Old Royal Naval College

Lonely Planet review

There are two main rooms open to the public at the college - the Painted Hall and the chapel - which are accessed through the new visitor centre and adjoining Greenwich Tourist Information Centre in the Pepys Building. When Christopher Wren was commissioned to build a naval hospital here in 1692, he designed it in two separate halves so as not to spoil the view of the river from the Queen's House, Inigo Jones' miniature masterpiece to the south.

Built on the site of the Old Palace of Placentia, where Henry VIII was born in 1491, the hospital was initially intended for those wounded in the victory over the French at La Hogue. In 1869 the building was converted to a Naval College. Now even the navy has left and the premises are home to the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music.

The Painted Hall is one of Europe's greatest banquet rooms. In the King William Building, it has been covered in decorative 'allegorical Baroque' murals by artist James Thornhill, who also painted the cupola of St Paul's Cathedral. The mural above the Lower Hall show William and Mary enthroned amid symbols of the Virtues. Beneath William's feet, you can see the defeated French king Louis XIV grovelling with a furled flag in hand. Up a few steps is the Upper Hall, where George I is depicted with his family on the western wall. In the bottom right-hand corner Thornhill drew himself into the picture, pointing towards his work.

Off the Upper Hall is the Nelson Room, originally designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, then used as a smoking room and recently refurbished. For a week over Christmas 1805, this is where the brandy-soaked (for embalming purposes, of course) body of the great naval hero lay, before his state funeral at St Paul's. Today the room boasts a replica of the statue atop Nelson's column in Trafalgar Sq plus other memorabilia. If you want to view this room you must join one of the 90-minute guided tours (tel: 8269 4799; tours 11:30 & 14:00 ) of the Jacobean undercroft of the former palace of Placentia leaving from the Painted Hall.

The chapel in the Queen Mary Building, opposite, is decorated in a lighter rococo style. The eastern end of the chapel is dominated by a painting by the 18th-century American artist Benjamin West showing The Preservation of St Paul after Shipwreck at Malta . It's certainly a beautiful room, but it's more famous for its organ and acoustics. If possible come on the first Sunday of the month, when there's a free 50-minute organ recital at 15:00 , or time your visit for sung Eucharist, every Sunday at 11:00 .