Oxford Inscriptions: Halley’s Observatory, 7 New College Lane
[Image of Halley's Comet]
EDMOND
HALLEY
1656–1742
This plaque commemorating Edmond Halley is fixed to the gate-post of 7 New College Lane, Halley lived here, and his observatory can still be seen on the roof.
The plaque is made of dark Cumbrian slate with engraved (gilded and painted) lettering under a comet motif.
Memorial to Halley in Westminster Abbey
The above plaque was installed in 2019, replacing the earlier wooden plaque (right) which spelt Halley's forename as Edmund rather than Edmond:
- Planning application 19/02217/LBC
The new plaque marked 400 years since the foundation in 1619 of the chairs of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy and the Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford:
Nos. 6 & 7 New College Lane originally formed a single building known as Stable Hall, owned by New College.
John Wallis (1616–1703), the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford, lived here at Stable Hall from 1672 until his death on 8 November 1703.
Wallis's son gave the unexpired part of the New College lease to the University of Oxford after his father's death to provide official residences for the two Savilian professors.
The building was then divided into two houses, with the Savilian Professor of Astronomy on the western side (No. 6) and the Savilian Professor of Geometry on the eastern side (now No. 7).
Right: Portrait of John Wallis in 1701 by Sir Godfrey Kneller (given to the University of Oxford by Samuel Pepys). It now hangs in the Examination Schools: more information
Edmond Halley was appointed the next Savilian Professor of Geometry in January 1703/4 and is believed to have moved here two months later as a sub-tenant under the lease that John Wallis had held from New College. In 1705 an observatory was built for him on his home. As well as a mathematician, Edmond Halley was an astronomer, geophysicist, meteorologist, and physicist, and a friend of Isaac Newton. In 1682 he observed the comet that was named after him, and in 1684 computed its orbit.
In 1713 Halley was also appointed Secretary of the Royal Society, and in 1720 Royal Astronomer at Greenwich Observatory.
When the Radcliffe Observatory was built in the 1770s, the post of Radcliffe Observer was coupled to the astronomy professorship, and a house was provided at the Observatory for the incumbent, making this house at 6 New College Lane on the left available for general letting. The advertisement below, published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 25 June 1774, gives a description of the house, and anyone wanting to rent it had to apply to the former occupant Thomas Hornsby (Radcliffe Observer and Savilian Professor of Geometry) at the new Observatory:
Halley's former home is still a New College house (below): this pre-2019 photograph still shows the earlier wooden plaque to Halley on the left of the front door of No. 7. Nos. 6 & 7 are jointly Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1369401). The restored rectangular structure on the roof is believed to have been used by Halley as an observatory.
(No. 8, the brick house on the right, now also has a plaque relating to Belgian refugees.)
Below: Stable Hall, New College Lane in an engraving of c.1830:
