University of Greenwich

The ancient royal palace Greenwich is the centrepiece of the Greenwich World Heritage Site and includes buildings designed by Britain's most famous architects. Inigo Jones' Queen's House of 1616 was the first Palladian building in Britain and is now part of the National Maritime Museum. The palace block designed by Jones' son in law, John Webb, in 1663, was later incorporated into Sir Christopher Wren's Royal Naval Hospital of 1696, which added the banquetting hall and chapel. In the 1990s the Royal Naval college (as Greenwich hospital had become) became the University of Greenwich.

As part of its transition to a university, we researched the historic development of the buildings and carried out detailed inspections to help identify cracking and delamination in the Portland stone masonry that could have been hazardous to students and visitors.

We discovered defects due to atmospheric pollution, historic construction methods such as the use of built-in ironwork, and neglected and inappropriate past maintenance and alterations. Other causes of cracking included differential settlement due to the foundations of previous buildings on the site, including the Tudor palace in which Elizabeth I was born. The condition of the masonry was also affected by the high water table due to the adjacent river Thames, and restoration work after bombing during the Second World War. Our findings helped to inform a programme of conservation work carried out to ensure the preservation and safety of this outstanding complex of buildings.