Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England, within the
ceremonial county
The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...
of
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
. It is situated east-southeast of
Charing Cross
Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
.
Greenwich is notable for its
maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human interaction with and activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant. As an academic subject, it ...
and for giving its name to the
Greenwich Meridian
The historic prime meridian or Greenwich meridian is a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. The modern IERS Reference Meridian widely used today ...
(0° longitude) and
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the Local mean time, mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, i ...
. The town became the site of a royal palace, the
Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,
was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape f ...
from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many
Tudors, including
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
and
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
. The palace fell into disrepair during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
and was demolished to be replaced by the
Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors, designed by Sir
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
and his assistant
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
. These buildings became the
Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained a military education establishment until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by
University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic.
The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...
and
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built there, such as
Vanbrugh Castle
Vanbrugh Castle is a house designed and built by John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on Maze Hill on the eastern edge of Greenwich Park in London, to the north of Blackheath, with views to the west past the Old Royal Naval College at Gre ...
(1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the
Georgian period
The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the Hanoverian Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the relatively short reign of Willi ...
estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the ''
Cutty Sark'' and ''
Gipsy Moth IV'' next to the river front, and the
National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the
Royal Hospital School in 1934.
Historically an
ancient parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...
in the
Blackheath Hundred of Kent, the town formed part of the growing
conurbation
A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ca ...
of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in the 19th century. When the
County of London
The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...
, an
administrative area
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
designed to replace the
Metropolitan Board of Works
The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London County ...
, was formed in 1889, the parish merged with those of
Charlton-next-Woolwich,
Deptford St Nicholas
Deptford St Nicholas was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of the Church of St Paul's, Deptford, constructed by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches to meet t ...
and
Kidbrooke
Kidbrooke is an area of South East London, England, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich south-east of Charing Cross and north west of Eltham.
The district takes its name from the Kyd Brook, a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, ...
to create the
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. When local government in London was again
reformed in 1965, it merged with most of the
Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, creating what is now the
Royal Borough of Greenwich, a
local authority district
The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...
of Greater London.
History
Toponymy
The place-name 'Greenwich' is first attested in an
Anglo-Saxon charter of 918, where it appears as ''Gronewic''. It is recorded as ''Grenewic'' in 964, and as ''Grenawic'' in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
for 1013. It is ''Grenviz'' in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086, and ''Grenewych'' in the ''
Taxatio Ecclesiastica
The ''Taxatio Ecclesiastica'', often referred to as the ''Taxatio Nicholai'' or just the ''Taxatio'', compiled in 1291–92 under the order of Pope Nicholas IV, is a detailed database valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of English, Welsh, an ...
'' of 1291. The name means 'green ''wic, indicating that Greenwich was what is known as a
-wich town
A "-''wich'' town" is a settlement in Anglo-Saxon England characterised by extensive artisanal activity and tradean " emporium".
The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix , signifying "a dwelling or fortified place".
Such settlements were u ...
or
emporium
Emporium may refer to:
Historical
* Emporium (antiquity), a trading post, factory, or market of Classical antiquity
* Emporium (early medieval), a 6th- to 9th-century trading settlement in Northwestern Europe
* Emporium (Italy), an ancient town ...
, from the Latin '
vicus
In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus r ...
'.
The settlement later became known as ''East Greenwich'' to distinguish it from ''West Greenwich'' or ''Deptford Strond'', the part of
Deptford adjacent to the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
,
but the use of ''East Greenwich'' to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th century. However, Greenwich was divided into the registration subdistricts of ''Greenwich East'' and ''Greenwich West'' from the beginning of
civil registration in 1837, the boundary running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Crooms Hill, although more modern references to "''East''" and "''West''" Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the
Royal Naval College and
National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West Greenwich
council ward
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
. An article in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' of 13 October 1967 stated:
''East Greenwich'', gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel, remains solidly working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
, the manpower for one eighth of London's heavy industry. ''West Greenwich'' is a hybrid: the spirit of Nelson, the ''Cutty Sark'', the Maritime Museum, an industrial waterfront and a number of elegant houses, ripe for development.
Manor of East Greenwich
Royal charters granted to English colonists in North America, as well as in
Company Bombay and
St Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
, often used the name of the
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
of East Greenwich for describing the tenure (from the Latin verb ''teneo'', hold) as that of free
socage.
