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A royal hospital
In 1692 Mary II ordered a Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, and between 1696 and 1712 Christopher Wren designed and built its buildings beside the Thames. The Painted Hall was first intended as a dining hall for the Greenwich Pensioners who lived there.


Thornhill’s paintings
Sir James Thornhill painted the hall between 1707 and 1726: more than 3,700 square metres of walls and ceilings and about 200 figures, telling the story of the Protestant accession of William III and Mary II and of George I. In 1720 George I made him the first English artist to be knighted.
Nelson, the Navy and a restoration
Lord Nelson lay in state in the hall in 1806. The hospital closed in 1869, the buildings became a Royal Navy training establishment in 1873 until the Navy left in 1998, and the hall reopened in 2019 after a two-year conservation project.

