The Old Royal Naval College is the great baroque masterpiece of English architecture, set in landscaped grounds on the River Thames in the centre of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site.
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2 Opening times 3 Admission 4 Presidents 5 See also |
Hisotry
The estate first came into Crown possession in the time of Good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, who was Regent during the minority of Henry VI. The Royal estate comprised Greenwich Park and the land now occupied by the National Maritime Museum and the College Grounds. Here by the river in 1428 Humphrey built a palace which he named Bella Court. A few years later Humphrey fell out with the new queen, Margaret of Anjou, and in 1447 he was arrested for high treason. He died in prison - Shakespeare says he was murdered - and Margaret took over Bella Court, renaming it the Palace of Pleasaunce, or Placentia. Under the Tudor monarchs the long association between Greenwich and the navy began. As king, Henry established naval dockyards at nearby Deptford and Woolwich. Elizabeth I made Placentia the scene of great festivals, including "launch parties" for many voyages of exploration. In 1581 Francis Drake was knighted at Greenwich after sailing round the world, and here Elizabeth signed the orders that sent out her fleet against the Spanish Armada. Towards the end of her reign Drake and his companion at arms, Sir John Hawkins, set up the Chatham Chest, a charitable scheme for disabled seamen foreshadowing the later Hospital.
In the time of the Commonwealth it was allowed to fall into decay, but meanwhile in 1635 Inigo Jones had completed the building of a new Queen’s House to span the old Deptford Road which separated the Royal Park from the grounds of Placentia. This Queen’s House was happily preserved and provided the key building around which the subsequent reconstruction was planned. It was Charles II who first began the building of a King’s House upon the ruins of Placentia to match the Queen’s House, but during his reign the work advanced no further than what is now the east side of King Charles building.
When William and Mary succeeded jointly to the British throne in 1688, war with Louis XIV of France was inevitable. A series of dramatic naval actions ended with Admiral Russell's convincing victory at La Hogue in 1692, and Mary pressed for the King's House to be completed as a naval hospital. She died before work could begin, but William was determined to honour her wishes. Christopher Wren returned to Greenwich to design the Hospital, and John Evelyn, the diarist, was appointed treasurer. On 30th June 1696, at precisely five in the evening, the two men laid the foundation stone. Over the next fifty years famous architects such as Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor, Campbell, Ripley and "Athenian" Stuart completed Wren's grand design.
The Hospital endured from 1705 until 1869, when it was finally closed, the pensioner seamen having meanwhile been provided with other means of support. During the Hospital period in 1805, the Queen’s House passed out of Crown possession to accommodate the Greenwich school, and the colonnades and wing buildings were added. In 1873, the Royal Naval College was moved from Portsmouth and was established at Greenwich.
In 1998 the Royal Navy left Greenwich and handed over responsibility for the site to the Greenwich Foundation. The University of Greenwich is now working in Queen Anne, Queen Mary and King William Court, and was joined in October 2001 by Trinity College of Music in King Charles Court.
The College will be closed to the public on 24, 25 & 26 December.
In the Chapel, a service of worship is held every Sunday at 11am, to which all are welcome.
Opening times
The Painted Hall and Chapel are generally open to visitors daily between 10am and 5pm. The grounds of the Old Royal Naval College are now open to the public from 8am until 6pm. Admission
Admission to the Painted Hall and the Chapel is now free. Guided tours, lasting about one hour, are also available at £5 and £4 for concessions.Presidents
See also