Old Royal Naval College - Home To The Painted Hall, Greenwich

A very worthwhile trip to see the painted halll and learn the history of the hall. Our guide was very informative and welcoming.

Enjoyed an excellent and highly informative tour of this historical site with volunteer guide, Mike. We loved hearing about the creation of these beautiful buildings and their role within British history. This was followed by a wonderful well-informed tour of the glorious Painted Hall, with our super guide helping us to better understand the beautiful painting around us. A highly recommended visit.

Had a wonderful afternoon looking around the old royal naval college. Booked on a tour and had a very friendly tour guide called Jim who was fantastic with his knowledge and humour. He clearly loves the buildings and the history behind them. Would definitely recommend.

Visited Old Royal Naval College site ,bonus of it being a sunny day, The Cutty Sark alongside the Naval college looked spectacular . Lots of students around as it was a freshers day but this did not detract from the visit . Managed a visit to the Chapel absolutely beautiful , painted ceilings and walls in blues and gold added to serenity of the space. The painted hall tour was the main event and Vincent our tour guide was outstanding . Extremely knowledgable and kept us spell bound for the whole tour. He is French but bravely told us about the French failures using humour and drama to tell us about all the characters included in the baroque painted ceiling and back wall of the upper level . His knowledge of the history and painting techniques used was also impressive . One slight issue ,that he managed very diplomatically, was a yoga session taking place in the space . It was quite incongruous and apparently neither the guides or the yoga instructor were aware both would be happening at the same time . The yoga instructor was less tolerant of the situation than Vincent .However it did not detract from the excellent presentation he gave . On a general level the site has lots of steps which it does say on the website, most have handrails. All the volunteers and staff I encountered were very friendly and helpful. Numerous food outlets in the grounds and cafeterias within the buildings.plenty of outdoor seating if you had a picnic. Definitely worth a second visit .

The murals are definitely worth a quick view. The gift shop downstairs is fantastic. However, this is not an attraction for those who have difficulty climbing stairs, let alone those confined to a wheelchair. If you have no mobility restrictions, then by all means go. If you have any mobility issues, then it's best to skip.

My friend and I had a spare afternoon in Greenwich so decided to spend a few hours here and absolutely loved it! We went into the painted hall as Vincent’s guided tour was starting and we could not have asked for a better guide! He was so friendly and knowledgable - we really enjoyed spotting all the details of the artwork and learning about the history of the building.

We were lucky enough to stumble upon tour guide Jim as we entered the Painted Hall (which is absolutely stunning) and we were able to join his complimentary guided tour of not only the Painted Hall but the whole grounds of the Old Royal Naval College. It was an excellent tour - knowledgable and funny and gave us an understanding of the deeply layered history of the place. Highly recommend!

That the Painted Ceiling closes early. We missed seeing it. I would like a refund. Do not recommend.

It’s quite a way out of central London, we got an Uber boat back which was much nicer than the Tube. It’s really beautiful, worth looking at the chapel too. Quite expensive for how much there is to see to be honest. Cutty Sark is right next door and Greenwich Village is really pretty too.

Fabulous Venue - well worth a visit. Went with family and also visited the Chapel on site. Very little signage and hard to know what's what unles buying a guide book or joining one of their excelent conducted tours. Low light levels inside hall - if using digital SLR without flash you will need to increase ASA rating on camera controls as too dark to take good pictures without camera shake.

5.06.26, around 13-00 to 15-30. All was fine and amazing, the chapel staff absolutely welcoming and lovely, the shop and undercroft staff exceptionally polite, with nice attitude. The Painted Hall is very impressive. The only thing - the mid age femme with dyed blond hair - checking tickets on the way to Skittle Alley - she has not forgotten the red lipstick, but unfortunately she forgot her manners. Very unpleasant experience, to deal with somebody like this, her bad English added P.S. A very intersting Maritime Museum is very close.

Jim was a wonderful tour guide! We highly recommend paying for the tour which is about 45 mins. You would miss so much history and connection to pop culture without it. Highly recommend.

I cannot recommend this tour enough. The painted hall is magnificent. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the Painted Hall with Jim. He was an exceptional guide—fascinating, incredibly knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about the history and artwork. His engaging storytelling brought the hall to life and made the tour both informative and entertaining. Jim explained the details and symbolism of the paintings in a way that was easy to understand and genuinely interesting. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he kept the whole group captivated throughout. We learned so much more than we would have by simply walking around on our own. I would highly recommend taking a tour with Jim if you visit the Painted Hall. He made the experience memorable and added tremendous value to our visit.

