Observatory House was the name of an 18th century observatory established by

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...

in Windsor Street, Slough. After the original building had been demolished, the name was re-applied to a modern office block on the same site which now serves as the headquarters of

Slough Borough Council Slough Borough Council is the local authority for the Borough of Slough, in Berkshire, England. Slough is a unitary authority, having the powers of a county and district council combined. Berkshire is purely a ceremonial county, with no administ ...

Herschel's Observatory House

The original Observatory House was built, run and used by the astronomer

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline H ...

, and his sister Caroline. The famous '

40-foot telescope William Herschel's 40-foot telescope, also known as the Great Forty-Foot telescope, was a reflecting telescope constructed between 1785 and 1789 at Observatory House in Slough, England. It used a diameter primary mirror with a focal length (h ...

' - at that time the largest in the world - was housed there in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The main house was on Windsor Road. There was also a small cottage on the land. Herschel moved there on 3 April 1786.

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

was born in the house, and William died there on 25 August 1822. John Herschel and his family moved out of the house to

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Nat ...

in 1840. However, the house continued to be owned by the Herschel family until 1960. There is a poignant section of one of the early programmes by

Sir Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore was president of the Brit ...

on BBC "The Sky at Night", which was aired in 1960. Moore talks about the discovery of the planet Uranus by Herschel and how he (Moore) had visited the house, which was "now empty and likely to be demolished." In the garage was a section of the 40 ft telescope still sitting there. Observatory House was demolished in 1963.

Later buildings on the site

In the mid-1960s, the site was redeveloped with an office block, also called Observatory House, being erected there, while the adjoining road to the north was named Hershel Street in recognition of the astronomers. A monument to Herschel was erected in 1969 on Herschel Street, close to where the 40-foot telescope was located. The monument was designed by the Czech sculptor

Franta Belsky František Bělský (also known as Franta Belsky; 6 April 1921 – 5 July 2000) was a Czech people, Czech sculpture, sculptor. He was known for large-scale abstract works of public art as well as more iconographic statues and busts of noted ...

. The site was redeveloped again in the early 1990s, with the new building again called Observatory House. The building was then refurbished by

Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

to a design by Elsworth Sykes Architects ("ESA") for developers, XLB, in 2017. Following completion of the works, the 10-storey building was bought by Slough Borough Council in July 2018 for a reported £41.3 million and converted to become the council's main offices and meeting place, with the first council meetings in the building being held in September 2019.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, 40-foot telescope Astronomical observatories in England History of Slough Demolished buildings and structures in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1960 City and town halls in Berkshire