Greenwich buildings from the Thames. The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, is at left. On the river bank at centre is the Bellot memorial obelisk (erected 1856). In the distance, at centre, are the turrets of the Royal Observatory on a hill. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was founded in 1675 with the building of Flamsteed House. It was the first purpose-built research institution in Britain, and for centuries was the centre of astronomical and meteorological research in the UK. Artwork published in the 1891 edition of The Midnight Sky, by the British astronomer Edwin Dunkin.