We received an excellent tour from Jim of both the painted ceiling and the Chappell. Highly recommend this visit and specifically ask for the volunteer guide, Jim.

Had a lovely afternoon visiting the Old Royal Naval College, an extraordinary cultural destination in the heart of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site. Climbed to the top of the hidden Wren’s Dome and experience a behind the scenes tour. Ascend our way up the stunning hidden Wren’s dome in the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, and behind the scenes and enjoyed panoramic views of Greenwich. Our volunteer guide Bob and his assistant Finlay were very friendly. Bob was very knowledgable and shared a lot of historic information on the buildings and the dome.

The magnificent architecture and breathtaking Painted Hall are spectacular, offering a captivating look at history and art. After the tour, we enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea served in the atmospheric Undercroft Café. The selection of finger sandwiches, delicious cakes and warm, fresh scones with clotted cream was delightful. Wonderful service, majestic surroundings, and great value. A quintessential London experience that is highly recommended!

This is an amazing not to be missed experience. Allow enough time to listen to the full audio media guide. I learned a great deal about William and Mary and this entire time period.

wonderful experience at the old naval college and painted hall. We turned up and bought our tickets on the door and arrived just in time for a guided tour with Jim. He gave great historical detail and really bought it to life. The painted hall is especially worth a visit. We’ll be back

5/5. This was a totally outstanding visit. On both occasions, we had an excellent guide. Firstly visiting the beautiful Painted Hall, where we had Vincent as the guide. Vincent was French, but spoke English amazingly well & truly brought the visit to life, with his knowledge of the paintings, describing in great detail. You get the wow factor when you walk into the Hall. Equally as good was Jim, who gave the tour around the museum & some of the buildings around the college. Going inside the Chapel was amazing. A truly amazing visit all round.

We went in to the Old Royal Naval College meaning to have a look at the painted hall. We joined an in- person tour with Jim our guide (no extra cost) and had a thoroughly interesting and informative visit. Jim then offered to guide us around the rest of the Old Naval College and gave us historical context as well as regaling us with stories of all the movies that have been made in the grounds. The visitor centre has lots of interactive bits for children and has been very well curated. The whole family enjoyed the afternoon out.

Amazing experience of witnessing the painted halls of the Old Royal Navy College. I highly recommend joining one of the many tours led by the lovely volunteers. My girlfriend and I managed to join one led by a lovely gentleman named Jim. He was extremely knowledgeable and a lovely character. I highly recommend this experience as its all in easy walking distance with the maritime museum and Queen’s House.

We paid for the tour and so pleased we did because the information gained was so helpful and made the whole experience so much more meaningful

We got rather confused when we turned up because we did not really understand that each section was chargeable at differing prices. I was aware of a modern art exhibition at the Painted Hall but could not remember the name; it was called Connection and Identity. Anyway we bought tickets for the Painted Hall, not really knowing what we were visiting and received some confusing directions. We found it in the end only because we asked for directions as the entrance is not signed and it has an A frame advertising a café – not the hall! So, we found it and was amazed at the wonderful painting of the ceilings and baroque interiors, just stunning. However, we did not know what we were really looking at until a volunteer called Jim turned up. What a treasure, he gave us a tour of the paintings and talked about the propaganda and politics behind them, what a great orator he was. At the end of the tour, of which there was no charge, Jim said he had more time and offered a further tour of 600 years of the buildings, which we attended. Jim took us on a walk outside and pointed out the various buildings, talked about their history, going into great detail. Jim also talked about the various films that had taken place on site and the various famous actors. Jim made our whole visit worthwhile and gave us great value for money – thank you Jim.

Our visit to the Painted Hall was an experience we had been looking forward to for a long time and we were very impressed by Vincent, the guide, who gave an amazing insight to the stories behind the painting. However, we were less than impressed as we entered the hall, to find that its full splendour was obscurred by eight giant toilet rolls (about 4m x 2m} with flashing lights inside, hanging from scaffolding along the length of each side of the hall. Who thought that was a good idea?

I had the best tour guide. Antonio took his time to take me through a detailed history. It’s been my best art tour by far and I really do encourage everyone to visit.

