Painted Hall closed 10 & 11 Jan

The Painted Hall and Undercroft Café are closed on Fri 10 & Sat 11 January. Site tours are running hourly from 12pm-3pm for £3. Thank you for understanding.

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Exhibition

Social Media Mondays | Helios in the Painted Hall

Every Monday | 10am–11.15am
Tickets: £16.50, kids go free
Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NN

Book now

To better facilitate those looking for the perfect shot, the Social Media Monday sessions have a reduced capacity. Posing and selfies encouraged! Use the hashtag #ORNCHelios for a chance to be featured on our socials.

Yellow button with 'book now' in black text

Named after the ancient Greek and Roman sun god, symbolic of time and life, the new celestial artwork from Luke Jerram, Helios, promises a sunny escape – sans passport –  and a rare opportunity to closely examine our Sun’s extraordinary surface in astonishing detail. At a scale of 1:200 million, every centimetre of the seven metre internally lit masterpiece represents 200km of the Sun’s fiery expanse.

Visitors will be captivated by the intricate beauty of sunspots, spicules, and filaments, including the solar activity that produced the UK’s mesmerising Northern Lights in May 2024. The imagery for the artwork has been compiled using photographs of the Sun provided by Astrophotographer Dr Stuart Green (taken between May 2018 to June 2024) and NASA observations of the Sun, with guidance from solar scientist, Professor Lucie Green of University College London (UCL).

Find out more