The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College reopens on Saturday following the completion of an £8 million conservation.
Efforts to clean and safeguard the paintings started in 2016 and since then a small team, funded by the National Lottery, have been at work on “the Sistine Chapel of the UK”.
More than 80,000 people visited to see restoration work in progress as part of an open-access scheme.
The Painted Hall was designed by Sir Christopher Wren as a ceremonial dining room and forms the Greenwich landmark’s centrepiece. The paintings were created by artist Sir James Thornhill and are regarded as a masterpiece of English baroque art. They took more than 19 years to paint.
The reopening is part of a major transformation of the Old Royal Naval College by Hugh Broughton Architects — with conservation advice from Martin Ashley Architects — that will also see the reopening of its King William Undercroft housing a new cafe, shop and gallery.
