The Old Royal Naval College

The Chapel, The Old Royal Naval College

Coade stone 

The Chapel contains many examples of this curious artificial stone, manufactured in Eleanor Coade’s factory in the 1780s. Coade stone is actually a ceramic, made of a mix of new and reused materials, resulting in a clay ideal for placing into very detailed moulds. The capitals of the columns are Coade stone, as well as the angels either side of the altarpiece and the Hospital Coat of Arms on the balconies. In the Chapel vestibule there are life-sized statues of the virtues – Faith, Hope, Charity and Meekness. While it was a training college for naval officers, the statue of meekness had her name covered as it was not felt to be an appropriate attribute for a fighting man!

Painted Hall, The Old Royal Naval College

The Painted Hall, probably the finest dining hall in the Western world, is decorated with stunning paintings by James Thornhill, and is part of the King William Court. This was planned to be the hospital's dining hall. Wren submitted the designs in 1698, and the roof and the dome above were already in place five years later. Thornhill's decoration, by contrast, took nineteen years to complete. For his ‘great and laborious undertaking’ Thornhill was paid by the yard – and eventually knighted. While Thornhill worked, more and more pensioners were coming to Greenwich. Pensioners could not eat in the Hall while he was working and it was both too grand and too much of a tourist attraction when finished.

The Painted Hall stood empty until January 1806, when the body of Admiral Lord Nelson was brought here to lie in state: he had been killed at the moment of his victory over Napoleon's fleet at Cape Trafalgar.

The Painted Hall ceiling

The allegorical theme of the huge and exuberant Lower Hall ceiling is the triumph of Peace and Liberty over Tyrany, and pays due tribute to William and Mary and British maritime power. Within the oval frame are the four seasons - Winter was modelled by one of the pensioners, John Worley, an energetic Greenwich pensioner still being punished for drunkenness and swearing at the age of 96. Beyond the arch in the Upper Hall Queen Anne surveys the continents of the world (America reputedly represented by an image of Pocahontas), while on the west wall her Hanoverian successors, George I and his family, are shown in sober glory. Elsewhere much use is made of trompe l’oeil painting, on the columns, windowsills and in the Vestibule.

The ceiling has a neo-classical design of squares and hexagons, with wonderfully ornate central ornaments. These features were carved, rather than cast in moulds, by master plasterer John Papworth. The plaster is made of limestone, horsehair and sand, and has a Wedgwood-inspired colour scheme. Its curve is almost certainly responsible for the excellent acoustics of the Chapel.

Decorative features and motifs

There is a fine mix of ancient Greek and naval imagery throughout the chapel, covering almost every surface. A recurring motif is an alternating pattern of honeysuckle flowers (anthemion) and palmette (lotus) – a favourite of Stuart’s – which was often used as a decoration in Greek architecture. The naval motifs would have appealed to the Chapel’s congregation of pensioners who may have been missing their former life at sea.

The current Chapel was redesigned and rebuilt under the Surveyorship of James ‘Athenian’ Stuart, so called because he became fascinated by the ancient buildings of Athens when he visited Greece in the 1760s. However, his Clerk of Works, William Newton, was responsible for much of the detailing. Unlike many churches, which are a mixture of styles through the ages, the Chapel is a complete and unaltered neoclassical period piece in Greek Revival style. After a full restoration in the 1950s, including the reestablishment of the original colour scheme, the Chapel appears today almost as it did at its re-opening on 20 September 1789.

The Organ

The black and white marble floor includes a ship’s anchor lying north to south, and a rope design said to match exactly the diameter of an anchor cable of a first-rate ship of the line.

The Organ is a fine example of the work of Samuel Green, the leading organ builder of his day. It was completed in 1789 at a cost of just £1,000. It is the largest example of his work to survive in its original position, and has three manuals, a delicate tone and some rare 18th century mixtures. Its case is made of Spanish mahogany. The organ gallery is supported on six fluted columns, each carved out of a single piece of marble. It is used virtually every day by the organ scholar at Trinity College of Music 

and weekly during Sunday services. 

Before you leave the chapel, do have a look at the door surround, which is made from a single piece of marble carved in intricate detail by the court sculptor John Bacon.