Keeping heritage moving

For the last two weekends, I, along with thousands of music fans have watched the sun set over the Thames, Wren’s twin domes boldly lit above the crowd, with the London skyline beyond. The stage set for something remarkable. For each headliner show people gathered in the grand squares and colonnades of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich for a night of live music — an experience like no other in a setting like no other. It is also, I would argue, a fitting new chapter for buildings that have never stood still.

Labyrinth on the Thames returned to the Old Royal Naval College for a second year — three weekends of live outdoor performance from The Kooks, Moby, Peggy Gou, Dom Dolla, Adriatique, Anjunadeep, Overmono, Michael Bibi and more. Last year’s debut brought a new audience to a place many of them had never crossed the threshold of before. This year, we will welcome nearly 80,000 guests across eight unforgettable nights.

Day beds in the Painted Hall to lie down and look up at Baroque art. Bowling in a Victorian skittle alley. A festival in the grounds where monarchs and naval pensioners once walked. To some, this reads as a challenge to what heritage is for. We see it differently; the reason is written into the history of the site itself.

Across 600 years of history, this place has never stood still. From Henry VIII’s palace to a hospital for naval veterans, from officer training college to one of London’s leading cultural venues and the UK’s number one heritage filming location — the Old Royal Naval College has been reinvented by every generation that has used it. Each age found a new purpose for these buildings and a new public, while preserving what makes them extraordinary.

Rather than eroding the site’s history, carefully managed public use continues a pattern that has long defined it.

Consider the Painted Hall ceiling, which turns 300 this year. Sir James Thornhill spent nineteen years creating one of the most ambitious painted interiors of its age, which is still among the most impressive in Europe. Three centuries on, the site continues to inspire wonder of a different kind, from immersive light and sound installations by Luxmuralis to Peter Walker’s Peace Doves, a stunning artwork carrying handwritten messages from the public. This has always been a place of shared experience, storytelling, inspiration and enjoyment across generations.

For local people, continued use also strengthens pride of place. The Old Royal Naval College is not simply a backdrop for events, but part of Greenwich’s shared identity. The acclaim, positive coverage and public praise these moments generate help raise the site’s profile, reinforce its relevance and deepen its value to the community. Carefully curated public programming keeps that connection alive, ensuring the site is not only protected, but valued, enjoyed and championed by the communities closest to it.

That is not a departure from our purpose. It is central to it.

We are a charity. Every pound from events like Labyrinth on the Thames goes back into conserving and operating these buildings, and into the learning programmes that bring thousands of children through our doors each year. The festival reaches people who would never think to buy a heritage ticket, and who find themselves connecting with some of the finest architecture and art in Europe. We run it responsibly, with conservation expertise, clear limits and controls designed in from the start, on a site that has staged large-scale events and filming for years.

Our funding challenge and our relevance challenge are, in the end, the same. The answer to both, for us, is to open our doors wider and create new reasons for people to walk in. Challenging times have pushed us to be more open and more experimental in what we programme, and who we programme it for; in turn, this is helping us play a more active role in London’s cultural life.

The Old Royal Naval College was always meant to be a place that was used and enjoyed. A place for the people. That is what underpins everything we do. People dancing at our silent discos, or practising yoga beneath a 300-year-old ceiling, are not a threat to these buildings. It is how they stay loved, and how we make sure they are still here, and still cared for, in another three hundred years.

“…this incredible London venue stole the show.”

“Best Summer Venue in London”.

We certainly think so.