The Campus

The Campus is built on a site of huge historical importance. There have been settlements here since before the Anglo Saxons, and it will always have had significance due to its strategically defensive position on the River Thames. By the 17th century the area around Greenwich was one of the most populated (after London and Bristol) in the British Isles.

The Duke of Gloucester, in the 15th century, built next to the Thames at Greenwich a house named Bellacourt. When he died Bellacourt became the home of Margaret, wife of King Henry VI. Later Bellacourt was renamed Placentia, after being extensively rebuilt by Henry VII in the form of a palace. The palace and court grew in political importance during the reign of Henry VIII.

In the 17th century Inigo Jones designed the 'Queen's House', first the ground floor for Queen Anne of Denmark the wife of King James I and later for Henrietta Maria the wife of King Charles I. King Charles I was executed in 1649 after the civil war. King Charles II extended the Queen's House after the restoration.

King Charles II also commissioned John Webb to design and build a new palace on the site of Placentia. The King Charles Building is one wing and the rest of Webb's design was not completed.

In the 18th century King William III funded a project originally started by his wife Queen Mary to build a Royal Hospital for Seamen. The project used most of the grounds that had been the site old palaces. Queen Mary kept the Queens House and also the land that runs from there to the river. This open space between the main campus buildings is (I believe) owned by royalty to this day. Christopher Wren, Thomas Ripley and Nicholas Hawksmoor produced the designs to which the hospital was built. The Painted Hall was the work of James Thornhill. James Stuart designed the infirmary (Dreadnought).

It was from this site that Nelson made his last journey by boat to his State Funeral.

The site became The Royal Naval College and used to teach all aspects of seamanship (eventually it even had its own nuclear power generator). This use from the late 19th century until the end of the 1990s)

Today The site is mainly used as a Campus for the The University of Greenwich and as a tourist attraction.