The Greenwich Meridian
…where east meets west
| Location | England LB Greenwich Greenwich (SE10) |
| Trinity Hospital, Old Woolwich Road | |
| Distance (N) from Greenwich | |
| OS map details | OS Explorer: 161 or 162 |
| OS grid ref | TQ 38871.78034 (538871,178034) |
| WGS84 lat/long | 51.484216, -0.001395 |
| Type | Sundial |
| Marking date | 2007 |
| Access | None, but visible from public road |
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Currently viewing images from 23 Sep 2015
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| 23 Sep 2015 | 29 Sep 2011 | 11 Feb 2010 | 11 Apr 2008 |
The Mercers’ Company are responsible for Trinity Hospital. According to a page that once existed on their website, the two sundials for their new Garden Building (built 2005–07) were commissioned in honour of the fact that the Greenwich Meridian passes through the site. The western dial is closest to the Line. ‘Every Christmas Day the shadow of the sphere on [the] gnomon traces the upper silver curve which crosses the hour lines. The lower gold curve marks Trinity Sunday 2007, the year in which the sundial was made’. The second dial is a noon dial. A spot of light falls though the star of the gnomon. Its position marks not only the exact moment of local noon (the vertical black line), but also the moment of mean noon (the silvery figure of 8 marking). The Latin motto Omnia tempus habent et suis spatiis transeunt univesa sub caelo is split across both dials and comes from Ecclesiastes (chapter 3, verse 1). It translates as: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’.
Mercers’ Company