Old Royal Naval College
— — the symmetry the river was built around.
Not only on a wall.
“Christopher Wren's twin domes facing the river, with the Queen's House framed perfectly between them. Inside, the Painted Hall holds James Thornhill's ceiling, nineteen years of his work and still the largest painted scheme in the country. The grounds are free to walk. The hall has a ticket. The line of sight from the river is the one the architects worked for. — from the studio
Old Royal Naval College, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Old Royal Naval College stands on the south bank of the Thames at Greenwich, on the site of the old Tudor Palace of Placentia where Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born. Christopher Wren designed the baroque ensemble beginning in 1696 as the Royal Hospital for Seamen, with Nicholas Hawksmoor as his clerk of works. The four pavilions are arranged so that the Queen's House, finished by Inigo Jones in 1635, remains visible from the river. It is the centrepiece of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1997.
Portland stone, quarried in Dorset and brought up the Channel and the Thames, gives the buildings their pale-grey weather. Wren's twin domes — one over the Painted Hall, one over the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul — were finished after his death. The Painted Hall ceiling, by Sir James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726, took nineteen years and earned him a knighthood; it is the largest painted scheme in the United Kingdom. The Chapel was rebuilt in a lighter neoclassical style by James 'Athenian' Stuart after a fire in 1779.
The grounds are open daily and free to walk; the Painted Hall is ticketed, with an adult ticket around £15 and entry timed at the door. The Chapel is included with the Painted Hall ticket. The nearest entry is by Docklands Light Railway to Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich, about a five-minute walk from the river gate. The Thames Clipper river bus from central London arrives at Greenwich Pier directly opposite the gates. The site is closed on 24-26 December.