Greenwich Hospital
| Greenwich Hospital from the bank of the Thames |
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| The Chapel, Greenwich Hospital |
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The
Greenwich Hospital in
London was founded in
1694 as the Royal Naval Hospital for Seamen.
It is a Royal
Charity for the benefit of seafarers and their dependents, with the
Secretary of State for Defence acting as
the Crown's sole
Trustee.
The hospital was established as a residential home for injured sailors, on the model of
Les Invalides and the
Chelsea Hospital. The charity now funds sheltered housing for former
Royal Navy personnel and the
Royal Hospital School at
Holbrook in
Suffolk.
The hospital occupied its prime riverside site on the south bank of the river
Thames in
Greenwich, London for over
170 years, closing to pensioners in
1869.
It was subsequently occupied by the
Royal Naval College until
1998 when the site was opened to the public and the main buildings transferred to academic uses. The principal occupant is now the
University of Greenwich.
The Greenwich Hospital charity remains the ground
landlord of the site.
Greenwich Hospital was built on the site of the
Palace of Placentia, which had fallen into disrepair during the
English Civil War and was finally demolished in
1694. The hospital was created on the instructions of
Mary II, who had been inspired by the sight of wounded sailors returning from the
Battle of La Hogue in
1692. She ordered the King Charles wing of the Palace - originally designed by
architect John Webb for King
Charles II in
1664 - to be remodelled as a naval hospital to provide a counterpart for the
Chelsea Hospital for soldiers. Sir
Christopher Wren and his assistant
Nicholas Hawksmoor gave their services free of charge as architects of the new Royal Hospital. Sir
John Vanbrugh succeeded Wren as architect, completing the complex to Wren's original plans.
An early controversy arose when it emerged that the original plans for the hospital would have blocked the riverside view from the
Queen's House. Queen Mary therefore ordered that the buildings be split, providing an avenue leading from the river through the hospital grounds up to the Queen's House and Greenwich Hill beyond. This gave the hospital its distinctive look, with its buildings arranged in a number of quadrants. Its four main buildings (the 'Courts') are bisected east-west by a square or processional route, and north-south by an internal road.
The two principal buildings are King Charles' Court (the only surviving part of the old royal palace), completed in
1705, and Queen Mary's Court, completed in
1742. With the King Charles building to the west, the symmetry of the riverside frontage is maintained by Queen Anne Court (architects: Wren and Hawksmoor) to the east.
The grand square in between maintained access to, and a river view from, the nearby
Queen's House and
Greenwich Park beyond. Parallel to the river, the Hospital's buildings are bisected by a road leading eastwards from a gate-house by Greenwich town centre. To the south of this road, two further palatial buildings complete the Hospital.
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Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital |
Behind King Charles Court is King William Court (designed by Wren, but completed by Hawksmoor and Sir
John Vanbrugh), famous for its
Painted Hall. Behind Queen Anne Court is Queen Mary Court (planned by Wren and Hawksmoor, but not built until after Wren's death, by Thomas Ripley). Queen Mary Court houses the Chapel, designed by Wren but not completed until
1742. Its present appearance dates from
1779, having been rebuilt to a design by James Stuart after a devastating fire.
The Greenwich Hospital buildings did include an actual hospital, or infirmary: the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital (which took its name from a hospital ship moored off Greenwich in
1870). The treatment for
tropical diseases moved in
1919 to the
Seamen's Hospital Society hospital near Euston Square, in central London, to form the
Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital closed in
1986 with special services for seamen and their families then provided by the 'Dreadnought Unit' at
St Thomas's Hospital in
Lambeth.
The buildings were taken over by the
Royal Naval College in
1873, and they remained a military education establishment until
1998 when they passed into the hands of the
Greenwich Foundation for the Royal Naval College The new Foundation has
University of Greenwich and
Trinity College of Music.
The Painted Hall and Chapel of the Hospital remain open to members of the public, and a service is held in the Chapel every Sunday at 11am which is open to all. The Hospital buildings have appeared in several films, including
Four Weddings and a Funeral,
The Madness of King George,
The Mummy Returns and
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).
On the riverside in front of the north-east corner of King Charles' Court is an obelisk (designed by
Philip Hardwick and unveiled in
1855) erected in memory of
Arctic explorer
Joseph René Bellot.
* There is also a Greenwich Hospital located in
Greenwich, Connecticut. It is not as large as its
British counterpart, but it is the largest and most significant hospital in Greenwich.
*
List of hospitals in the UKExternal links
*
Greenwich Foundation*
Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site
