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Three thousand seven hundred square metres of baroque ceiling, painted over nineteen years.
HistoryArt & designPermanent
James Thornhill began painting it in 1707 and finished in 1726, and he was paid by the square yard, which may explain the two hundred figures. It was built as the dining room for the Greenwich Pensioners, the retired and injured sailors the Royal Hospital housed, and they ate in it exactly twice before it was decided the room was too good for them and turned into a paying attraction. The ceiling is an argument in paint for the Protestant succession: William and Mary enthroned, Louis XIV trampled underfoot, and Thornhill himself in the corner of the Upper Hall, hand out for the money he was still owed. Nelson lay in state here in 1806. A two-year conservation project finished in 2019 and the colours came back. Ticketed, with a multimedia guide included and talks every half hour from eleven to four; under-sixteens go free.
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