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
charters provided that the grantees should hold their lands "as of his Majesty's manor of East Greenwich". This was in relation to the principle of land tenure under English law, that the ruling monarch (king or queen) was paramount lord of all the soil in the ''terra regis'', while all others held their lands, directly or indirectly, under the monarch. Land outside the physical boundaries of England, as in America, was treated as belonging constructively to one of the existing royal manors, and from Tudor times grants frequently used the name of the manor of East Greenwich, but some 17th-century grants named
the castle of Windsor. Places in North America that have taken the name "East Greenwich" include a township in
Gloucester County, New Jersey, a hamlet in
Washington County, New York, and a town in
Kent County, Rhode Island.
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...
was also named after Greenwich.
Early settlement
Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House, in
Greenwich Park, are thought to be early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To the east between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small area of red paving
tesserae
A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus.
Historical tesserae
The oldest known tesserae ...
protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and 300 coins were found dating from the emperors
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
and
Honorius to the 5th century. This was excavated by the
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
television programme ''
Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' in 1999, broadcast in 2000, and further investigations were made by the same group in 2003.
The
Roman road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
from London to
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
,
Watling Street
Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main R ...
crossed the high ground to the south of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic route from
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
to
St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...
. As late as
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
, Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a safe anchorage in the river.
[
]
Viking
During the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
fleet anchored in the River Thames off Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here they attacked Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
, making Archbishop Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich, at that time within the county of Kent. They stoned him to death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body, until the blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
in 1714 and completed in 1718.
Norman
The Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086 records the manor of ''Grenviz'' in the hundred of ''Grenviz'' as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux
Odo of Bayeux (died 1097), Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, was the maternal half-brother of William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, second in power after the King of England.
Early life
Odo was the son of William the Conqueror's mother ...
; his lands were seized by the crown in 1082. The name of the hundred was changed to Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
when the site of the hundred court was moved there in the 12th century. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here since before 1300, when Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the Virgin Mary.['Greenwich', The Environs of London: volume 4: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent (1796), pp. 426–93]
, accessed: 26 May 2007.
Plantagenet
Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
granting the manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died at Greenwich in 1426. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's half-brother and the regent to Henry VI in 1447; he enclosed the park and erected a tower (Greenwich Castle
Greenwich Castle was a hunting lodge used during the reign of Henry VIII, located in Greenwich Park, in Greenwich, England. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich now stands on the site. Greenwich Castle was apparently a favourite place for Henry VIII t ...
) on the hill now occupied by the Royal Observatory. The Thames-side palace was renamed the Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,
was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape f ...
or Pleasaunce by Henry VI's consort Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou (french: link=no, Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England and nominally Queen of France by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Born in the Duchy of Lorrain ...
after Humphrey's death. The palace was completed and further enlarged by Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
, and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth.[
Ultimately it was because the palace and its grounds were a royal possession (with a useful hill) that it was chosen as the site for Charles II's Royal Observatory, from which stemmed Greenwich's subsequent global role as originator of the modern ]Prime Meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...
.
Tudor
The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
) and Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over nearby Eltham Palace
Eltham Palace is a large house at Eltham ( ) in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The house consists of the medieval great hall of a former royal residence, to which an Art Deco extension was added in the 1930s. ...
, the former principal royal palace in south London, but which was not on the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
and so was less accessible. Henry extended Greenwich Palace and it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace
The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...
was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
and Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves (german: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of ...
at Greenwich, and both Mary (18 February 1516) and Elizabeth (7 September 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also died there at age 15.
The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence.[ Both she and her sister Mary used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned the ]Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
campaign there in 1588.
Stuart
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to his wife Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings.
As the most notable archit ...
to design and build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace.
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She was ...
, for whom Inigo Jones completed the Queen's House. During the English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, the palace was used as a biscuit factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...
, the palace and park were seized to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector
Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') was a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometimes ...
.
By the time of the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II, but only the King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park and founded and built the Royal Observatory.
Prince James (later King James II & VII
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
), as Duke of York
Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...
and Lord Admiral
The Lord High Admiral (of England beginning in the 14th century, later of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom) is the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy. Most have been courtiers or members of British royal family, and not professional na ...
until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
, he proposed the idea of creating a Royal Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II
Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694.
Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...
, who in 1692–1693 commissioned Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
to design the Royal Hospital for Seamen (now the Old Royal Naval College). The work was begun under her widower William III William III or William the Third may refer to:
Kings
* William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198)
* William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702)
* William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
in 1696 and completed by Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
. Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark
Prince George of Denmark ( da, Jørgen; 2 April 165328 October 1708) was the husband of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. He was the consort of the British monarch from Anne's accession on 8 March 1702 until his death in 1708.
The marriage of Georg ...
continued to patronise the project.
Hanoverian
George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089)
* ...
granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater, which allowed the building to be completed by 1751.
In 1805, George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage school), which amalgamated in 1821–1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum, it was renamed the Royal Hospital School by Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
in 1892.
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
donated nearly 40 paintings to the hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in the Painted Hall
The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding ...
. These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National Maritime Museum. Subsequently, William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors and visitors to the gallery.
Victorian and Edwardian
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
rarely visited Greenwich, but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Albert I of Belgium ...
personally bought Nelson's Trafalgar Trafalgar most often refers to:
* Battle of Trafalgar (1805), fought near Cape Trafalgar, Spain
* Trafalgar Square, a public space and tourist attraction in London, England
It may also refer to:
Music
* ''Trafalgar'' (album), by the Bee Gees
Pl ...
coat for the Naval Gallery.
In 1838 the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) completed the very first steam railway in London. It started at London Bridge and had its terminus at London Street (now Greenwich High Road). It was also the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first ever elevated railway, having 878 arches over its almost four mile stretch. South of the railway's viaduct over Deptford Creek
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...
is a Victorian pumping station
Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...
constructed in 1864 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette
Sir Joseph William Bazalgette CB (; 28 March 181915 March 1891) was a 19th-century English civil engineer. As chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation (in response to the Great Stink of 1 ...
's London sewerage system (the Southern Outfall Sewer flows under Greenwich town centre).
In 1853 the local Scottish Presbyterian community built a church, St Mark's, nearby which was extended twice in the 1860s during the ministry of Adolph Saphir, eventually accommodating 1,000 worshippers.
In 1864 opposite the railway terminus, theatrical entrepreneur Sefton Parry built the thousand seater New Greenwich Theatre. William Morton was one of its more successful managers. The theatre was demolished in 1937 to make way for a new Town Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, now a listed building under new ownership and renamed Meridian House.
Greenwich Station is at the northern apex of the Ashburnham Triangle, a residential estate developed by the Ashburnham family, mainly between 1830 and 1870, on land previously developed as market gardens. It is now a designated conservation area. The present Greenwich Theatre, further to the east, was constructed inside the shell of a Victorian music hall. Beginning life in 1855 as an annexe to the Rose and Crown, the music hall was rebuilt in 1871 by Charles Crowder and subsequently operated under many names. The meridian was established in 1851.
Modern and the present
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
Born duri ...
and Queen Mary both supported the creation of the National Maritime Museum, and Mary presented the museum with many items.
The Prince Albert, Duke of York
Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...
(later George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...
), laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it moved out to Holbrook Holbrook may refer to:
Places
England
*Holbrook, Derbyshire, a village
*Holbrook, Somerset, a hamlet in Charlton Musgrove
*Holbrook, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, a former mining village in Mosborough ward, now known as Halfway
*Holbrook, Suffolk, a ...
, Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the school. The king was accompanied by his mother Queen Mary, his wife Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...
) and the Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.)
Princess Elizabeth and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...
(who was ennobled Baron Greenwich
Baron Greenwich was a title that has been created twice in British history.
History
The first creation came in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1767 when Lady Caroline Townshend was made Baroness Greenwich, in the County of Kent, with remainde ...
on marriage in 1947) made their first public and official visit to Greenwich in 1948 to receive the Freedom of the Borough for Philip. In the same year, he became a trustee of the National Maritime Museum. Prince Philip was a trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron. The Duke of Edinburgh was also a patron of the '' Cutty Sark'' (which was opened by the Queen in 1957) from 1952.
During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, the Queen embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee River Pageant. In 1987, she was aboard the P&O ship ''Pacific Princess'' when it moored alongside the Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th-anniversary celebrations.
