History and Culture
Lovers of history will be delighted with a trip to Greenwich. Home to a rich and diverse history of royalty, seafaring, science and engineering with some truly glorious architecture. Maritime Greenwich is one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in London, and has a prestigious royal, military and scientific past. Greenwich Park is one of eight royal parks in London, and famously home to the Meridian Line at the Christopher Wren designed Royal Observatory and the Queen’s House – the oldest neoclassical building in Britain, designed by Inigo Jones and built in 1616. Inigo Jones also designed the beautiful National Maritime Museum next door, which was originally a Naval School.
The Park is London’s oldest enclosed royal park and also helps mark the southern boundary of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. A spectacular 183 acres of beautiful rolling landscaped parkland with brilliant views of London, it has flower and herb gardens, the Queen’s Orchard, roman remains, a boating lake and impressive children’s play area. At the south west corner of the Park is Ranger’s House, an English Heritage property and most recently known for its starring role in Netflix’s popular television series, Bridgerton, as the facade of the family residence.
From here, the sight of the classical Christopher Wren domes of the Old Royal Naval College leads you down towards the river to wander among the splendid architecture and grounds of this beautiful historic site. The iconic riverside estate boasts more than 500 years of rich history linking an incredible cast of monarchs and famous British figures including King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare and Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson. Built on the foundations of Henry VIII’s Palace of Placentia, the buildings have served as a Royal Hospital, a Royal Naval College and are now open to the public as a visitor attraction as well as being and home to the University of Greenwich.
While here, make sure you visit the fabulous Painted Hall and the Chapel that reside inside these wonderful domed buildings. The spectacular Painted Hall will leave you open-mouthed in awe, as it’s the largest painted dining hall in Europe, taking commissioned artist, James Thornhill, 19 years to complete in the 18th century. It is often referred to as the ‘UK’s Sistine Chapel’.
Science
Everyone has heard of Greenwich Mean Time.
Why is there an Observatory in Greenwich? As Europeans took to the seas to explore the world and trade with other countries, astronomical information of sufficient quantity and accuracy to aid navigation, cartography and timekeeping was needed, including working out how to measure longitude. It was this conundrum that would lead to the founding of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The founding of the Observatory Among those sitting on the Royal Commission was Sir Christopher Wren – most famous now for his architecture, but also a former professor of astronomy at Oxford.
On 4 March 1675, the Commission reported back to Charles II, recommending the foundation of an observatory – Britain’s first state-funded scientific institution – and the appointment of an astronomer. John Flamsteed held the post of Astronomer Royal for 42 years. In the nearly 300 years it functioned as a working observatory, there were only nine other Astronomers Royal at Greenwich. Between them, the first two Astronomers Royal – John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley – plotted all the stars visible in the northern and southern hemispheres. At the same time, because astronomy and time are inextricably linked, the Royal Observatory was key in helping to develop accurate clocks. The first public time signal in the country was broadcast from the roof of Flamsteed House in 1833, by dropping a ball at a predetermined time. Since then, each day at 12.55 the ball is hoisted half way up the mast – originally a signal for navigators on ships and in docks along the Thames to be prepared. Then at two minutes to the hour, the ball is hoisted to the top of the mast. At exactly 13.00, it drops. This allowed sea captains about to set sail to check the rate of their marine chronometers, a technology which the Royal Observatory had a huge hand in improving.
In the 1760s, the introduction of Nevil Maskelyne’s tables for finding longitude at sea by astronomical means and John Harrison’s timekeepers, made it possible for the world to be charted with a new, scientific accuracy. Since the late 19th century, the Royal Observatory is the historic source of the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude 0° 0′ 0”. The world prime meridian marks the divide between the eastern and western hemispheres.
Before this, almost every town in the world kept its own local time. There were no national or international conventions to set how time should be measured. However, with the vast expansion of the railway and communications networks during the 1850s and 1860s, the worldwide need for an international time standard became imperative. The Greenwich Meridian was chosen to be the Prime Meridian of the World in 1884. Forty-one delegates from 25 nations met in Washington DC for the International Meridian Conference. By the end of the conference, Greenwich had won the prize of Longitude 0º.
Why does the Prime Meridian run through Greenwich? There were two main reasons for the choice. The first was the fact that the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world’s commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian. The decision was based on the argument that by naming Greenwich as Longitude 0°, it would be advantageous to the largest number of people. Therefore the Prime Meridian at Greenwich became the centre of world time.
