Useful things to know before your visit
Address: Cutty Sark, King William Walk, Greenwich SE10 9HT. Telephone: 0208 312 6565. Website: rmg.co.uk
How much do the tickets cost?
You can buy adults tickets from £22, and children (4-15 years) from £11. Infants under-4 are free.
What are the opening hours?
Opening times are 10am to 5pm (Mon-Sun, Jan to Jun and Sep to Dec); 10am to 6pm (Mon-Sun, Jul to Aug). Last entry is 45 minutes before closing time.
How much time do you need?
A typical visit to the Cutty Sark takes 1½ hours.
Which buses go to the Cutty Sark?
Bus routes 29, 53, 54, 129, 177, 180, 188, 199, 202, 286, 380 and 386 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Cutty Sark on the Docklands Light Railway. It only takes two minutes to walk to the Cutty Sark.
Which other attractions are nearby?
Here are four attractions within 15 minutes walk of the Cutty Sark: Old Royal Naval College, National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory.
Twitter 
Facebook 
WhatsApp 
Email My review of the Cutty Sark
Half of the world thinks the English wear bowler hats, bow ties, play cricket and drink tea, but most of us only live up to the last one – we’ve been drinking tea since the 17th-century. By the middle of the 1800s it was so popular that companies were racing around the world to bring home the first crop of the year, building clipper ships to carry back £6 million quid’s worth from China. And it was at the height of these ‘tea races’ that the Cutty Sark was launched.
Photo: londondrum.comHer maiden voyage was in February 1870 and after 25 days of rest and reloading in Shanghai she was back in London by the 13th October. The entire trip lasted just 109 days.
Unfortunately she entered the race at the worst possible time because Egypt was about to open the Suez Canal. This proved to be a game-changer for steamships because instead of going all the way around the bottom of Africa they could take a shortcut through the Med and knock 3,300 miles off the journey. Sailing ships couldn’t handle the wind conditions in the canal and had to carry on past the Cape of Good Hope. Within a few years the Cutty Sark was trailing home a fortnight behind the steamships and her tea carrying career came to an abrupt end after just eight voyages.
She tried carrying Australian wool for a while but was eventually sold off to a Portuguese company before finding her way back to Britain, where she ended up as a museum ship.
Photo: londondrum.comIt’s worth taking a walk around the outside before you begin so you can admire the ebony coloured hull. It’s quite clever the way they’ve designed it because it’s sitting on a greenhouse of glass like it’s sailing on the sea, and the masts are so high in the sunshine you almost have to squint to see the fluttering flags at the top. It’s just a shame that they couldn’t put the sails up because imagine what it would look like with them billowing in the wind – what an amazing sight that would be!
The cargo decks downstairs
Photo: londondrum.comYou start in the cargo deck which has a few fake crates stacked up around some TV screens. If you want to hear the ship’s story then you can sit there listening to the sounds of the sloshing sea while watching a potted history being beamed onto a wooden wall.
Photo: londondrum.comThe next deck would have been packed tight with sacks and bags but now it’s almost empty with an occasional display case housing an old bell, barometer and telescope. They’ve also got some interactive table tops and push-button models for the kids (not very exciting) but it all seems rather sparse and empty and, to be honest, at this stage of the tour you’ll be thinking you just wasted twenty quid.
The top deck and inside the crew cabins
Photo: londondrum.com
Photo: londondrum.com
It’s only when you clamber up the stairs to the top deck that you’ll see what all the fuss is about. Being stuck at sea for 100 days meant that the Cutty Sark had to carry all her food and water onboard, so you’ve got to imagine the wet decks being stacked with pallets, pig pens, chicken coups, canvas tents, wooden pulleys and coiled ropes – imagine all the farmyard noise!
 |
   |
You can poke your nose into the deckhouse where the Apprentices and Petty Officers slept (Boatswain, Cook, Carpenter and Sailmaker) and see their wooden bunks and scratchy blankets, dirty mugs and tobacco tins. Then you go up another level to the 1st Mate, 2nd Mate and Steward, and see their pantry filled with dirty plates, cups and cutlery.
Photo: londondrum.com
The plushest room is the beautiful saloon with its mahogany sideboard and long table where the captain studied his charts and maps.
Photo: londondrum.com
Photo: londondrum.comThen you head underneath the hull into what used to be the dry dock. If you’re as old as me then you might remember when this concrete pit was filled with stale rainwater and a dirty slew of sticks and polystyrene cups, but now the boat hangs above a cafe on a rack of metal ribs – it reminds me of those whale bones in the Hintze Hall of the Natural History Museum.
The collection of ships’ figureheads
 |
   |
At the far end of the basement is a rather creepy collection of figureheads from the front of merchant navy ships. It’s supposed to be the largest collection in the world and features an eclectic cast of characters from literature, history and politics including Cleopatra, Queen Boadicea, Sir Lancelot, Florence Nightingale and Abraham Lincoln.
The Cutty Sark appears in my two-day London itinerary for families and one week in London itinerary
London Squire guidebook – Check out my guidebook available to buy at Amazon, Apple and Kobo. I’ve personally visited 210 London landmarks, attractions and hotels and collected all of my reviews, example itineraries, handy practical info, and advice about using the buses and trains into an eBook, along with 675 original photos
More articles and events
What do you think? (6)
Ask a question, or share your experience of the Cutty Sark
Col Hi. How far is it from Cutty Sark station to Cutty Sark ship? (reply)
↳Craig Hi Col. It’s only two minutes, you just go round the corner and head towards the river. You can’t miss it. (reply)
WH Do they ever let the boat into the river, and sail it down the river? Like they do for the Golden Hinde? (reply)
↳Craig Hi WH. Not any more, no. It used to be berthed inside a dry-dock but now it’s built into the actual roof of the museum, so its sailing days are definitely over. (reply)
Paul Where can you park your car near the cutty sark? (reply)
↳Craig Hi Paul. There’s a car-park at the National Maritime Museum, which is only a few minutes walk. At the moment it’s £14 quid a day – rmg.co.uk/plan-your-visit/getting-here (reply)
Leave a comment (no need to register)
Forum - Landmarks, Attractions & Events