Observatory Gardens, W8
Kensington
Observatory Gardens commemorates what was the world’s finest private observatory.

The astronomer Sir James South (1785-1867) moved from Southwark to Campden Hill, moving into an eighteenth century mansion which had been the Phillimore family home.

South had been elected President of the Astronomical Society in 1829 but when its royal charter was drafted in 1831 a dispute arose among leading members and South resigned from the Society.

That same year, South imported the world’s largest telescope from France but they were technical problems at installation. Smith sued the installers but lost the case and had to pay £8000 costs. In anger, he broke up the instrument and auctioned off its components in his garden.

Soouth subsequently commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to enlarge his observatory but quarrelled with him over the bill for that too. He became partially blind and deaf and died in 1867, still living at his observatory on Campden Hill.

Observatory Gardens was built shortly after his death through the centre of Smith’s grounds.

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