Royal Observatory Greenwich

The home of Greenwich Mean Time, where you can stand with a foot in both Western and Eastern hemispheres.

Since 1833 its red timeball has fallen daily at exactly 1300 hours to enable ships to set their clocks accurately. Britain’s first telegraph cable linked it to a similar timeball in Walmer on the south-east coast for the benefit of shipping in the English Channel. In keeping with this naval tradition, a cannon is sounded daily on the deck of the Cutty Sark at 1300 hours.
Since 1884, the world has set its clocks according to the time of day on the Meridian of Greenwich, longitude 0°--an imaginary line joining the North and South Poles through the dead centre of a specialised telescope installed at the Observatory in 1851. Today, the Observatory houses Britain’s largest refracting telescope.

Following its complete renovation in 1993, you can see a unique collection of historic timepieces and navigational instruments which tell the story of time and astronomy and the origins of the Observatory itself; you can walk around Sir Christopher Wren’s Octagon Room and the apartments of the Astronomer Royal; and you can enjoy regular shows in the intimacy of the Observatory’s tiny Planetarium and visit one of the country’s few camera obscuras in the courtyard.

Alba Oviedo
Patricia Muñoz

1er Batx. A

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch.
The Georgian original interior was consisting of brilliant stuccoes with inlays of blue and pink. Edward VII re-decorated the palace adding a decoration of the type Belle époque in tones cremates and gilded. Some lounges of receipt are decorated in Chinese style by furniture from the royal pavilion of Brighton and Carlton house. The gardens of the palace constitute the biggest private gardens of London. They were created originally by Capability Brown, but re-designed by William Townsend Aiton and John Nash. The artificial lake was created in 1828 and it receives water of the Lake Serpentine, the lake that you can see in the Hyde Park.
Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. In measurements, the building is 108 metres long across the front, 120 metres deep (including the central quadrangle) and 24 metres high.

When the Queen is in the palace, the British flag (the Union Jack)is flying, but when she's not there, there's no flag!!



Idoia S.
Miriam L.
Sarai Q.
1st Baxillerat A

Who are we?

We are a group of eleven students of Rafecas High School. We are vey funny and a few crazy. We love London, so we are going to talk about this fabulous city in this blog.

Do you want to know London?
Let's start!!!

Big Ben

Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the palace of Westminister in London.

This is the largest four-faced chiming clock and the third tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.

The Tower of the Clock of Westminster, popularly known as "Big Ben", was raised as part as the new building designed by Charles Barry, after the old palace of Westminster was destroyed by the fire the night of October 16, 1834. The tower is designed to the Gothic Victorian style, and has 96,3 m of height.

This tower, formed by four clocks, is constructed of stone and iron.

Four clocks of the building work thanks to a mechanism of five bells. In the base of every face of the clock there is an inscription in Latin: ' LATIN TEACHER SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM ' (' God guards our queen Victoria I '). The handle that marks the hours measures 2,7 meters of length, whereas the one that marks the minutes measures 4,3 meters.

Anna M. and Jessica R. 1^st Batx A