In one of London’s most beautiful royal parks, there’s an iron line with a fascinating history - the so-called Zero Meridian which has kept time for the world for 136 years. In fact, until 1884, every Nation calculated the time in different ways, based on the movement of the Sun - a Tower of Babel of Time which proved trying for travellers as they spent days and days crossing vast seas and even oceans. To resolve this problem, the delegates of 25 Nations around the world, came together in Washington D.C. and created the brilliant system of time zones. Thus “universal time” was born, based on the division of the globe according to wedges separated by lines known as meridians. As a point of reference for calculating the time in different parts of the planet, the meridian passing through the Astronomical Observatory of Greenwich in the South of London was chosen. Today, next to the iron line, are stone plaques citing the times in some of the world’s most important cities. The nearby Shepherd Gate Clock is the first electric clock capable of showing all 24 hours simultaneously. There are numerous attractions in this park designed by architect André Le Notre - from the Palladian architecture of the Queen’s House to the 1700s sailboat, the Cutty Shark, from the Neo-Gothic Castle of Vanbrugh, home of the RAF, to the Royal Observatory Museum, where one can admire ancient maps and astronomical and navigational instruments, as well as the magical Planetarium and an amazing view of the skyscrapers of the Docklands.
An exhibition to tell an important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of the work of Edvard Munch, one of the great portraitists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
From 1980 to 2004, The Face played a pivotal role in shaping contemporary culture: musicians, actors, models - including a young Kate Moss - became the most recognizable faces of their time.
In 1597 Annibale and Agostino Carracci began work on the vast gallery of the Farnese Palace in Rome. How to prepare? Two enormous charcoal drawings on paper tell us this story.