Royal Naval College

In 1873 the Royal Naval College (RNC) – later known as the ‘Navy’s university’ – moved in, heralding a new era of scientific training. The RNC combined the functions and resources of the former Naval College at Portsmouth and the School of Naval Architecture and Marine engineering, which moved from South Kensington. This new approach did not meet with universal approval and it was some time before the College’s contribution was recognised. In 1919 the Naval Staff College was also opened on the site.

During the Second World War the College’s major task was the training of ‘hostilities-only’ officers. Altogether nearly 27,000 of them, including 8,000 members of the WRNS, passed through Greenwich. But the war had a more tangible impact too: the Admiral’s House was badly damaged by a direct hit from a German bomb in 1943, and another hit the front of the King Charles building.

The Navy’s Department of Nuclear Science and Technology opened in 1959, and JASON, the department’s research and training reactor was commissioned in the King William building in 1962. From 1983 the relocated Joint Services Defence College also occupied much of the King Charles building.

The Royal Navy finally left the College in 1998, and formally handed over management to the new custodians, the Greenwich Foundation.