The Royal Observatory: Home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

The royal observatory in Greenwich is situated on a hill atop Greenwich park, facing the River Thames. This was where the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) standard originated from, with the prime meridian line passing through its premises.

 Royal observatory

Just so you know, the prime meridian line is an imaginary line that divides the eastern and western hemispheres of the globe (similar to how the equator divides the northern and southern hemisphere). It has a longitudinal value of 0° and is used as the zero reference point for many countries in the world to keep time on - based on GMT conventions.

Meridian line guide

Furthermore, the prime meridian line was used in many observations relating to astronomy - past and present.

Prime meridian line (0° longitude)

It was pretty cool to see inscriptions around the line showing the longitudinal value of different countries that varied from this particular reference point.

There was also a 24-hour Shepherd gate clock outside the observatory, which was the first ever clock to display the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) directly to the public.

24-hour shepherd gate clock

The shop was actually selling a replica of this for £150!


If your interested, there's a full audio guided tour throughout the observatory which shows the history of how people from the past made use of astronomy to tell time. There was also an illustration of how the methods evolved from the usage of 'mechanical' gears and gadgets to the technologies we have today.

 Past dial clocks

Being there was definitely an eye opener for me. If I were to ever do any kind of GMT time conversion again, I'd have a greater appreciation of its significance, rather than blindly converting it like before.

The National Gallery, London

Founded in 1824, this monumental building is situated in Trafalgar square and houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.

National Gallery

A better thing about this place was that entry was totally free. I'm not a huge advocate for art, but seeing that admission was going to cost me nothing, why not?

The interior was very fancy and reminded me of the Louvre in Paris. It had a very elaborate designed that not only looked modern, but kept historic design aspects in its interior decor.


As I walked around the place, looking at the paintings which I admittingly cannot appreciate as much as some of the people around who were more into art, I still managed to catch glimpse of a few that I thought looked 'famous' or 'familiar':

(William Shakespear, 1600-1610) - National Portrait Gallery

(Water Lily-Pond by Claude Monet, 1899)


(Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, 1888)

For every picture, there's a short explanation beside them to highlight how it was painted and what elements certain elements in the drawing represents. If your really into it, you could probably get one of the museum personnel to give you a more detailed explanation. 

All in all, it was a worthwhile place to visit, regardless of whether your actually into art or not. I'd say that if you have the chance, do give it a go.