The two things everyone goes to Greenwich for cost £46 between them. Almost everything else there is free.
Standing on the Prime Meridian is £24. Going aboard the Cutty Sark is £22. Meanwhile the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House, the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and the whole of Greenwich Park cost nothing at all, and between them they hold Nelson’s uniform, the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I and the best view in southeast London.
That is the thing to understand before you go, because it is the opposite of what people assume. Here is what costs what, checked against each institution’s own pages on 26 September 2026.
Closing on 2 November 2026. The Royal Observatory closes for a refurbishment project on 2 November 2026, with no reopening date published, and its Peter Harrison Planetarium has been shut since September 2025. The park, the view and the rest of Greenwich are unaffected. See the planetarium for where shows run instead.
The things to do in Greenwich that are free
The National Maritime Museum. Romney Road, SE10 9NF, open 10am to 5pm daily including public holidays, and the permanent galleries are free. It holds the actual uniform Nelson was wearing when he was fatally wounded at Trafalgar, which is not a replica and is worth the trip on its own.
The Queen’s House. A free art gallery in the middle of it all, holding the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I along with Turner and Canaletto. Designed by Inigo Jones and finished in 1638, it was the first classical building in Britain, which is a larger claim than the building’s modest size prepares you for.
Greenwich Park. 183 acres of former royal hunting ground, with a rose garden, a boating pond, a deer enclosure and London’s longest herbaceous border. The path up to the Observatory gives the view over the Thames and the City that every photograph of Greenwich is taken from, and the view costs nothing even though the building at the top does not.
The grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, open daily 8am to 11pm. That is a genuinely long window and it means the best architecture in Greenwich is walkable late into the evening, long after everything ticketed has shut.
Greenwich Market, open daily 10am to 5.30pm. Most people assume it is a weekend market. It is not, and a weekday visit is a different and calmer thing.
One free thing worth staying for. After dark, a green laser beams north from the Observatory along the line of the Prime Meridian. You can see it from the park without paying to be behind it.
What costs money, and exactly how much
| What | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Observatory | £24 | £12 |
| Cutty Sark | £22 | £11 |
| Both, on the Royal Museums Greenwich Day Pass | £38 | £19 |
| Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College | £19 | Free |
| Discover Greenwich Museum only | £3 | Free |
The Royal Observatory is open 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm in the shorter season, and runs 10am to 6pm in the longer one with last entry at 5pm. Royal Museums Greenwich was still listing 10am to 6pm on 2 October, so the winter hours had not yet started, and the Museum, the Queen’s House and Cutty Sark are 10am to 5pm throughout. Its guided tours at 11am and 3pm are £5 extra on top of admission, not included. Cutty Sark is 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4.15pm.
The ten pound decision
This is the part worth the page.
A Day Pass covering the Observatory and the Cutty Sark is £38 for one adult. An annual membership covering both, all year, unlimited, is £48.
Ten pounds is the whole difference between one afternoon and a year. If there is any chance at all that you will come back, or that you will bring someone else back, the membership is the obvious purchase and it is not close. It is £48 by Direct Debit or £58 as a one off, and it covers special exhibitions too.
For a family the arithmetic stops being close and becomes absurd. Two adults and two children on Day Passes is £114 for a single day out. Family membership starts at £56. A family pays roughly twice as much to visit once as to visit for a year.
Nobody at the ticket desk is going to stop you buying the wrong one. Work it out before you queue.
The other pricing philosophy, three hundred metres away
The Old Royal Naval College is a separate institution from Royal Museums Greenwich, and it prices in a completely different spirit. It is worth seeing the two side by side because the contrast is stark.
A general admission ticket to the Painted Hall is £19, children go free, and you can convert it into an Annual Pass at no extra cost whatsoever. Not a discount on an upgrade. No extra cost. You pay for a day and you are handed a year if you ask.
It also runs the widest concession list in Greenwich: £9.50 for students, National Art Pass holders, and serving Armed Forces personnel and veterans, and a £2 day ticket for Universal Credit claimants.
So across two neighbouring institutions: at one, a day ticket becomes a year for nothing and children are free. At the other, children pay £12 and a year costs £48 on top. Neither is wrong, but only one of them is told to you at the door.
