The Greenwich Meridian

Currently viewing images from 19 Jan 2011

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This marking was specifically designed to be the centrepiece of this 1980s development, in which all bar one of the buildings are aligned in a N–S direction. The road is named after Edmond Halley, the second Astronomer Royal, who is buried near the Meridian in Lee Churchyard about a third of a mile to the north. A plaque on the pillar at the Celestial Gardens entrance to the estate (on Glenton Road) commemorated the official opening in September 1986. Present in 2011, it was missing in 2015.

The pergola sits astride a path running due N–S along the Meridian. The main plaque under the pergola along with three of the four bronze plaques marking the cardinal points were missing in 2011. The white sphere on top of the pergola is a rare spherical sundial and represents the Earth. It would originally have been orientated with its North Pole pointing towards the Earth’s Celestial Pole, but is now slightly out of alignment. The continents are engraved on its surface. So too is the Equator along with 24 lines of longitude – each being separated from the next by 15 degrees, or an hour in time. The lines of longitude in the western hemisphere, but not in the eastern, are numbered. The numbers run in sequence from 6 at the top (the Prime Meridian) though to 18 at the bottom (longitude 180 degrees) and allow the time to be read off according to where the terminator line falls. The dial's elevated position makes it difficult to read.

The estate was developed by Barratt, who were also responsible for the later development just over three miles to the north at Poplar. Both feature a Meridian path.