To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...
, it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3 February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a borough in southwest London. The main town is Kingston upon Thames and it includes Surbiton, Chessington, Malden Rushett, New Malden and Tolworth. It is the oldest of the four royal boroughs in Eng ...
, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...
and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Windsor Ca ...
. The status was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family
A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
, the location of the Prime Meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...
and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
Governance
Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
. Along with Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
Westcombe, Charlton, Glyndon, Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
Riverside, and Woolwich Common, it elects a Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich
Greenwich and Woolwich is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Matthew Pennycook of the Labour Party.
Constituency profile
The seat is dominated in the south by expansive and panoramic Green ...
; currently the MP is Matthew Pennycook
Matthew Thomas Pennycook (born 29 October 1982) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning since ...
.
Geography
Topography
The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To the south, the land rises steeply, through Greenwich Park to the town of Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
. The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the ''Blackheath Beds'', that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcrop—with sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river.
Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...
and Deptford to the west; the residential area of Westcombe Park
Westcombe Park is a largely residential area in Blackheath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, South East London, England. It is bounded by the main London-Dartford railway line to the north, the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach to the east, th ...
to the east; the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south. The Greenwich Peninsula, also known as North Greenwich, forms the main projection of the town (to the northeast of the town centre).
Nearby areas
*Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
* Charlton
* Deptford
* Greenwich Peninsula
*Eltham
Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...
*Kidbrooke
Kidbrooke is an area of South East London, England, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich south-east of Charing Cross and north west of Eltham.
The district takes its name from the Kyd Brook, a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, ...
*Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...
* New Cross
*Plumstead
Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich.
History
Until 1965, Plumstead was in the historic counties of England, historic county of Kent and the detail of mu ...
*Shooters Hill
Shooter's Hill (or Shooters Hill) is a district in South East London within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It borders the London Borough of Bexley. It lies north of Eltham and south of Woolwich. With a height of , it is the highest point in t ...
*Surrey Quays
Surrey Quays is a largely residential area of Rotherhithe in south-east London, occupied until 1970 by the Surrey Commercial Docks. Previously known as Surrey Docks, the area was renamed following the construction of the Surrey Quays shopping ce ...
*Thamesmead
Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...
*Westcombe Park
Westcombe Park is a largely residential area in Blackheath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, South East London, England. It is bounded by the main London-Dartford railway line to the north, the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach to the east, th ...
*Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
* Welling
*Falconwood
Falconwood is an area of south east London within both the London Boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich. It is north east of Eltham and south west of Welling.
The local area
Falconwood forms part of the Falconwood and Welling ward in the London Boro ...
* Abbey Wood
Climate
This data was collected between 1971 and 2000 at the weather station in Greenwich:
Historically, the record high is on 9 August 1911. This was the record for London until 2003, though it was disregarded due to non-standard instruments.
Greenwich has an oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
( Köppen: ''Cfb'') with warm summers and cool winters.
Sites of interest
Riverfront
The '' Cutty Sark'' (a clipper
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...
ship) has been preserved in a dry dock by the river. A major fire in May 2007 destroyed a part of the ship, although much had already been removed for restoration. Nearby for many years was also displayed '' Gipsy Moth IV'', the yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circ ...
of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, ''Gipsy Moth IV'' was removed from Greenwich, and after restoration work completed a second circumnavigation in May 2007. On the riverside in front of the north-west corner of the hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
explorer Joseph René Bellot
Joseph-René Bellot (18 March 1826 – 18 August 1853) was a French naval officer and Arctic explorer.
Biography
Bellot was born in Paris, the son of a farrier, but moved to Rochefort with his family in 1831. With the aid of the authori ...
.
Near the Cutty Sark site, a circular building contains the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel, opened on 4 August 1902. This connects Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ham ...
on the northern side of the River Thames. The north exit of the tunnel is at Island Gardens
Island Gardens is a public park located at the southern end of the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on the north bank of the River Thames. The park was formally opened on 3 August 1895 by local politician Will Crooks.
The ...
, from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen.
Rowing has been part of life on the river at Greenwich for hundreds of years and the first Greenwich Regatta was held in 1785. The annual Great River Race along the Thames Tideway
The Tideway is a part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London.
