Prime Meridian

The Royal Greenwich Observatory

The Prime Meridian was established at the Greenwich Royal Observatory, London in 1851. The Meridian travels through nine countries; the UK, France, Spain, Algeria, Mail, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana and Antarctica.

As it happens it also passes just a short distance from my home in Lewisham. I decided to follow it from the most local point to the Thames on one of my runs. I discovered that the Meridian is marked along it's route in various ways.

My first marker was outside the Pizza takeaway in Hither Green Lane. It is a line of cobbles facing north to south (or south to north). 

Half a mile away is Hither Green train station. The Meridian runs across the tracks and is marked by a silver band on the roof of a foot tunnel beneath the tracks.

Heading north I crossed the A20 where there is a plaque in the pavement. Just round the corner is a small pagoda in Halley Gardens. It has the compass points marked around an axis.

 

My next stop was Chesterfield Walk which runs along one side of Greenwich Park. There is a plaque on the outer wall. Once inside the park there are more signs of where the line runs. One of these is a blue line painted across the tennis courts. Another is a white live that crosses the main pavement.

 

Naturally there are numerous marking in the Royal Observatory itself which is located in the park overlooking the Cutty Sark and Canary Wharf.

I descended the hill to the pond. Here there is a huge sundial with the compass points marked onto its base.

Just outside the gate is another plaque on the side of white house. 

After crossing Trafalgar Road there are several more lines located in a school which I wasn't able to access. However I did see the two sundials on the side of Trinity Hospital which locate the Meridian as it passed through. A Latin phrase is inscribed on them which reads "Omnia tempus habent et suis spatiis transeunt univesa sub caelo". This is a verse from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1 ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’.

 

There was quite a distance to the next markers. The Thames curves east and then north west creating the Greenwich peninsula opposite the Isle of Dogs. Here it again crosses the Prime Meridian at the Millennium Dome. 

The Dome was purposely constructed on the Prime Meridian. The significance of this is that when the Greenwich Meridian was ruled to be the world's Prime Meridian at a conference in 1884, they also declared a Universal Day that would begin for the whole world at 00:00 on the Greenwich Meridian. Thus the Millennium officially began for the whole world in the Dome itself .

A sign on the Thames path beside the Dome reads HERE 24,859. This is the number of miles it would take to circumnavigate the globe along a north/south axis and return back to the sign.

Outside the Intercontinental Hotel is a line placed into the ground to mark the Prime Meridian's journey through the grounds. Alongside are silver plaques laid into the ground, one for each of the nations the Meridian passes through.

On a jetty outside the hotel, and jutting out from the riverside are the needle eyes. These white metal structures contain a straight line following the route of the Meridian across the Thames.

This is where my run ended with a glorious sunset back on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich Park. I hope to follow more of the Prime Meridian in the future, both north of the Thames and south of Hither Green.