	Crooms Hill (1937) TUM image id: 1657290361 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Gloucester Circus (1960s) TUM image id: 1657291606 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Tram in Greenwich Church Street TUM image id: 1657290753 Licence:	Maze Hill SE10 Credit: GoArt/The Underground Map TUM image id: 1584890270 Licence: