Return to Paddington and a visit to Greenwich

I have visited London many times but only on day trips, usually to see some particular event or museum and it's always been a rush.  I'm now enjoying having the time to just wander around and visit whatever catches my interest.  On Wednesday I had a gentle cruise back to Paddington along the short Hertford Union canal, a 2 mile shortcut from the river Lee to the Regents canal which runs along the side of Victoria Park and cuts out Limehouse Basin and of course adds another name to my list of canals travelled.  I then retraced my earlier journey back through the city to Paddington via Kings Cross, Camden and of course Regents Park.

That rare item - A lock keepers cottage still used by a lock keeper.

Camden Lock - always a busy spot

Mr B in the last lock of the day

On Thursday I visited the Greenwich observatory, home of time. Of course I had to take the standard tourist photo stood astride the Greenwich meridian.

I knew that Greenwich is also home to the original imperial measurements of distance. 

What I didn't know is that the famous prime meridian which marks 0' longitude and thus the basis for timekeeping the world over is not in fact the original.  It has moved three times since the Observatory was built and is now some 15 feet east of it's original position.  The reason for this is that the telescope has to stand on a line facing directly North - South to enable the observatory to complete the task of mapping the night sky. However, each new Astronomer Royal brought with him a new, bigger and better telescope which for which he required a new home.  You can see in the following photo the final prime meridian on the ground to the left which is lined up on the centre of the left-hand building where the telescope was housed. To the right there is the building which housed the previous telescope and thus the previous prime meridian.

Sitting atop the octagonal observatory is the world earliest public time keeping device - the Time Ball. Once a day it is raised to the top of the pole and at precisely 13:00 it is dropped allowing ships moored in the Thames to set their ships chronometers. To provide a warning the ball is raised halfway up at 12:55 and then all the way at 12:58 giving the watching sailors time to prepare for its release. 

The final irony I learned is that the wonderful observatory, build by Wren, never actually housed the telescope.  Wren chose the octagonal shape to provide 8 windows to maximise the available views. The site had previously been home to a tower from the reign of Henry VIII and whilst the tower had long been demolished the foundations were still sound and so Wren used them to save money. Unfortunately this resulted in a building which was not correctly aligned and did not have a direct view North or South and thus could not be used to house the telescope.

Here ends the history lesson.