National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum located in Greenwich, London is perhaps the largest museum of its kind in the whole world. Many of the historic buildings that comprise the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site also incorporate into itself the Royal Observatory as well as the Queen’s House back in the 17 th century. The Museum was established in 1937 and is now recognized as the foremost maritime museum in the United Kingdom. The Museum was founded and created through the National Maritime Act of 1934 under a board of trustees and was appointed by the H.M. Treasury. This is also thanks to the extremely generous donations of Sir James Caird. The Museum formally opened its doors on April 27, 1937 by King George VI accompanied by his daughter Princess Elizabeth. The first appointed director of the museum is Sir Geoffrey Callender.

The museum holds many items such as ship models, plans, manuscripts and navigational instruments among others. These are valuable to the history of Britain at sea. To the north of the museum are gardens, reinstated in the 1870’s. This is following the construction of a cut and cover tunnel that lay in between Maze Hill and Greenwich stations. The same tunnel also comprised some parts of the London and Greenwich Railway and was opened in 1878. An upgrade of all the museum buildings were completed in 1999 and through this upgrade, the main galleries which centers on what is now known as the Neptune Court, have all been redeveloped. This upgrade was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. 2008 saw Sammy Ofer, an Israeli shipping magnate, announce that he is giving the museum £20M for the construction of a new gallery.