London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [84]
Old Royal Naval College.
Begun by Christopher Wren in 1694 as a rest home for ancient mariners, it became instead a school for young ones in 1873. Today the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music have classes here. Architecturally, you’ll notice how the structures part to reveal the Queen’s House across the central lawns. Behind the college are two more buildings you can visit: the Painted Hall, the college’s dining hall, derives its name from the baroque murals of William and Mary (reigned 1689–95; William alone 1695–1702) and assorted allegorical figures. James Thornhill’s frescoes, depicting scenes of naval grandeur with a suitably pro-British note of propaganda, were painstakingly done over installments in 1708–12 and 1718–26, and were good enough to earn him a knighthood. In the opposite building stands the College Chapel, which was rebuilt after a fire in 1779 in an altogether more restrained, neo-Grecian style. TIP Trinity College of Music holds free classical music concerts in the chapel every Tuesday lunchtime during the school year. | Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk, Greenwich | SE10 9LW | 020/8269–4747 | www.oldroyalnavalcollege.org | Free, guided tours £5 | Painted Hall and chapel daily 10–5 (Sun. chapel from 12:30); grounds 8–6 | DLR: Greenwich.
Royal Observatory.
Since 1884, the ultimate standard for time around the world has been set here: Greenwich is on the prime meridian at 0° longitude. Why was Greenwich adopted as the international standard? The reason was due to Britain’s preeminence as a naval power. A redesign in 2007 split the observatory into two sites—one devoted to the study of the stars, the other to the study of time—and added new exhibition spaces.
Royal Observatory Highlights
The recently opened south site, not previously accessible to the public, is the location of the enchanting Peter Harrison Planetarium, now London’s only planetarium, its bronze-clad turret poking out of the ground like a crashed UFO. Shows on black holes and how to interpret the night sky entrance visitors. If you come with children, don’t miss the high-technology rooms of the Astronomy Galleries, where cutting-edge touch screens and interactive programs give young explorers the chance to run their own space missions to Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons.
Across the way is Flamsteed House, designed by Christopher Wren in 1675 for John Flamsteed, the first Royal Astronomer. A climb to the top of the house reveals the 28-inch telescope, built in 1893 and now housed inside an onion-shaped fiberglass dome. It doesn’t compare with the range of modern telescopes, but it is the largest in the United Kingdom, and regular viewing evenings still reveal startling, detailed views of the lunar surface. In the Time Galleries, linger over the superb workmanship of John Harrison (1693–1776), whose famous Maritime Clocks won him the Longitude Prize for solving the problem of accurate timekeeping at sea and greatly improved navigation.
Royal Observatory Tips
A brass line laid among the cobblestones here marks the meridian, one side being the Eastern, one the Western hemisphere. As darkness falls, a funky green laser shoots out across London for several miles, following exactly the path of the meridian line. The Time Ball atop