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Built as a home for old and wounded sailors, with a dining hall whose ceiling took one painter nineteen years.
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Also in Royal London and Power & Politics.
Queen Mary II watched the wounded come ashore from a sea battle in 1692 and ordered a hospital built for sailors too old or too broken to work. Christopher Wren laid it out as four blocks set either side of an open avenue, so that the Queen's House behind kept its view of the Thames, and Nicholas Hawksmoor and John Vanbrugh carried on the work after him. Pensioners lived here for 177 years; the Royal Navy then trained its officers here for another 125, until 1998. The University of Greenwich and a music and dance conservatoire hold the buildings now, and two rooms are open to visitors.
The Painted Hall was meant to be the pensioners' dining room. The painter James Thornhill spent nineteen years on it, from 1707 to 1726, covering the walls and ceiling with William and Mary, Queen Anne, ships, seasons and gods across some forty thousand square feet, and was paid by the square yard. The room came out too grand to eat in, so the sailors ate elsewhere and showed visitors round it instead. Nelson's coffin lay here for three days in January 1806, before the funeral at St Paul's. The chapel across the avenue was rebuilt in pale, delicate plasterwork after a fire in 1779.
Step-free access
| Monday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
Hours from the page that lists them, checked 6 September 2026.
Painted Hall, chapel and visitor centre; last entry 16:30. The Painted Hall is £19 and children go free; the chapel and the grounds are free, and the grounds are open 08:00 to 23:00.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.