Radcliffe Observatory

For the Radcliffe 18/24-inch Double Refractor telescope in London, see University of London Observatory.

Radcliffe Observatory
View of the observatory.
Location within Oxford (central)
General information
Type	Former observatory
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Location	Woodstock Road, Oxford
Coordinates	51.7608°N 1.2639°W / 51.7608; -1.2639
Construction started	1772
Completed	1794
Design and construction
Owner	Green Templeton College
Architect	Henry Keene and James Wyatt

Panoramic view of the observatory in the snow.

The top of the observatory.

Radcliffe Observatory was the astronomical observatory of Oxford University from 1773 until 1934, when the Radcliffe Trustees sold it and erected a new observatory in Pretoria, South Africa. It is a grade I listed building.

History

The observatory was founded and named after John Radcliffe by the Radcliffe Trustees. It was built on the suggestion of the astronomer Thomas Hornsby, who was occupying the Savilian Chair of Astronomy, following his observation of the notable transit of Venus across the sun's disc in 1769 from a room in the nearby Radcliffe Infirmary.

The observatory building commenced to designs by Henry Keene in 1772, and was completed in 1794 to the designs of James Wyatt, based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens.

Until 1839, the Savilian Chair of Astronomy was responsible for the observatory, at this date the appointment of George Henry Sacheverell Johnson an astronomer with no observational experience caused the creation of the new role of Radcliffe Observer.

Because of the viewing conditions, weather, and urban development at Oxford, the observatory was moved to South Africa in 1939. Eventually that site, in Pretoria, also became untenable and the facility was combined with others into the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in the 1970s.

The building is now used by Green Templeton College off the Woodstock Road and forms a centrepiece for the college. The original instruments are located in the Museum of the History of Science in central Oxford.

Radcliffe Observers

The following have been Radcliffe Observers:

• 1839 Manuel John Johnson
• 1860 Robert Main
• 1879 Edward James Stone
• 1897 Arthur Alcock Rambaut
• 1924 Harold Knox-Shaw
• 1950 David Thackeray

See also

• Observatory Street to the north
• Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, a local development project