Greenwich

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Greenwich (UK i/rnd/,[1][2][3] US /rnt/ or /rnd/[4][5][6]) is a district of South East

London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and situated 5.5 miles (8.9 km)
east south-east of Charing Cross.

Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich
Meridian (0 longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal
palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many in the
House of Tudor, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during
the English Civil War and was rebuilt as the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors by Sir
Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal
Naval College in 1873, and they remained an establishment for military education until 1998
when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within
these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of
Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built
there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the
Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime
connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty
Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the
former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934. Greenwich formed part of Kent until
1889 when the County of London was created.
History
Toponymy

So named by Danish settlers, Greenwich (Anglo-Saxon equivalent Grenewic) means the

green place on the bay (vig, wich) or near the mouth of a river (similarly, Schleswig,
Sandwich).[7] The settlement later became known as East Greenwich to distinguish it from
West Greenwich or Deptford Strond, the part of Deptford adjacent to the Thames,[8] but the
use of East Greenwich to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th
century. However, Greenwich was divided into the registration subdistricts of Greenwich
East and Greenwich West from the beginning of civil registration in 1837, the boundary
running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Crooms Hill, although more modern
references to "East" and "West" Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the
Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West
Greenwich council ward. An article in The Times of 13 October 1967 stated:

East Greenwich, gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel, remains solidly working class, the
manpower for one eighth of London's heavy industry. West Greenwich is a hybrid: the
spirit of Nelson, the Cutty Sark, the Maritime Museum, an industrial waterfront and a
number of elegant houses, ripe for development.[9]

Early settlement

Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House,[10] in Greenwich Park, are thought to be early
Bronze Age barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To the east
between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small
area of red paving tesserae protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and
300 coins were found dating from the emperors Claudius and Honorius to the 5th century.
This was excavated by the Channel 4 programme Time Team in 2000,[11] and further
investigations were made by the same group in 2003.[12]

The Roman road from London to Dover, Watling Street crossed the high ground to the south
of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier Celtic route from
Canterbury to St Albans.[13] As late as Henry V, Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a
safe anchorage in the river.[8]

Viking

During the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danish fleet anchored in the River Thames off
Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here
they attacked Kent and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury, making Archbishop
Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich. They stoned him to
death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body,
until the blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body
was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th
century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the
town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and completed
in 1718. Some vestiges of the Danish camps may be traced in the names of Eastcombe and
Westcombe, on the borders of nearby Blackheath.[14]

Norman

The Domesday Book records the manor of Greenwich as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux; his
lands were seized by the crown in 1082. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here
since before 1300, when Edward I is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the
Virgin Mary.[14]

Plantagenet

Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry
V granting the manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died at Greenwich
in 1426. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's half-brother
and the regent to Henry VI in 1447; enclosing the park and erecting a tower on the spot of the
Royal Observatory. It was renamed the Palace of Placentia or Pleasaunce by Henry VI's
consort Margaret of Anjou after Humphrey's death. The palace was completed and further
enlarged by Edward IV, and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth.[14]

Tudor

The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII) and
Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over
nearby Eltham Palace, the former principal royal palace. He extended Greenwich Palace and
it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII
married Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves at Greenwich, and both Mary (February 18,
1516) and Elizabeth (September 7, 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also
died there at age 15.

The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence.[14] Both she
and her sister Mary I used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned the
Spanish Armada campaign there in 1588.

Stuart

James I carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to
his wife Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones to design and
build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace.

Charles I granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom Inigo Jones
completed the Queen's House. During the English Civil War, the palace was used as a biscuit
factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum, the palace and park were seized
to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector.

By the time of the Restoration, the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled
down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II, but only the
King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park
and founded and built the Royal Observatory.
James II, as Duke of York and Lord Admiral until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his
brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys, he proposed the idea of creating a Royal
Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II, who
in 1692-1693 commissioned Christopher Wren to design the Royal Hospital for Seamen (now
the Old Royal Naval College). The work was begun under her widower William III in 1696
and completed by Hawksmoor. Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark continued to
patronise the project.

Hanoverian

George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George
II granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of
Derwentwater, which allowed the building to be completed by 1751.

In 1805, George III granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage
school), which amalgamated in 1821-1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended
with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum, it was renamed the Royal
Hospital School by Queen Victoria in 1892.

George IV donated nearly 40 paintings to the hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in
the Painted Hall. These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National
Maritime Museum. Subsequently William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors
and visitors to the gallery.

Victorian, Edwardian, modern and the present

Queen Victoria rarely visited Greenwich but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert personally
bought Nelson's Trafalgar coat for the Naval Gallery.

George V and Queen Mary both supported the creation of the National Maritime Museum,
and Mary presented the museum with many items.

The then Duke of York, laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it
moved out to Holbrook, Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before
coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the
school. George was accompanied by Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth (Bowes-Lyon) and the
Princess Elizabeth.

The then Princess Elizabeth and her consort being the then Philip Mountbatten (who was
ennobled Baron Greenwich on marriage in 1947) made their first public and official visit to
Greenwich in 1948 to receive the Freedom of the Borough for Philip. In the same year, Philip
became trustee of the National Maritime Museum. Philip, now the Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, was a trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron. The Duke
of Edinburgh has also been a patron of the Cutty Sark (which was opened by Queen Elizabeth
in 1957) since 1952.

During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, Queen Elizabeth embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee
River Pageant. In 1987 Queen Elizabeth was aboard the P&O ship Pacific Princess when it
moored alongside the Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th anniversary
celebrations.
To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3
February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal
Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the Royal
Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.[15]
The status was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family,
the location of the Prime Meridian and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[16]

Governance
Main article: Royal Borough of Greenwich

Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of
Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of
Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of The
Thames. Along with Blackheath Westcombe, Charlton, Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, and
Woolwich Common, it elects a Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich;
currently the MP is Nick Raynsford.[17]

Geography
Topography

The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad
meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To the
south, the land rises steeply, 100 feet (30 m) through Greenwich Park to the town of
Blackheath. The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the
Blackheath Beds, that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcropwith
sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river.

Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek and Deptford to the west; the former industrial
centre of the Greenwich Peninsula and the residential area of Westcombe Park to the east; the
River Thames to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south.