Greenwich Village

Greenwich is a small town, a part of the south-eastern London, on the south bank of the Thames River. It is known for its maritime history and location of Greenwich Mean Time. In 1997, maritime Greenwich was added to the list of World Heritage Sites.

The name Greenwich is derived from Saxon word and it means the green village. At first it was East Greenwich in opposition to another town called West Greenwich. Later this opposition died out, but in 1837 Greenwich itself was divided into East and West part (the boundary was probably Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum).

Excavations in 1902 gave the evidence, that the site of present day Greenwich has already been settled in the 4th century. It was the royal place since the early 14th century, with British monarchs showing it bigger or smaller interest. The royal associations are now broken, but all the buildings kings and queens got to build remained and became the core of the World Historic Site.

There are several sites in Greenwich that are worthy to visit or at least see. At first it is the Royal Greenwich Observatory located on the Prime Meridian in the Greenwich Park. The park is also home to National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House. Then there is the Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music. And one cannot miss the Cutty Sark, a clipper ship standing in a dry dock by the Thames River (although it is being reconstructed now and it has not been decided about her future, yet). On the Greenwich Peninsula the Millennium Dome was built, the largest single-roofed structure in the world.