Day 48: August 7th.

The forecast was nice for Monday so we decided to head into the City to visit the Greenwich Observatory. Mike was keen to see Harrison’s clocks which are on display there and were the focus of a book he read called Longitude. The accurate measurement of time was an essential component of accurate navigation and was increasingly the goal in the 1700s after some terrible shipwrecks, one of which killed 1000 sailors. Craig was also keen to go as hadn’t been to any of the museums in Greenwich and also had a catch up organised with his friend Dave for later in the afternoon.
Pauline had suggested we go by boat to Greenwich from the Embankment tube station, which is on the Northern Line just south of Leicester Square.
It’s amazing how much easier it is to walk to the tube station in sunshine! It was still a bit chilly in the morning but lovely and warm by the time we got to the quay on the River Thames. We had decided not to go on the guided tour as the Uber operated ferry was much more frequent. That decision backfired as there were too many people for the next ferry but we were first in line for the next one 20 minutes later. Embankment was already halfway along the route, which operates exactly like the train and buses and you just tap on and off.

This is a flasher version of what we were on.

The contactless payment system for public transport is great as you don’t have to worry about separate travel cards. We didn’t think quickly enough to transfer to the guided tour queue as that came sooner and we would have had a great view from upstairs, assuming we got seats up there.
The Uber ferry was having some engine problems so we had to inhale a fair amount of diesel fumes but got good views from the uncovered area at the back.

Not sure what I think of this. The apartments have views of the river but it all looks a bit intensive to me.

I love the shape of that centre building. It looks like a phone.

When we got to Greenwich it was nearly 2pm so Craig navigated us to an excellent cafe nearby and we had a very nice lunch and coffees.

We passed the Cutty Sark but didn’t go in. Unfortunately we were taking photos directly towards the sun.

There are fantastic views of the city from the top of the hill at the Royal Observatory. That is part of the National Maritime Museum at the bottom of the hill.

Outside the Royal Observatory with the time ball above. It used to be dropped at exactly 1pm so that mariners could synchronise their watches and clocks.

The Royal Observatory has many important exhibits of time pieces and telescopes and there is an excellent audio guide that tells you about the astronomers that worked there and their lives. You just scan the QR code and can listen to it on your own ear pods which is much better than having to carry a separate device.
The story of Harrison’s clocks focuses on his 60 years of research and development in response to a £20,000 reward offered by Parliament via the Longitude Act of 1714 which was administered by the Royal Astronomical Society to come up with an accurate timepiece able to fix positions for navigation on ships. He came up with a succession of timepieces that were increasingly accurate with the final one being H4, Almost predictably the Society refused to pay him all of the reward saying it wasn’t proven, but after further measurements at sea and the intervention of King George lll he eventually got the full reward just a few years before his death. Back in the 1700s there was even more resistance to any innovation proposed by a non-recognised scientist. Harrison was an excellent carpenter and clockmaker but had no formal science education.

Harrison’s first clock H1. It uses 2 sideways swinging pendulums to try and get over the problem of wave motion. It was an improvement and sufficient to attract investment funding but not the answer.

H2 was a modification of H1 and worked much better.

For the successful 4the device Harrison went back to looking at watch mechanisms. This is H4 for which he eventually was paid his reward money.

This is one of the telescopes at the Observatory and is aligned along the Greenwich meridian.

This is the Greenwich Meridian. For obvious reasons it’s quite hard to get a good photo of the whole line in the Courtyard.

We travelled back into town on the Docklands light railway, which again operates on the same payment system. It is above ground until you get to Bank station so there were some good views.

I love that round skyscraper. These are in Canary Wharf.

We eventually got back to Pauline’s at about 6pm and Craig about an hour after that as he was meeting Dave and then had rush hour crowds to endure. As usual Pauline had produced a wonderful gourmet meal. She is particularly good with Japanese food having been born there and lived there for a number of years but any genre of food is a specialty for her it would seem.