A Visit To The Queen’s House: Classic And Pioneering

Greenwich is one of London’s four UNESCO world heritage sites, along with the Tower of London, the Palace of Westminster/Westminster Abbey and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It is one of the most historically significant places in the city and boasts some of its best vistas. At the heart of this historic enclave you will find The Queen’s House. 

When The Queen’s House was constructed in the 17th century, it was a true one of a kind. Today, it has a fascinating art collection and is free to visit. Read on for the history of this unique spot and the highlights of my visit.

Greenwich’s Royal Connections

Settlement in the area that we now call Greenwich goes right back, at least, to the Bronze age. Prehistoric burial mounds have been found in what is now Greenwich Park, later reused, we think, by the Anglo-Saxons. The remains of a Roman temple have also been found in Greenwich Park dating from 100-400AD. 

The name Greenwich comes from old English for ‘Green place’ or ‘Green village’. Up until the 15th century, Greenwich was, as the name suggested, just a small rural village. 

The character of the area started to change when Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, built a fine palace on the riverside, in around 1443AD, called Bella Court. It later became known as the Palace of Placentia (pleasance) and Greenwich Park was enclosed for hunting, making it the oldest enclosed royal park. 

Henry VII then rebuilt the palace and the Palace of Greenwich, as it became known, remained a major royal palace until the civil war. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Mary I were all born there. 

A House Fit For A Queen

In 1616 King James I commissioned the Queen’s House for his wife Anne of Denmark, as a sort of garden retreat and summer house. 

The story goes that one day the Queen accidentally shot one of the King’s favourite hunting dogs. In a rage, he shouted at her and berated her in front of the household staff. The Queen’s House was, therefore, an apology present for his untoward behaviour. 

The man tasked with the design was the Surveyor of the King’s Works, Inigo Jones. Jones had travelled Europe, particularly Italy, and brought back the architectural influences from the classical world back to England. He studied the work of Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), whose work emphasised proportion, strict symmetry and clean lines.  

inigo Jones also went on to design the Banqueting House at Whitehall and the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace. 

The First Building Of Its Kind

The Queen’s House was his first major commission and so was the first fully classical building to be commissioned in the country, although it was finished after both the Queen’s Chapel and Banqueting House due to delays. 

Today it can be found by the later 17th century Old Royal Naval College, but when it was originally constructed it was positioned alongside the red-brick Tudor palace. It would have looked like a gleaming white, perfectly proportioned pearl compared to the darker, gothic style of the time, the start of a shift that would change the country’s architecture forever.

Anne of Denmark died in 1619 before the building could be finished and completion ended up being delayed. It was finally completed in 1635 under Charles I, for his wife Henrietta Maria. 

Pure Classicism

The horse-shoe steps were finished in 1635. 

The loggia (a gallery with an open side), with its white colonnade, was also completed at this time. I went on the guided tour of the house, as part of which you get special access to the loggia, more on the tour at the end. 

This would have once been considered the front of the property, facing onto Greenwich Park, today offering a fantastic view up to the Royal Observatory, constructed in 1676. 

When the Queen’s House was constructed it actually, quite strangely, straddled a busy road.

This was the road that linked the royal dockyards at Woolwich and Deptford. The Queen’s House therefore acted essentially as a private bridge for the royals to access Greenwich Park from Greenwich Palace. You can still walk through and underneath the house today. 

The Great Hall

The centrepiece of the building is the Great Hall.

This was designed as a perfect cube (40ftx40ftx40ft) and has a gallery running around the interior. 

The wooden balustrades, as well as the wooden decoration on the ceiling, are original and were carved by local woodworkers at the nearby dockyards. 

The floor is also original, designed in this black and white geometric pattern from Belgian marble. 

The ceiling was once adorned with a series of nine painted canvasses of mythological figures by Orazio Gentileschi. These were however removed in 1708 by Queen Anne to give to her favourite Sarah Churchill. They now reside at Marlborough House in St James’s.

In 2016 a new ceiling was commissioned for the Queen’s House by Turner prize winning artist Richard Wright. It is a carefully crafted intricate pattern that mirrors the details on The Tulip Stairs. 

The Tulip Stairs

One of the most amazing parts of the house are the Tulip Stairs. 

It was the first geometric self-supporting helical staircase in Britain. The steps are cantilevered into the wall and then supported largely by the step below. There is another helical staircase in St Paul’s Cathedral.

The striking blue colour is also original and has a floral motif in the ironwork. They actually likely represent lilies, as this was a symbol of the French royalty and Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen, was the sister of the French King Louis XIII. They were likely later misinterpreted as tulips and the name stuck. 

