Skip to main content

Museum · Greenwich, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London, England

Royal Observatory Greenwich

The Royal Observatory is the historic observatory in Greenwich, London, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian Line, run as a museum by Royal Museums Greenwich.

Why go

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is one of the sites of Royal Museums Greenwich, which the UK government's page lists with the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House. The Observatory's own page calls it the home of Greenwich Mean Time and says visitors can stand on the Prime Meridian Line, see the Great Equatorial Telescope under its onion dome and enter the Octagon Room, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the oldest part of the Observatory. The page recommends booking online in advance to guarantee entry, says tickets on the day are subject to availability, and says members enter free without booking. When read on 11 October 2026, it said the Royal Observatory would close for a refurbishment project from 2 November 2026 and that the Peter Harrison Planetarium was already closed. This record is the observatory, not Greenwich Park or the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site.