The experimentation continues

Mapping Greenwich

Queens House - Experimentation

The Figures

Queen's House

The Queen's House is one of the most important buildings in British architectural history, being the first consciously classical building to have been constructed in Britain.

Inigo Jones

                                                  

In 1616, work began on the Queens House, Greenwich, for James I's wife, Anne. With the foundations laid and the first storey built, work stopped suddenly when Anne died in 1619. Work resumed in 1629, but this time for Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. It was finished in 1635 and was the first strictly classical building in England, employing ideas found in the architecture of Palladio and ancient Rome. This is Inigo Jones's earliest surviving work.

Anne Of Denmark

                         

Henry V|||

  

Elizabeth |

 James's son Charles I gave Greenwich to his queen, Henrietta Maria  in 1629. It was completed in 1635. Henrietta Maria had little time to enjoy the House. The Civil War broke out in 1642 shattering the Stuart idyll. Always an object of suspicion because of her Catholicism, the Queen went into exile in France and Charles was beheaded in 1649, his property being seized and dispersed by the Commonwealth regime (1649–60). The House lost its treasures and became an official government residence. It however survived, while the Tudor palace on the riverside fell into decay.

Old Royal Naval College

  

Nelson

Horatio Nelson was a British flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories, the best known and most notable was the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was shot and killed.

Sir Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the city of London after the Great fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710. He was also the designer of the Royal Naval College which was built between 1696 and 1712.

Mary ||

   

In 1692 the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich was created on the site on the instructions of Mary II, who had been inspired by the sight of wounded sailors returning from the Battle of La Hogue. Architectural highlights included the Chapel and the Painted Hall. 

Royal Observatory

The Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian line, is one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. It was founded by Charles II in 1675 and is, by international decree, the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium (at the stroke of midnight GMT as measured from the Prime Meridian).

                              

King Charles ||

The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles || with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August. 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

John Harrison 

    

A disaster at sea in 1707 killed over 2000 men and prompted greater calls for more reliable means of navigation. In 1714, Parliament established a panel of experts, the Board of Longitude, and offered a massive £20,000 reward (equivalent of about £2 million today) to anyone who could solve the problem of finding longitude at sea. It took nearly 60 years for the prize to be claimed. In the end it went not to a famous astronomer, scientist or mathematician, but to a little-known Yorkshire carpenter turned clockmaker, John Harrison. 

Harrison's H4 was to change navigation forever. All four of his ground-breaking timekeepers are kept in full working order on display in the Harrison gallery – the highlight of a visit to the Observatory. 

Sir Jonas Moore

                             

  

The establishment of a Royal Observatory was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor General at the Ordnance Office, persuaded King Charles II to the creation of the observatory, with John Flamsteed being installed as its director. The Ordnance Office was given responsibility for building the Observatory, with Moore providing the key instruments and equipment for the observatory at his own personal cost.

John Flamsteed

  

  

Charles II appointed John Flamsteed as his first Asronomer Royall in March 1675. The Observatory was built to improve navigation at sea and 'find the so-much desired longitude of places' – one's exact position east and west – while at sea and out of sight of land, by astronomical means. This was inseparable from the accurate measurement of time, for which the Observatory became generally famous in the 19th century.