Double Polar (Horniman Logo) Sundial - Horniman Gardens, London Road, Forest Hill, London, UK - Sundials on Waymarking.com

Close to the first sundial in the trail, the scaphe sundial, there is a map showing the location of the others. As a suggestion, and to easily locate the others, pop in to the museum reception and ask for a (free) map of the museum and grounds. Return to the map and transfer the locations - it makes finding them a lot easier!

The Horniman Museum website tells us about this sundial:

Double Polar Horniman Logo Dial

    Design and construction: John Moir and Richard Klose, 1997

A Polar dial has both the dial plate and the gnomon parallel to the earth's polar axis, the latter creating a shadow which moves sideways across the dial plate.

The Horniman dial is, in effect, two separate polar dials, with two gnomons and two overlapping hour scales. The edges of the 'H' act as the gnomons.

This sundial features a motto about the passage of time - a common feature of sundials. The motto is an anagram of 'The Horniman Museum and Gardens’' and reads: 'And hours run mad e’en as men might'. The dial features a letter H, inspired by a previous Horniman logo. The plinth design was inspired by the Horniman Clock Tower and evokes Arts and Crafts style. The dial is made from Hopton Wood limestone and the plinth from Portland stone.

Reading the dial

The shadow of the right hand gnomon shows Solar Time on the blue (am) scale while the shadow of the left hand gnomon indicates Solar Time on the red (pm) scale.

Correcting the "reading"

Map of the sundials