A scene showing the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Queen's House and Thames riverfront buildings of East Greenwich. The main building of the new Observatory rapidly gained the name Flamsteed House from its first incumbent, the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. From 1676 it was his home and workplace in the task of charting the skies to 'find out the so-much desired longitude of places' and to improve navigation and astronomy – all necessary to the rising sea-trading power that Britain was then becoming. Greenwich was selected as the site for the Observatory following a recommendation by the architect responsible for its design, Christopher Wren. Significantly it was on a royal site on high ground free of smoke from London. It was purpose-built with tall windows and sufficient space to enable the long telescopes and pendulum clocks to be housed and used. Most of Flamsteed's observational work was done in outbuildings, with Flamsteed House itself serving largely (in Wren's words) 'for the observator's habitation, and a little for pomp' in receiving distinguished visitors. The Observatory was therefore both functional and aesthetic. This was a fertile period in English science when enormous advances were being made.