The Painted Hall, Chapel and Visitor Centre are open daily 10am to 5pm.
How to fit the best things to do in Greenwich into one day
Start with the free things and buy nothing until you have seen them. The Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House are both substantial and both cost nothing, and a good number of people find they have had their day out before they reach a ticket desk.
Walk up through the park for the view rather than paying for it. The photograph everyone takes is from the path, outside the Observatory wall.
Decide on the Observatory honestly. £24 buys you the meridian line, the Flamsteed House rooms and the astronomy galleries. If crossing the line matters to you, it is worth it. If you mainly wanted the view, you already have it.
Do the Painted Hall and take the free annual conversion. It is the best value ticket in Greenwich by a distance.
Leave the grounds until last. They are open to 11pm and they are at their best when the day visitors have gone.
Getting there
Cutty Sark DLR puts you in the middle of everything and is the obvious choice. Greenwich Station and Maze Hill Station both serve it by rail, and Greenwich Pier brings you in by river, which is slower, more expensive and much the best way to arrive if the weather is behaving.
You can also walk the whole way from central London on the Thames Path, which passes the London Eye, Tate Modern, the Globe and Tower Bridge and gets quieter as it goes.
Everything here was taken from Royal Museums Greenwich, the Old Royal Naval College and Greenwich Market’s own published pages and rechecked on 2 October 2026. Prices and opening hours change, particularly the seasonal Observatory hours. Confirm before you travel.
Where to go next
Free things to do in London and the free museums cover the rest of the city on the same principle, which is that London’s best collections generally cost nothing.
The best parks in London puts Greenwich Park against the other royal parks, and the best views covers the paid viewing platforms that the top of Greenwich Park competes with for nothing.
London food markets covers Greenwich Market alongside Borough and the rest, and things to do at the weekend has the wider day out.
Questions we get asked
Is the Royal Observatory free?
No. Adult admission is 24 pounds and children are 12, and the guided tours at 11am and 3pm are a further 5 pounds each on top of that. What is free is the walk up through Greenwich Park to it, which is where the famous view over the Thames and the City is taken from. If the view was the reason you were going, you do not need a ticket. If standing on the Prime Meridian is the reason, you do.
How much does it cost to visit Greenwich?
It can cost nothing. The National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House, Greenwich Park, Greenwich Market and the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College are all free. The paid attractions are the Royal Observatory at 24 pounds, the Cutty Sark at 22, and the Painted Hall at 19 with children free. A Royal Museums Greenwich Day Pass covering the Observatory and Cutty Sark together is 38 pounds for an adult and 19 for a child.
Is a Royal Museums Greenwich membership worth it?
Almost always, and the margin is smaller than people expect. A Day Pass covering the Royal Observatory and the Cutty Sark is 38 pounds for one adult. Annual membership covering both, unlimited, plus special exhibitions is 48 by Direct Debit. Ten pounds separates one afternoon from a whole year. For a family it is starker still: two adults and two children on Day Passes is 114 pounds for one day, while family membership starts at 56.
What is free in Greenwich?
More than most visitors realise. The National Maritime Museum's permanent galleries, which hold the uniform Nelson was wearing when he was fatally wounded at Trafalgar. The Queen's House, a free gallery holding the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I along with Turner and Canaletto. Greenwich Park, all 183 acres of it, including the viewpoint below the Observatory. The grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, open daily 8am to 11pm. And Greenwich Market, open daily 10am to 5.30pm.
Is Greenwich Market open every day?
Yes, daily from 10am to 5.30pm, which surprises people who assume it is a weekend market. Going midweek is a genuinely different experience from a Saturday, with the same traders and a fraction of the crowd. It sits between the Cutty Sark and the Old Royal Naval College, so it is hard to avoid walking through it whatever else you are doing.
How long do you need in Greenwich?
A full day if you are paying for things, half a day if you are not. The free sites alone, the Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and the park, will absorb three or four hours comfortably. Adding the Royal Observatory and the Cutty Sark makes it a full day, and the Observatory's last entry is 4pm, which is the deadline that catches people who start with a long lunch.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 159 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