The Ghost Of The Tulip Stairs

In 1966 a Canadian Reverend called R.W. Hardy and his wife visited The Queen’s House. He took a photo on their camera of the stairs and developed it when they got back to Canada. When developed, a ghostly figure appeared to be in the picture, their hand on the handrail.

They insisted no-one was on the stairs when they took the photo. Photographic experts found no evidence that it had been tampered with. The photo became a very famous piece of photographic evidence for those that believe in ghosts. Some speculate that the figure represents a 17th century maid who fell to her death from the stairs.

There have apparently been a fair few other sightings of ghosts since in the building. Some have heard phantom footsteps, the disembodied chanting of children, or a pale figure wiping up blood from the bottom of the staircase.

Later Uses Of The Queen’s House

Before I tell you about some of the amazing details and works of art you can see in the house, let’s bring the history up to the modern day.

After the exile of Henrietta Maria in 1644, the execution of Charles I in 1649 and then the subsequent Commonwealth period, the building was turned over to Government use. Charles II then renovated the building after the Restoration in 1660 and in the later 17th century it became a grace and favour house for courtiers and artisans. 

The Tudor Greenwich Palace was knocked down in the 1660s for the construction of a new Royal palace in the style of Versailles, a plan that was never fully realised. Instead, the site became the location of the Royal Hospital for Seamen for Royal Navy veterans. Designed by the tireless Sir Christopher Wren, Mary II specifically requested that the new building should not obstruct the view from the Queen’s House to the river. 

He therefore designed what we see today, the gap between the two wings being the exact width of the Queen’s House. 

An Asylum And A Hospital School

From 1690 until 1806 the Queen’s House was the official residence for the Ranger of Greenwich Park, essentially an honorary position appointed by the monarch.

In 1807 the Queen’s House became the Royal Naval Asylum, an orphanage for the children of naval seamen. The colonnades either side of the house were added at this time. The Asylum later combined with the Royal Hospital school for the sons of seamen. By 1843 a full-size training ship stood in front of the House.

In 1933 the school moved to Suffolk and its Greenwich buildings, including the Queen’s House, became the National Maritime Museum and it became predominantly an art gallery. 

The Armada Portrait

In the Queen’s Bedchamber you can see the jewel in the crown of their collection: the Armada portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. The Queen’s Bedchamber also has an incredible allegorical painted ceiling.

The Armada portrait is one of three surviving, by an unknown artist, that were commissioned to celebrate the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

This one was acquired for the nation in 2017 after the descendants of Francis Drake sold it. A major public appeal was launched and the Heritage lottery fund contributed to pay £10.3 million in total for the painting. 

You can spend a long time looking at all the little details and symbols in this fascinating portrait.

A classic bit of Tudor propaganda, it aims to portray the power of the monarch and inspire awe. She has her hand on a globe with her fingers outstretched to the Americas, displaying England’s maritime prowess and ambitions for expanding and establishing colonies in the New World.

Her outfit is also dripping in pearls and jewels. A pearl is a symbol of virginity. The Spanish Armada is depicted in the background. 

The King’s Presence Chamber

Another impressive room is the King’s Presence Chamber, again with an original, gilded and decorative ceiling. 

Here is the impressive Solebay Tapestry, depicting the climax of the Battle of Solebay in May 1672.

It was commissioned by King Charles II and designed by the artist Willem Van Der Velde the Elder, the work is part of the only surviving English naval tapestry series. The battle was an inconclusive naval battle between the English and Dutch off the coast of Suffolk. 

Van Der Velde the Elder and his son Willem Van Der Welde the Younger had their studios at The Queen’s House for about 20 years. There are lots of other works by them in The Queen’s House, such as this one below, A Royal Visit To The Fleet In The Thames Estuary 1672. 

Other Works of Art

There are many other portraits to see including of Henry VIII, Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

There are also plenty of other old and modern naval and maritime paintings, such as this one called Dutch Ships In A Gale by Jan Porcellis from 1620. 

I also really liked these portraits, painted from life, of veterans from the Battle of Trafalgar.

I thought they were an interesting, humble, contrast to the grandeur of the royal portraits and awe-inspiring battle scenes. They remind you of the ordinary human stories within the great sweep of historical events and passing of various monarchs.

How To Visit 

The Queen’s House is free to visit and is open 10am-5pm every day. You can book tickets online here or turn up on the day. 

I also booked onto their Treasures Tour, which costs £5 for an adult and lasts just under an hour. This also involved getting access to the loggia, with its fantastic views of the park. You can find out more about the tour here. 

Thank you for reading, more of ‘London’s historic wonders below…