Eastern and Western hemispheres The line in Greenwich represents the historic Prime Meridian of the World – Longitude 0°. Every place on Earth was measured in terms of its distance east or west from this line. The line itself divided the eastern and western hemispheres of the Earth – just as the Equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres. If you stand with one foot on one side and the other on the left, you are perfectly in the middle of east and west, according to the prime meridian line.
Art
Over 300 years old, the Painted Hall is at the heart of Sir Christopher Wren’s Royal Hospital at Greenwich. These grand buildings were once home to injured and retired sailors. This was a place of charity and hospitality, built at a time when Britain aspired to rule the waves. The spectacular Painted Hall murals were created by the artist Sir James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726 to celebrate the Hospital’s royal founders and Britain’s growing maritime power. The Painted Hall ceiling is an epic painted mural combining history and contemporary events with figures from myth and legend. The Lower Hall ceiling alone features nearly 200 different characters.
Greek mythology is dynamically integrated with recent history in the central oval of the Lower Hall ceiling. Apollo the sun god, in his golden chariot drawn by four white horses, lights up the sky above William and Mary. Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, and Hercules, representing heroic virtue, banish the Vices including the snake-haired Medusa and the many headed Hydra.
Meanwhile, William and Mary sit with female figures representing the Virtues – Concord, Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude. Peace hands an olive branch to the King, and Time brings Truth forward into the light. Allegory, the use of characters, animals, events or symbols to reveal a greater moral or political idea or concept, is extensively used in the Painted Hall. The signs of the zodiac are shown in relation to the seasons, represented by the gods Flora (Spring), Ceres (Summer), Bacchus (Autumn) and Hiems (Winter).
Artists often used real people as models for the mythical characters in their paintings. Thornhill used Greenwich Pensioner John Worley as the model for the figure of Hiems (Winter). Even in the 1700s visitors needed help to decode the symbolism woven through this complex and overwhelming experience. In 1726 Thornhill published a guide to the Painted Hall called An Explanation of the Painting in the Royal Hospital at Greenwich which described the painting in detail in both English and French.
Maritime Power
The Painted Hall showed how Britain’s wealth and security relied on maritime power, supported by advances in astronomy and science. It presented Britain’s aspiration to create an empire based on its dominance of the seas. After submitting his initial designs, Thornhill was asked to include more elements relating to the sea. A British Man of War fills the west end of the Lower Hall ceiling. Beneath it is a figure representing the City of London, symbolizing wealth and commerce. At the east end of the Lower Hall ceiling, a captured Spanish galleon reminds viewers of the capture in 1704 of Gibraltar, an important strategic base for Britain in the Mediterranean.
On the Lower Hall ceiling Diana, goddess of the moon, with a crescent moon on her forehead, controls the tides. On the Upper Hall ceiling, the maritime theme is even stronger. Thornhill describes Neptune, god of the sea, ‘surrendering his Trident to the Prince as Lord High Admiral of the British Seas. The Lord High Admiral is Prince George of Denmark. The four continents of the world then known, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, are ‘admiring our Maritime Power. Thornhill decorated the edges of the Lower Hall ceiling with ropes, anchors and navigational instruments – appropriate for the home of men who had spent their lives at sea.
Science and the Stars
Thornhill’s Painted Hall reflects a dynamic time when scientific observation and experimentation were creating new ways of understanding the world. Science was now seen as the foundation for success in industry and commerce. Astronomy was particularly important. As France, Spain and England raced to rule the waves, mapping the stars was critical for sailors to plot their position at sea. Many great figures in science and astronomy are represented on the ceiling, including Thornhill’s friend John Flamsteed. Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, founded by Charles II in 1675. He accurately plotted the position of over 3,000 stars. His great Star Atlas, published by his widow after his death, included 25 maps of the constellations with illustrations based on designs by Thornhill.
Boundaries between art and science were fluid in the 1700s. Thornhill moved in scientific circles, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, England’s oldest scientific institution, in 1723. The Painted Hall ceiling celebrates the scientists who developed the theory that the planets orbit round the sun.
Copernicus holds what Thornhill describes as his ‘SYSTEM’, showing the sun at the centre of the solar system, while Galileo holds a telescope. It was the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton who developed universal laws of gravity and motion which proved that the earth revolves around the sun. Thornhill shows an old Philosopher pointing to some remarkable Mathematical Figures of the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton, Newton himself is not depicted, perhaps because Newton had fallen out with Thornhill’s friend, John Flamsteed, when he forced the premature publication of Flamsteed’s data.
When you are in Greenwich, take your time. (Pun Intended). Stroll through the park. Observe the views. It is an easy boat ride or train ride from London and well worth the day trip.
Karthik Raja 