Greenwich

GREENWICH  Town in Kent (England), on the right bank of the Thames, 4.34 miles (7 km) S-E from Saint-Paul’s cathedral in London; pop. 469,370. It is particularly famous for its hospital for sailors and its observatory, whose longitude is the only one allowed on English charts. The hospital, opened in 1705, stands on the site of a former royal palace called house of Greenwich, Placentia or The Pleasaunce; it is used today as a hospital for sailors wounded in times of war, the former residents having obtained in 1865 the right to live elsewhere. The observatory was built by Charles II. Greenwich has very important factories.

Extract from the Trousset encyclopedia, 1886 – 1891.