The Octagon Room -- Flamsteed House, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, UK
N 51° 28.679 W 000° 00.122
30U E 708176 N 5707243
The famed Octagon Room at Flamsteed House, built for show to impress Royal Patrons and others, and give visitors a chance to use elegant telescopes in the 17th and 18th centuries
Waymark Code: WMT455
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/22/2016
Views: 2
The elegant Octagon Room at Flamsteed House, one of the few interiors designed by famed architect Sir Chirstopher Wren still in existence, looks like it was built for science, but was in fact built for show.
An interpretive sign in the Octagon Room reads as follows:
"THE OCTAGON ROOM
This is one of the few surviving interiors by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Some serious astronomical work was done here, but it was built mainly “for pompe,” allowing important visitors to do some amateur observing in elegant surroundings.
The Octagon Room also housed to very fine clocks, which only needed winding once a year. These timekeepers use long 13 foot pendulums, concealed behind paneling, to keep accurate time. They were sufficiently accurate to resolve an ancient puzzle, by proving that the earth turns and a constant rate throughout the year.
In the Octagon Room, the pendulums of the clocks were concealed behind paneling. The long windows were necessary to accommodate the telescopes of the day (like the one in the photograph). The portraits of the observatories Royal Patrons hang over the door."
Type of Historic Marker: Interpretive sign
Historical Marker Issuing Authority: Royal Museums Greenwich
Age/Event Date: 01/01/1676
Related Website: [Web Link]
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