Observatory House

Observatory House was the name of an 18th-century observatory established by William and Caroline Herschel in Windsor Street, Slough. After the original building had been demolished, the name was re-applied to a modern office block on the same site which now serves as the headquarters of Slough Borough Council.

Observatory House
Observatory House, a modern office block, which now stands at the corner of Herschel Street and Windsor Road in Slough on the site where Herschel's building once stood.
General information
TypeMunicipal headquarters
Architectural styleModernist
Location25 Windsor Street, Slough, England
Coordinates51.5082°N 0.5954°W / 51.5082; -0.5954
CompletedEarly 1990s (refurbished 2017)
Technical details
Floor count10
Design and construction
Architect(s)Elsworth Sykes Architects (for the refurbishment in 2017)
Main contractorKier Group (for the refurbishment in 2017)

Herschel's Observatory House

The original Observatory House was built, run and used by the astronomer William Herschel, and his sister Caroline. The famous '40-foot telescope' - at that time the largest in the world - was housed there in the late 18th century and early 19th century.[1][2]

The main house was on Windsor Road. There was also a small cottage on the land. Herschel moved there on 3 April 1786. John Herschel was born in the house, and William died there on 25 August 1822.[3] John Herschel and his family moved out of the house to Hawkhurst in 1840.[4] However, the house continued to be owned by the Herschel family until 1960.[5] There is a poignant section of one of the early programmes by Sir Patrick Moore on BBC "The Sky at Night", which was aired in 1960. Moore talks about the discovery of the planet Uranus by Herschel and how he (Moore) had visited the house, which was "now empty and likely to be demolished." In the garage was a section of the 40 ft telescope still sitting there.[6] Observatory House was demolished in 1963.[7]

Later buildings on the site

In the mid-1960s, the site was redeveloped with an office block, also called Observatory House, being erected there, while the adjoining road to the north was named Hershel Street in recognition of the astronomers. A monument to Herschel was erected in 1969 on Herschel Street, close to where the 40-foot telescope was located. The monument was designed by the Czech sculptor Franta Belsky.[3][8]

The site was redeveloped again in the early 1990s, with the new building again called Observatory House. The building was then refurbished by Kier Group[9] to a design by Elsworth Sykes Architects ("ESA") for developers, XLB, in 2017.[10][11] Following completion of the works, the 10-storey building was bought by Slough Borough Council in July 2018 for a reported £41.3 million and converted to become the council's main offices and meeting place, with the first council meetings in the building being held in September 2019.[12][13]

References
  1. "Observatory House". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 November 2008.
  2. "40-foot Herschelian (reflector) telescope tube remains (AST0947)". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  3. "Slough Borough Council: Sir William Herschel". Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
  4. Steavenson, W. H. (April 1927). "Herschel's first 40-foot speculum". The Observatory. 50: 114–118. Bibcode:1927Obs....50..114S.
  5. "A history of Slough's Observatory House". Slough and South Bucks Observer. 12 June 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  6. Mobberley, Martin (2015). Return to the Far Side of Planet Moore! Rambling Through Observations, Friendships and Antics of Sir Patrick Moore. Springer International Publishing. p. 100. ISBN 978-3319157801.
  7. "Observatory House, about 1900". Slough House Online. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  8. "Papers of Franta Belsky". JISC Archives Hub. Henry Moore Institute Archive. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  9. "Observatory House, 25 Windsor Road". Dolphin Solutions. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  10. "Observatory House, Slough". Emporis. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  11. "Observatory House, Slough". ESA. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  12. Hockaday, James (2 November 2018). "More than £41m spent on new Slough Borough Council headquarters". Maidenhead Advetiser. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  13. "Health Scrutiny Panel, 10 September 2019". Slough Borough Council. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
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