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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
Wren's answer to what a naval power owes the sailors it uses up.
Empire
Also in Museums and Royal London.
Greenwich Palace stood on this ground - Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were both born here - until William III and Mary II founded the Royal Hospital for Seamen on the site in 1694: a home for injured and elderly sailors, laid out by Christopher Wren in two great colonnaded ranges deliberately split down the middle so that the Queen's House behind kept its view of the river. In the nineteenth century it became the Royal Naval College and trained the officers of a navy that worked everywhere. The Painted Hall put the whole case on a ceiling - Protestant monarchy, naval victory, British trade - and Nelson lay in state beneath it. Sea power needed pensions, training, timekeeping and propaganda, and all of it clustered at this bend in the Thames.
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.