Tidal activity
Depending on ...
finishes at the Cutty Sark. The nearby Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is home to Curlew and Globe rowing clubs.
The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of the buildings are let to the University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic.
The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...
and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...
. Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall
The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding ...
, this was painted by James Thornhill, and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
. The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor
JASON was a low-power nuclear research reactor installed by the Ministry of Defence at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, now home to the University of Greenwich, to educate and train military and civilian personnel involved in the nava ...
, within the King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999.
To the east of the Naval College is the Trinity Hospital almshouse, founded in 1613, the oldest surviving building in the town centre. This is next to the massive brick walls and the landing stage of Greenwich Power Station
Greenwich Power Station is a standby gas and formerly oil and coal-fired power station by the River Thames at Greenwich in south-east London. Originally constructed to supply power for London's tram system, since 1988 it has been London Undergr ...
. Built between 1902 and 1910 as a coal-fired station to supply power to London's tram system, and later the London underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
, it is now oil- and gas-powered and serves as a backup station for London Underground. East Greenwich also has a small park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce, which was formerly the burial ground of Greenwich Hospital.
The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millenn ...
) was built on part of the site of East Greenwich Gas Works
The East Greenwich Gas Works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company was the last gas works to be built in London, and the most modern. Originally manufacturing town gas from coal brought in by river and exporting coke and chemicals, the plant was ...
, a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula. It is next to North Greenwich Underground station, about north east from the Greenwich town centre, north west of Charlton. Pear Tree Wharf was associated with the gas works, being used to unload coal for the manufacturing of town gas, and is now home to the Greenwich Yacht Club
Greenwich Yacht Club is a sailing club based in Greenwich, London. It was founded in 1908, and caters for cruiser sailors, dinghy sailors, motor-boaters and rowers. Its officers include a commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, secretary and ...
. The Greenwich Millennium Village is a modern urban regeneration
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
development to the south of the Dome. Enderby's Wharf
Enderby's Wharf is a wharf and industrial site on the south bank of the Thames in Greenwich, London, associated with Telcon and other companies. It has a history of more than 150 years of production of submarine communication cables and associ ...
is a site associated with submarine cable Submarine cable is any electrical cable that is laid on the seabed, although the term is often extended to encompass cables laid on the bottom of large freshwater bodies of water.
Examples include:
*Submarine communications cable
*Submarine power ...
manufacture for over 150 years.
Greenwich Park
South of the former Naval College is the National Maritime Museum housed in buildings forming another symmetrical group and grand arcade incorporating the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings.
As the most notable archit ...
. Continuing to the south, Greenwich Park is a Royal Park of , laid out in the 17th century and formed from the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,
was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape f ...
.
The park rises towards Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
and at the top of this hill is a statue of James Wolfe, commander of the British expedition to capture Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. Nearby a major group of buildings within the park includes the former Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...
; the Prime Meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...
passes through this building.
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the Local mean time, mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, i ...
was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by the closely-related Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently used ...
(UTC). While there is no longer a working astronomical observatory at Greenwich, a ball
A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...
still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m., and there is a museum of astronomical and navigational tools, particularly John Harrison
John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English Carpentry, carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the History of longitude, problem of calculating longitude while at s ...
's marine chronometer
A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...
s.
The Ranger's House lies at the Blackheath end of the park and houses the Wernher Collection of art, and many fine houses, including Vanbrugh's house lie on Maze Hill, on the western edge of the park.
Town centre
Around the covered Greenwich Market, Georgian and Victorian architecture dominates in the town centre which spreads to the west of the park and Royal Naval College. Up the hill from the centre, there are many streets of Georgian houses, including the Fan Museum, on Croom's Hill. Nearby at the junction of Croom's Hill with Nevada Street, is Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.
Theatre first came to Greenwich at the beginning of the 19th century during the famous Eastertide Greenwich Fair at which the Ric ...
. The arthouse Greenwich Cinema is on Greenwich High Road, while the nearby Greenwich Playhouse
The Greenwich Playhouse was an 84-seat studio theatre in the central Greenwich district of the Royal Borough of Greenwich which opened in 1990 and closed in 2012.
It was situated above and had its entrance within the St. Christopher's Inn pub, si ...
closed in 2012.
