The Queen’s House Interior at Greenwich
The Great Hall Floor
14 pictures. The house has been refurbished and is free to visit. It can be found adjacent to the National Maritime Museum⇐ in Wonderful Greenwich ⇐. Check the Queen’s House opening times ⇒. Non-commercial photography is allowed now (since early 2016). .
The house, formerly known as Queen Anne’s house, was built between 1616 and 1635 for Queen Anne (of Denmark) wife of James I of England. Unfortunately Queen Anne died in 1619 and the house lay abandoned until work restarted in 1629 for Charles I’s consort, Henrietta Maria.
The Queens House is now full of artwork including works by William Hodges, George Stubbs, Hans Holbein, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, the Tulip Staircase by Inigo Jones and one of the famous Elizabeth I Armada portraits.
The architect was Inigo Jones and the style is said to have influenced the architecture of the USA White House.
The Architecture
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The Great Hall Ceiling
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The Tulip Spiral Staircase by Inigo Jones at the Queen’s House in Greenwich
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The Artwork
This is just a small sample.
One of the three famous Elizabeth I Armada portraits that still exist. This one cost £1.5 million. There is another at Woburn Abbey and another at the National Portrait Gallery ⇐ (although I did not include the Armada Portrait) .
The Armada Portraits depict the destruction of the Spanish Armada whilst attempting to invade England. The armada was destroyed mostly by the British weather. Like many portraits of Elizabeth there are several symbols included. For instance the pearls indicate purity, the bow indicates virginity and her right hand over the America’s indicate her advancing dominion and colonisation.
Other portraits of Elizabeth I can be found at Hatfield House ⇐ and show an even more advanced use of symbolism.
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The Thames and Greenwich Hospital by Moonlight by Henry Pether
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Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walt founded the state of Virginia in the Americas (after Elizabeth I the virgin Queen) and brought potatoes and tobacco to Europe.
This is why the Beatles sang in “I’m so Tired”, in reference to tobacco, ” And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git”.
He secretly married a Gentlewoman of the Queen’s Privy Chamber (Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton) which resulted in he and his wife being imprisoned for several months. Years later, he was executed for refusing to accept James I as Queen Elizabeth’s successor.
A Ships Figurehead
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The Young Queen Victoria
Thanks for your visit and I hope that you found that interesting.
As an added note, the house does have a reputation for being haunted ⇐. To confess, it was probably me having a sick day. To be more serious, I found it a very calm place and caused no concern at all. Even the people, who took the photograph that started the rumour, refused to believe it was ghostly.
Freed From Time 
It’s lovely! Happy New Year Graham! 🍷🎊🎈🎉🍻🎆💃
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January 1, 2017 at 19:21
And to you too. 🙂
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January 1, 2017 at 19:21
I saw this photo of the Tulip Staircase when I was little, and when my family traveled to England, I didn’t want to go to the Queen’s House because I was scared of the ghost 🙂 http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/index.php/ghost-photos/129-the-tulip-staircase-ghost-photo-greenwich-england
But there was no ghost when we visited, and it was a lovely building.
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January 1, 2017 at 21:19
It’s curious how scared we can be of such notions as ghosts. It’s the living who worry me.
I have a post of Ham House which received only slight interest. I think because it is reputedly haunted (not the post but the house) and the post opens with a picture of an old oak tree with an eye staring out. I mean, what’s so strange about that. Nevertheless, I tend to exclude the scary stuff. But, on second thoughts I’ll amend this post to include the link. Thanks for that.
Sorry that you were given cause for fright though and glad it worked out OK.
P.S. Your comment was excluded by Akismet. I think it may have been because it occupied two lines and was counted as two links which present settings exclude.
Happy New Year 🙂
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January 2, 2017 at 06:30
No problem, Graham – your post didn’t scare me at all! I actually really liked the photo of the staircase. And when I was a kid, I stopped being scared of the staircase once I saw it in real life and saw that there weren’t always ghosts scurrying up and down it 🙂
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January 2, 2017 at 06:59
Definitely, real life rules, or it should. Although I actually meant your childhood experience. My bad phrasing.
A curiosity though, the way that we can be instilled with all sorts of fanciful notions.
I’ll ask Nessie and see what she thinks. 🙂
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January 2, 2017 at 09:30
Hooray for non-commercial photography. The staircase looks so much like the cover of The Woman Upstairs, but maybe it’s a particular kind of staircase that is found in lots of places?
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January 1, 2017 at 21:44
I think it is the very one, due to the distinctive tulip design railing. Just from a slightly different angle.
Well spotted. I wouldn’t have known.
Happy New Year. 🙂
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January 1, 2017 at 23:37
Happy New Year too! It’s a great image, and funny to think that you spotted its potential, same as a photographer for a book cover.
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January 1, 2017 at 23:48
Well, perhaps I was sneaky and followed him/her. On the other hand, it does have the reputation of being haunted. 😀
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January 2, 2017 at 01:09
Wow – what a fabulous place!
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January 6, 2017 at 07:19
Oh yes, and a nice addition to the places to photograph in Greenwich. 🙂
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January 6, 2017 at 12:58