From the 8th March 2011, visitors to the Greenwich Museum will be charged £10 to stand on the Meridian Line.
The Meridian Line is where the 0 degrees longitude runs through, diving the earth into the western and eastern hemispheres. The attraction has become very popular with locals and especially tourists alike as they jump across between the two sides.
Greenwich Museum became free in 2001 and has seen a massive increase in the number of visitors, now reaching 1.58 million in 2010. The museum has said the £10 charge is simply to allow it to maintain the courtyard around the line which is marked by 2 pieces of metal in the ground and ensure safety of the public.
The per person admission charge will cover visitors for a year, although as most are tourists this probably won’t really make any difference and children under 16 will still be free, but as the visitor numbers aren’t likely to fall much, £15m in revenue each year does seem a little steep to renew a few cobble stones.
Compared to other museums in London this is still rather inexpensive, although many of the publically owned London Museums are now free of charge.
More Resources:
Greenwich Meridian Line
More things to see in Greenwich
Hotels in Greenwich, London
3 Comments
There’s no need to pay to stand on the Meridian Line. It’s not just in Greenwich, it travels half-way round the world. Come to East Grinstead (Sussex) and visit East Court, where you can straddle the line completely free of charge, in beautiful surroundings. It is marked on the ground, so you can stand with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western, and it’s also marked on a wonderfully tactile sculpture made from local ironstone.
Anyone stupid enough to pay £10 to stand on the line can’t complain, especially when they can stand on it anywhere else on the earth’s circumference free of charge.
I’ve worked out that a street in Louth, Lincolnshire, is another great candidate for a Greenwich style line as it’s one of the few towns actually on the line (in Britain). Might blog about it soon.