With illustrious royal and naval connections, Maritime Greenwich is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Tudor times it was the site of palace enjoyed by Henry VIII, now occupied by the Old Royal Naval College; the royal hunting grounds are today Greenwich Park.

• Royal Observatory. The courtyard of the Royal Observatory in the middle of Greenwich Park is where the meridian that divides Earth’s eastern and western hemispheres passes through. Visitors flock to be photographed standing with a foot on either side of it. In the 1884, Greenwich Mean Time became the basis of time measurement for most of the world.
• Old Royal Naval College. A landmark of Greenwich, these ambitious buildings by Sir Christopher Wren were built to house naval pensioners on the site of the old 15^th-century royal palace, where Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I were born.
• Cutty Sark. Launched in 1869 as a tea carrier, this vessel is a survivor of the clippers that crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the 19^th It was something of a speed machine in its day, returning in 1884 from Australia in just 83 days- 25 days faster than any other ship. It made its final voyage in 1938.
• National Maritime Museum. This substantial museum celebrates Britain’s seafaring heritage, from early British trade through its emergence as a leading maritime nation to the expeditions of Captain Cook, and from the Napoleonic Wars through to the modern day.
• The Queens House. The Palladian Queen’s House, designed by Inigo Jones for James I’s first wife, was completed in 1637 for Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen consort. From 1821 to 1933 the Royal Hospital School was housed here. The palace is filled with superb works of art, including paintings by Gainsborough, Stubbs and Hogarth.