Property on Sale: Clifton Observatory

TO BE SOLD

Exciting property! Consider benefits of owning a historic building right in Clifton Down. 

Investment and leisure opportunity. Freehold for one of the top five tourist attraction in major city.

The property includes: historic observatory building, caves and camera obscura.
Purchase also includes permission for a licensed restaurant with terrace.

The historic building of Clifton Observatory which is located in Clifton Down is for sale now. If you own £2m and still haven't think of any ways of spending it, your name could be at least in Wikipedia as the next owner of the observatory. Hurry up! Two potential buyers have already shown interest!

The observatory is built at 337 feet above the gorge, where loads of climbers practice their favorite sport: outdoor climbing.  It sits up on The Downs and offers superb views from above the Suspension Bridge. Clifton Observatory was build in the 18th century by James Waters as a windmill for corn. It was severely damaged during a strong gale in 1777 but in 1828, William West rented the mill, rebuilt the building and used it as his art studio, installing the camera obscura.

A camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography.The device consists of a room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside, where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved. The camera obscura in the Observatory in Bristol is a 5" (13 cm) convex lens and sloping mirror installed on the top of the tower. It projects the panoramic view vertically downward into the darkened room below. Visitors view the true image (not mirror image) on to a fixed circular table 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, with a concave metal surface, and turn the mirror by hand to change the direction of view. 

Apart from the camera obscura, William West also built a tunnel from the Observatory to St Vincent's Cave. It is also called Ghyston's Cave or Giant's Cave and it opens onto St Vincent's Rocks on the cliff face above the Avon, and can also be visited.

Currently, the Observatory is opened from 11.30am-5pm during weekdays and from 10.30am-5pm during the weekend in summer (noon to 4pm during winter) and adult tickets to the camera obscura cost £2 and other £2 for visiting the caves. Considering that 45.000 visitors came to the Observatory last year, when it was only open part of the year due to renovation works, it would be a pretty good investment to buy it.