Market
There has been a market at Greenwich since the 14th century, but the history of the present market dates from 1700 when a charter to run two markets, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was assigned by Lord Romney ( Henry, Earl of Romney)[ to the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital for 1000 years.
The market is part of "the island site", bounded by College Approach, Greenwich Church Street, King William Walk and Nelson Road, near the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. The buildings surrounding the market are ]Grade 2 listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and were established in 1827–1833 under the direction of Joseph Kay. A market roof was added in 1902–1908 (and replaced in 2016). Later significant development occurred in 1958–1960 and during the 1980s.
The landowner, Greenwich Hospital, enhanced the market between 2014 and early 2016. Following the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
in 2020 the rents for several of the market stalls were increased by up to 60% as Greenwich Hospital's managing agent Knight Frank said it was losing money with fewer stalls operating and only four days of trading a week.
Millennium Leisure Park
About east of Greenwich town centre, the Millennium Leisure Park is an out-of-town retail park on Bugsby's Way in east Greenwich. It consists of retail outlets (IKEA
IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...
and B&Q), restaurants and an Odeon
Odeon may refer to:
Ancient Greek and Roman buildings
* Odeon (building), ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions
* Odeon of Agrippa, Athens
* Odeon of Athens
* Odeon of Domitian, Rome
...
cinema. The IKEA store here opened in 2019 as the retailer's fourth main store in London, following stores in Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
(1988), Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
(1992) and Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
(2005); the Greenwich store is the first in Inner London
Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was use ...
.
Greenwich Shopping Park is about further east, in Charlton.
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time
Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time (sundial ti ...
at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...
in Greenwich. It is commonly used in practice to refer to Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently used ...
(UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
, especially by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
, the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, the Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
and others, although strictly UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time
Universal Time (UT or UT1) is a time standard based on Earth's rotation. While originally it was mean solar time at 0° longitude, precise measurements of the Sun are difficult. Therefore, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth's angle with ...
(UT), which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is often referred to by the military in the phrase Zulu time.
As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation A maritime nation is any nation that borders the sea and is dependent on its use for the majority of the following state activities: commerce and transport, war, to define a territorial boundary, or for any maritime activity (activities using the s ...
, British mariners kept at least one chronometer
A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...
on GMT in order to calculate their longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
from the Greenwich meridian
The historic prime meridian or Greenwich meridian is a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. The modern IERS Reference Meridian widely used today ...
, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884). Note that the synchronization of the chronometer
A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...
on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".
In recognition of the suburb's astronomical links, Asteroid 2830 has been named 'Greenwich'.
World Heritage Site
In 1997 Maritime Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
was added to the list of World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s, for the concentration and quality of buildings of historic and architectural interest. These can be divided into the group of buildings along the riverfront, Greenwich Park and the Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
and Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
town centre.
Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre
The Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre provides an introduction to the history and attractions in the Greenwich World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
. It is in The Pepys Building near to the '' Cutty Sark'' within the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College (formerly Greenwich Hospital); the building began life as an engineering laboratory for the college. The centre opened in March 2010, and admission is free.
The Centre explains the history of Greenwich as a royal residence and a maritime centre. Exhibits include:
* The history of the Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,
was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape f ...
.
* Models of Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
's original designs for Greenwich Hospital.
* Six of the carved heads originally intended to decorate the exterior of the college's Painted Hall
The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding ...
.
* Exhibition displays about Maritime Greenwich and its connections with the sea and exploration.
* ''"By Wisdom as much as War"'' – an exhibition about the history of the Royal Naval College during the years it occupied Greenwich Hospital (1873–1998).
Education
The University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic.
The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...
main campus occupies most of the grand, landmark riverside vista buildings of the former Royal Naval College. The university has other campuses at Avery Hill in Eltham
Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...
and at Medway
Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...
. The Greenwich campus also houses the Trinity College of Music
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...
.
Secondary schools in the area include The John Roan School, founded 1677, and St Ursula's Convent School
St Ursula's Convent School is a Roman Catholic secondary school for girls, located in the Greenwich area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, England.
St Ursula's is a voluntary aided school, and is part of the Ursuline Order within the ...
, established 1850.
