Inside the remarkable restoration of King George III's observatory

On June 3, 1769, George III waited at the Kew Observatory for Venus to begin making its slow passage across the face of the sun. Nine others were present when contact was finally made between the planet and the edge of the solar disc, Queen Charlotte and the observatory’s superintendent Stephen Demainbray among them. According to Demainbray, the King ‘was the first who saw’ the phenomenon, beating, perhaps unsurprisingly, all others present to the observation by ‘half a second’. When contact was made, a bell was rung, summoning upstairs other guests in the observatory, including Princes Ernest and George of Mecklenberg-Strelitz. The Kew observatory had been built specially to witness this celestial event, having been commissioned from Sir William Chambers the previous year. The room in whi