Wren's London: Royal Observatory, Greenwich...

...back in Greenwich park again to visit another Wren landmark, after having to walk up an unsociable gradient hill to get to the top you get some grand views below, the Old Royal Naval College below, canary wharf and the O2 centre within a decent camera focal length, but I still have one more visit to Greenwich to make before the tetanus shot I had done to allow me south of the river runs out. (only kidding normie before you go on the attack).

This site is best known for being the original sight for o* longitude, and where the term Greenwich Mean Time comes from, It was founded by Charles II in 1675 and is, by international decree, the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium, and to demonstrate the meridian line a bright green laser is sent out from the observatory (and can I point out that it is a complete pain in the arse for night shooting around the Greenwich Peninsula with this line of green light cutting across your photos, even when I was at the O2 afterwards).

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. 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 (can you imagine how much fun those guys must have been).

The observatory was the site of a terrorist attack in 1894 when a French anarchist Martial Bourdin detonated a bomb nearby, no one was sure if the observatory was the target of if he exploded on the way to his real target. What a way to go!!.

It was nice to see the positive response I received for the Temple church in yesterdays blip it helped me to feel much better today, Hirundo I hope that you like it