We had such a great time on our tour of the Painted Hall in Greenwich. Jim, our guide, was absolutely lovely and so knowledgeable! He made everything fun and easy to follow. The Painted Hall itself was stunning, and Jim pointed out so many details we never would’ve noticed on our own. We also did the “600 Years of History” tour, which was brilliant. We got to see the chapel, learned loads of cool facts, and even found out about some of the movies filmed there. Overall, it was a really fun, interesting day out. Would totally recommend, and thanks to Jim for making it even better!

Bought tickets for the Step into Time, Muralis light show experience which used the Painted Hall, Undercroft, Seamen’s Chapel and the outside of the naval college to project onto an amazing light show. Visited this sites many times, but the light show transformed the location. Sites are worth a visit anyway, but watch out for future light show experiences.

We were thoroughly entertained and educated by our wonderful French tour guide Vincent on the painted Hall. Would totally recommend.

Awesome city of Greanich! Very nice shops. Helpful people. Lovely trees. Yellow houses. Large buildings. Nice market. Gorgous parks. Super tall white church. Fresh green grass. Colourful leaves. Super cute birds. Grey fountains. Loved visiting Greanich! 10/10

This is a spectacular hall - a painted ceiling and walls that are magnificent to look at. Would be an easy 5 star activity to recommend however it is a rip-off in terms of the admission price, since it doesn't take long to see the hall, there are only two other rooms to see.

Wow! Just wow! Amazing baroque art. So pleased we joined a tour. The guide, Peter was knowledgeable and so fascinating taking us through the history of the Hall, the paintings as well as those portrayed in the paintings. If there’s one thing you do, please, please take the tour the detailed information is so important. Thank you to all at the charity who made it such a great visit.

Had a very good morning here; lots to see. We enjoyed the tour of the Painted Hall by Angeliki; she was friendly, very informative and spoke at a good pace for the group. All the other staff around the site were friendly and welcoming too. It's a very interesting site, worth seeing.

If you want to be awed then make time to visit the Painted Hall on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England. Just a short and informative boat ride from London. When we visited there was only one other couple viewing the beautiful walls and ceiling. There are benched around the perimeter of the extremely large rooms and mirrors placed so that they reflect the ceiling. If you are going to Greenwich do not miss this masterpiece.

A great ferry ride to Greenwich to be guided by Elaine and her excellent knowledge. The tour included an overview of the House of Tudor. The architecture of the original castle and pensioners hospital. This added to the Painted Hall and a game of skittles ropes off a great tour.

Excellent guided tour by Jim. Highly recommend to everyone! Very informative with great humour. Learned a lot about the history of the buildings.

Take your time here and walk through the college. The history, is amazing and the painted hall is magnificent.

Amazing place to visit. Painted Hall is very impressive. The rest is interesting as well. Arrived early enough to not have too many visitors.

I visited the Old Royal Naval College on Sunday 17th August with a group of friends, and was fortunate to attend a tour of the painted hall. Our tour guide Kirstie was fantastic, very engaging and knowledgable, bringing the ceiling paintings to life! Would definitely recommend!

I started enquiring about a visit for July 25 (for a group of 16 children and 4 adults) back in August 2024 through the box office email and the group bookings contact Joanna Fitzpatrick. I was promised an answer a few times when I followed it up over the coming months but only ever got a 'we will get back to you response'. On May 27th 25 I did a pre-visit and asked about a group booking - I was told to email Ms Fitzpatrick, which I duly did again on May 28th 25 with very specific details about our group booking request. No reply. Undeterred (goodness knows why), I booked tickets for our group on line for July 25. On the day we arrived, and 1 hour before our booking time of 3.00pm, I went to collect our tickets from the desk and find out about any guided tours of the Painted Hall. We were told that one tour had been cancelled but there was one running at 3.30pm that we could attend. At 3.30pm we were guided to a side door entry to the Painted Hall by a member of staff, as we already had our bands, and quietly joined a group of around 4 people listening to the tour guide as the tour had just started. As we were listening, a member of staff approached me and said that we could not use the side door - I told him we had been shown the way in by a member of staff. He also told me we could not join this tour as we were a group and I would need to pre-book with Ms Fitzpatrick - I told him that I tried that for over 6 months and got nowhere, plus I had spoken to the desk staff when we collected out bands and they had suggested we attend the 3.30 tour. In the meantime the tour had continued without us. Sensing my frustration that we had now missed the tour, a gentleman called Antonio suggested we return at 4.00pm and he would ensure that there was a tour available for us to attend. We returned at 4.00pm and were told at the desk that the 4.00pm tour was cancelled. I explained that we had been promised a tour at 4.00pm and, as the hall did not close until 5.00pm, we would like to go in anyway. Fortunately Antonio,the gentleman who had promised us a tour, was there and able to give us a comprehensive and interesting talk. We left a 4.45pm (it closes at 5.00pm) with 16 children who wanted to go to the toilet and were told they couldn't use them and we would have to use other toilets on site. Honestly, it was the biggest shambles I have ever encountered and, although the venue itself has so much to offer, the customer service and communication was beyond poor. Without the lovely Antonio, it would be getting negative stars from me if that was possible.

