London - Greenwich Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Greenwich

Best reached either by boat or on dry land via Brunel’s tunnel under the Thames from Island Gardens on the DLR, Greenwich rewards the journey east with a manageable cluster of top attractions, most especially the National Maritime Museum, but also the Royal Observatory, and the 18th-century grandeur of the Royal Naval College, now part of the University of Greenwich. As well as being the home of Greenwich Mean Time, the area’s ancient Royal and naval associations made it seem an appropriate spot to wave goodbye to the lost Empire of the 20th century and welcome in the era of ‘New Britain’. Unfortunately the future of the Millennium Dome still hangs in the balance. A fairly short river trip from Westminster past many of London’s most famous sights, the town itself is also pleasant to explore, harbouring a variety of salty sights like the tea clipper, Cutty Sark.

Sights

T 020-8858 3445, http://www.cuttysark.org.uk. Daily 1000-1700 (last admission 1630). Adult £4.25, £2.95 concession. M Cutty Sark (DLR).

Appropriately enough, visitors to Greenwich arriving by boat land next to the Cutty Sark, the only surviving tea clipper. Built in 1869 on the Clyde, and named after the skimpy nightie on a dancing witch in Robert Burns’ poem Tam O’Shanter, she made her last commercial voyage in 1922 and was dry-docked in Greenwich in 1954. Two decks can be explored, including the Captain’s cabin, and a collection of figureheads from other tall ships. Unfortunately the ship is still steadily succumbing to the weather, in danger of crumbling away completely, and has become the worthy subject of an urgent fund-raising appeal.

T 020-8269 4744, http://www.greenwichfoundation.org.uk. Daily 1000- 1700 (last admission 1615). Free. Guided tours £9/£5 concessions. M Cutty Sark (DLR).

The College represents English architecture at its grandest and most formal. Three of the most celebrated 18th-century British architects had a hand in the design – Wren, Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh – and its twin domes and columns still make a stunning picture when seen from Island Gardens, the river or from the hills of Greenwich Park. Visitors can wander its riverside quads and see the Painted Hall, beneath the southwestern cupola, an extraordinary room, busy with murals beneath a magnificent ceiling, all painted by Thornhill over a period of 19 years.

T 020-8858 4422; information T 020-8312 6565. Daily 1000-1700 (last admission 1630). Free. M Cutty Sark (DLR).

The Queen’s House, bang in the middle of the National Maritime Museum, was the first truly Renaissance house of England. There’s a portrait gallery of old sea captains and other mariner types but nothing can diminish the beauty of the architecture: the Great Hall is a perfect cube, while the ‘tulip staircase’ named for the designs on its bannisters is beautiful too. Look out for Canaletto’s view of the Royal Hospital and Greenwich from the Isle of Dogs, little changed today.

T 020-8858 4422; information T 020-8312 6565, http://www.nmm.ac.uk. Free. Daily 1000-1700. M Cutty Sark (DLR).

A covered colonnade connects Queen’s House on either side to the large National Maritime Museum, with its three levels pretty much doing justice to their enthralling subject, the sea. In a bold move the museum was transformed in early 1999 by architect Rick Mather’s extraordinary £21 million glass roof over the central Neptune Court, manufactured by the company that built the Eiffel Tower.

T 020-8858 4422, information T 020-8312 6565. Daily 1000-1700 (last admission 1630). Free. M Greenwich.

A steep walk up the hill through the park behind the museum leads to the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time. Most prominent of the buildings is Flamsteed House which looks and sounds like something out of Harry Potter but was in fact the 17th-century home of the Astronomer Royal. It now contains an absorbing variety of artefacts and information on the mapping of the heavens and the plotting of the passage of time.

Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Greenwich
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