London
2nd November 2019 All photos by Hetty
We spent the day at Greenwich and while it was raining we looked around the Visitor Centre near this splendid ship.
Cutty Sark was built in 1869 and was once the fastest freight ship in the world
Entrance to the Old Royal Naval College, which was built as the Royal Hospital for Seamen in 1694. There was a Tudor palace here before that.
The buildings are very grand and, as they are in the style of buildings in Paris, they are often used in films.
Dolphin Fountain 1850
Sir Christopher Wren designed buildings here as well as rebuilding churches in London after the Great Fire. The double columns harmonise buildings that were built at different times between 1696 and 1751.
Gate to the Thames
The O2 Arena (centre back) is on the same side of the river as Greenwich
The stonemasonry has a lot of decoration
The chapel
In the Chapel
The Painted Hall in 2012 (we didn’t go in this time)
The Queen’s House – we’ll go in later – with the Royal Observatory behind
More fancy gates
This pediment is a tribute to Nelson winning the battle of Trafalgar in 1805
Under this arcade the flowers are all different
How it used to look – the four courtyards still look the same now
After lunch in Greenwich Market we went through these gates into Greenwich Park
We walked up to the Royal Observatory
The Royal Observatory was founded in 1675 and has the Meridian Line = 0 degrees longitude, which was agreed as the prime meridian for the world in 1884
Twenty-four hour clock
Standard measures
The view from the observatory (click the picture to enlarge)
We waked down through Greenwich Park to the Queen’s House
The Queen’s House was built over a road – now a colonnade – and has three bridges to connect the upper floor. It was started in 1616 for King James I’s wife, Anne of Denmark who died in 1619, and finished in 1636 for Charles I’s wife Henrietta Maria, just before the Civil War (1642). This new Classical design was brought to England by Inigo Jones after travelling in Italy.
The first self-supporting spiral stair in Britain
The Great Hall is a perfect cube-shape
More stairs
We only had time for a quick look around the National Maritime Museum – this photo is from March 2012
There is a large ship in a bottle outside
This royal barge was used from 1732 to 1849
Next – Thames walk – Tower Bridge to Westminster