Isabella was great she very educational. Glad we went. My wife enjoyed it and so did I. I took a few pictures

We could not have enjoyed the tour of the Painteg Hall any more. Our guide, Jim, was a truly masterful storyteller. His love of the area and its history shine through and he kept everyone, including several small children, enthralled.

The Old Royal Naval College (ORNC) sits on the Thames in Greenwich, London – it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that. Historically, it was the Royal Naval College’s dining hall. During the wars, it served meals and banquets for officers, and after the war, it became a sanatorium. Loads of history here, 见证了 plenty of stories over the years. There’s also this mural under what folks call “Europe’s most stunning dome” – it’s over 300 years old, and took 19 years of restoration to get back to its best. It’s a dead good spot for film fans, this place. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, that’s where Captain Jack Sparrow gets dragged through the grand, gilded hall. It’s been in other big films too – Thor: The Dark World, The Dark Knight Rises, Sherlock… even the ballroom scene in the new Cinderella was filmed here. Some top experiences to check out: Lie-back exhibits: The Painted Hall has comfy seats, so you can lie back and listen to Chinese audio guides – really takes in that grand, gold-filled vibe. Concerts: The painted hall puts on regular concerts, tickets around £40 – proper atmospheric. Nearby spots: After visiting, pop into Trinity Laban Conservatoire next door. You might hear people practicing – takes you right back to uni days, that. Photography tips: The dome mural’s a top backdrop – try shooting upwards to show how grand it is. The hall’s golden lighting’s perfect for retro-style photos. Light-coloured clothes work best, mind. All in all, the ORNC’s a must for history buffs and film fans alike. Whether you’re lying back to take in the exhibits or spotting film locations, you’ll leave with plenty. Well worth a visit – go on, check it out.

Would highly recommend the 600 years walking tour. Our guide, Jim, was knowledgeable, passionate and engaging. Definitely a must see.

Really worth a visit. Especially for an old navy-veteran. I’m quite sure that everybody will find the Old Naval College interesting and for sure enjoy all the spectacular stories 🫡. So much history in one place. Thank you Jim for a fantastic guided tour 🙏

The whole of the Old Royal Naval College is worth a visit. It is an architectural masterpiece and home of the breathtaking Painted Hall which is absolutely stunning. The hall is huge and the paintings are simply overwhelming.The chapel, halls and grounds and gardens are to be appreciated and even better since it is free entry which for any museum or art site in London is a miracle. There is ample parking nearby but do read the signs with regard to parking controls. It is within easy walking distance from Greenwich Station and right opposite Greenwich Pier so easily accessible from a Thames riverboat ride,

The highlight to our group's day trip. We were given a tour around the Old Royal Naval College by Giulio, who explained the history and art in great and interesting detail. The Painted Hall is a must-see, especially when accompanied by one so knowledgeable and engaging. All thoroughly enjoyed the tour, and we would definitely recommend to anyone finding themselves on the south side of the river.

Another overpriced tourist attraction. Exterior architecture is great but you are paying to only see a couple of rooms. Painted Hall is impressive but not that impressive! Apparently, our ticket gives us access for a year but why would I want to go back?

We spent two hours here and wish we had more time; the Old Royal Naval College is amazing and so beautiful! We had two tours (included in the price of our ticket): one of the Painted Hall and also then 600 years of history which took us round the grounds. Our tour guide was Jim; he was informative, enthusiastic and an excellent storyteller! Excellent value for money, the gift shop and staff were all lovely!

We came here to see the Painted Hall, which was magnificent, a very grand room that is used for official events. There were many historic markers inside and some good photos. The whole area of the College is quite large and includes a lot of park land area.