Experience a 400 year step change in architectural design by walking the Thames path between Maritime Greenwich and the North Greenwich Peninsular. From classical to modernism.
Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site is the home to the Old Royal Naval College, Queen’s House and a host of wonderful old buildings dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. This was an era of architectural elegance on a grand scale. Queen’s House was designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark in the 17th century. It was the first fully classical building in England. The design made a break with the red brick Tudor style, prevalent up till then.
The Old Royal Naval College is a fabulous examples of English Baroque architecture on a massive scale. It was designed by Christopher Wren. Mostly built in the 18th century, its foundations and core design originate in the late 17th century.
The North Greenwich Peninsular is one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe. In stark contrast to Maritime Greenwich, the Peninsula is defined by late 20th- and 21st-century architecture. Here you will find experimental architecture, landmark icons mixed with large-scale residential development and a university campus. Glass and steel compared to the Portland stone up-river.
The future is bright on the Greenwich Peninsula if you are a devotee of modern architecture. Peninsula Place, being designed by the renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, will be a 1.4 million sq ft mixed-use complex embodying the sculptural forms and organic geometry that are typical of Calatrava’s aesthetic. Finally we will have a Calatrava masterpiece on UK soil!
Mike Hawkridge Photography 
Leave a comment