Greenwich in Southeast London is home of the Prime Meridian - Longitude 0 - at the Royal Observatory, the spot from where world time, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), was first calculated.
For hundreds of years it was from these eight miles of Thames riverbank that ships sailed off to trade with the rest of the world to build England' riches. By the nineteenth century Greenwich had become the most prosperous riverbank on earth.
The sheer concentration of great art and architecture that has given Greenwich the status of a World Heritage Site was built on seafaring. Without access by boat to the rest of the world England would have been a backwater. And it was on the banks of the Thames that her maritime success was shaped. It is a history that has left Greenwich drenched in art and architecture; and the town's ancient buildings and beautiful park are now internationally recognised as a world heritage site - as globally significant as the Taj Mahal or Stonehenge.