Transport
National Rail
Greenwich is served by Greenwich and Maze Hill railway station, Maze Hill stations with Southeastern (train operating company), Southeastern services to Cannon Street railway station, London Cannon Street, Dartford railway station, Dartford, Barnehurst railway station, Barnehurst and Crayford railway station, Crayford as well as Govia Thameslink Railway, Thameslink services to Luton railway station, Luton via Blackfriars railway station, London Blackfriars and to Rainham railway station (Kent), Rainham.
London Underground
The area is also served by North Greenwich tube station, North Greenwich station with Jubilee Line services to Stanmore tube station, Stanmore and Stratford tube station, Stratford.
DLR
Greenwich is served by the Docklands Light Railway, with services from Greenwich and Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich DLR station, Cutty Sark stations to Bank–Monument station, Bank via Canary Wharf DLR station, Canary Wharf and to Lewisham DLR station, Lewisham.
Buses
Greenwich is served by many London Buses routes.
* London Buses route 129, 129 to Lewisham Shopping Centre or North Greenwich bus station, North Greenwich
* London Buses route 177, 177 to Peckham via New Cross or to Thamesmead
Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...
via Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
* London Buses route 180, 180 to Erith via Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
or to North Greenwich bus station, North Greenwich
* London Buses route 188, 188 to North Greenwich or to Russell Square via Canada Water, Elephant & Castle and Waterloo, London, Waterloo
* London Buses route 199, 199 to Bellingham, London, Bellingham via Lewisham & Catford or to Canada Water
* London Buses route 286, 286 to Sidcup via Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
and Eltham
Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...
* London Buses route 386, 386 to Blackheath or to Woolwich
* London Buses route N1, N1 to Tottenham Court Road station via Elephant & Castle and Waterloo or to Thamesmead via Woolwich (Night Bus)
* London Buses route N199, N199 to St Mary Cray via Lewisham, Catford, Bromley and Orpington and to Trafalgar Square via Canada Water and London Bridge station, London Bridge (Night Bus)
Boat
There are a number of river boat services running from Greenwich Pier, managed by London River Services. The main services include the Thames commuter catamaran service run by Thames Clippers from Embankment Pier, Embankment, via Tower Millennium Pier, Canary Wharf Pier, Canary Wharf and on to the the O2 (London), O2 and Woolwich Arsenal Pier; the Westminster Millennium Pier, Westminster-Greenwich cruise service by Thames River Services; and the City Cruises tourist cruise via Westminster, Waterloo Millennium Pier, Waterloo and Tower Millennium Pier, Tower piers.
Pedestrian and cycle routes
The Thames Path National Trail runs along the riverside. The Greenwich foot tunnel provides pedestrian access to the southern end of the Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ham ...
, across the river Thames.
The National Cycle Network Route 1 includes the foot tunnel, though cycling is not permitted in the tunnel itself.
Sports
Rowing
Greenwich is home to a variety of amateur sports clubs. Its location on the tidal Thames makes it a good location for rowing; the Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is the clubhouse of the Curlew and Globe rowing clubs. The Globe has senior and junior squads, the latter renowned for its achievements at national and international level.
Running
The Thames Path and Greenwich Park are popular with runners. The 'red start' for the London Marathon is situated south of the park on Charlton Way (other starts are nearby in St John's Park, and on Shooter's Hill Road). After heading east through Charlton and Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
, the marathon route then turns west towards Greenwich; as runners reach the , they pass the Old Royal Naval College and then loop around the prow of the ''Cutty Sark'' before continuing west towards Deptford.
Golf
Greenwich is also home to Greenwich Peninsula Golf Range, a riverside golf driving range with 60 bays, a mini 18-hole adventure course, golf academy, golf shop & restaurant.
Twin towns
Sister cities
* Maribor, Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria, Slovenia
* Reinickendorf, Berlin, Germany
* Tema, Greater Accra Region, Greater Accra, Ghana
Literature
Edward Lear makes reference to Greenwich in ''More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc'':
See also
*Greenwich Cablevision
*List of people from Greenwich
*List of World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom
Notes
References
*
External links
*
All Things Greenwich – a guide to local shops, services, restaurants, bars & pubs in Greenwich, South East London.
*
*
{{Authority control
Areas of London
Districts of the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Districts of London on the River Thames
Port of London
Former civil parishes in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
District centres of London