Photo: londondrum.comUseful things to know before your visit
Address: Queen’s House, Romney Road, Greenwich SE10 9NF. Telephone: 0208 858 4422. Website: rmg.co.uk
How much do the tickets cost?
Queen’s House is free, but temporary exhibitions might cost extra.
What are the opening hours?
Opening times are 10am to 5pm (Mon-Sun). Last entry is 30 minutes before closing time.
How much time do you need?
A typical visit to Queen’s House takes 30 to 45 minutes.
Which buses go to Queen’s House?
Bus routes 129, 177, 180, 188, 286 and 386 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Cutty Sark on the Docklands Light Railway. You can walk the ⅓ mile to Queen’s House in about 6 minutes.
Which other attractions are nearby?
These attractions are all within 15 minutes walk of Queen’s House: National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, Old Royal Naval College, Cutty Sark and Greenwich Park.
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Email My review of Queen’s House
Queen’s House is one of those buildings that gets eulogised in all the guidebooks, but when you actually come and see it you’ll think huh, okay. Is that it? If you didn’t know it was famous beforehand then you wouldn’t have a clue that it was.
Greenwich Palace
Can you see the Old Royal Naval College over the road? That’s where the Tudor Palace used to be. Whenever you read about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I staying at Greenwich Palace then that’s where it was. James I added Queen’s House in 1616 but when the English Civil War kicked off the court was forced to flee the capital and Greenwich Palace fell into disrepair. That spelled the beginning of the end for the building, and when the monarchy was restored in the 1660s they decided to knock it down and replace it with Christopher Wren’s Royal Hospital instead (now known as the Old Royal Naval College).
It’s always been a bit of a puzzler to me why they chose to knock down the palace and not the house, but it seems that Tudor palaces were ten-a-penny in those days – London still had Whitehall Palace, St. James’s Palace, Nonsuch Palace and Hampton Court, plus the recently demolished Richmond Palace. Queen’s House, however, was viewed as a true original. When Inigo Jones was commissioned to build it in the early 17th-century he had just come back from his grand Italian tour and this is what he brought back with him… architectural ideas that had never been seen before. Nowadays it just looks like a million other buildings.
National Maritime Museum’s art collection
The King’s bedchamber, presence chamber, closet and other Royal rooms are all long gone – they’ve been stripped out and turned into galleries for the National Maritime Museum’s art collection. The pictures are mostly naval-related so you’ve got seascapes, sea battles, and portraits of old captains and admirals. There are also a few nice views of London.
The Queen’s bedchamber still has its original red and pink painted ceiling, and instead of naval paintings you get scenes of Whitehall and Westminster instead (definitely worth a look). Her Privy Chamber contains some very famous images of the Tudors and Stuarts.
If you like naval paintings then you’ll probably get a kick out of it, but for the rest of us it’s the kind of place you’ll only visit once.
Queen’s House appears in my 7-day London plan
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What do you think? (4)
Ask a question, or share your experience of Queen’s House
Niamh Can you visit it just by itself, or do you always have to visit the National Maritime Museum as well. I only want to see the art. (reply)
Craig Hi Niamh. Sure, you can just visit Queen’s House on its own if you want. They do have quite a lot of naval art on show inside the National Maritime Museum as well, though, if that’s what you’re interested in. (reply)
Dave How far is it to walk from the station? (reply)
Craig Hi Dave. Assuming that you mean Cutty Sark DLR then its not very far at all -- 10 minutes max. (reply)
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