Blasterz love these elaborate relief elements, because each one tells a story or conveys an emotion.
The relief over the door of the Trafalagar Quarters, the only eleborate decoration on this otherwise spare yet elegant building is made of Coade stone which has been carved into the coat of arms for the Royal Naval Hospital Seaman's Hospital.
After the Royal Naval Hospital closed in 1869 and its buildings were turned over to the Old Royal Naval College, these buildings were renamed "Trafalgar Quarters" -- being Navy property now, they of course needed proper Naval name.
Today the buildings are owned and operated by the Greenwich Hospital Trust as a home for aged soldiers, sailors, and airmen and their spouses or widows/widowers.
The relief carving is simply gorgeous, with its intricately detailed coat of arms and crown, supported by a mer-man and a mer-lion.
From the Greenwich Phantom blog: (
visit link)
"Trafalgar Quarters and Park Row (S)
I bet I’m not the only person who’s walked past those lovely old railings opposite The Old Royal Naval College in Park Row on the way to Trafalgar Tavern and wondered about the rather elegant building set in neatly-clipped grounds beyond them.
A low-set, brick-built building with a colonnade of Doric pillars is set back about 15 metres from a row of pollarded limes, its windows a parade of Georgian arches. At the top of the second floor (there only seem to be two) is a very naval-looking frieze incorporating a coat of arms with sea creatures, tridents – you know the sort of thing. But those railings are far too high for even a phantom to scale unnoticed by the security guard opposite in the Naval College and those gates are always locked.
Such an elegantly simple building down such an elegantly simple street – fabulous old York Stone paving slabs, original iron street lamps and a view down to the Thames that includes the Trafalgar Tavern . . .
Trafalgar Quarters were begun in 1813 as offices and storeooms for the Royal Naval Hospital. That, of course, was when they knew how to build offices and storerooms – it’s a mini work of art in itself. It was designed by the Hospital Surveyor John Yenn, who presumably didn’t get much opportunity to make his mark on Greenwich and didn’t care to be found wanting in the history of Greenwich next to such luminaries as Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones. And I reckon the boy done good. It has a Regency restraint which contrasts well to its earlier neighbours, yet manages to say something of its own too.
The coat of arms I mentioned on the frieze is, of course, the Seamen’s Hospital Arms – no wonder it looks familiar. It’s Coade Stone, of which we have a fair amount in Greenwich. I’ll talk about it another day though or this will lead to yet another digression.
Apparently there’s a courtyard inside. perhaps it will be open on Open House Day one day – but in the meanwhile, if anyone’s ever been in, do tell us about it (or even better, mail me photo…)
Apparently it became servants quarters after the Hospital closed, and because it was now for the Naval College, it was given a military name – Trafalgar “Quarters.”
The history becomes a bit murky after that – at least to the amateur eyes of a vaguely-interested-phantom. Letters in the Nautical Almanac Office relate to the use of the building in 1937 – a correspondence with Royal Obsevatory which I guess might imply it was linked with the astronomers.
It became sheltered housing in 2001, owned by Greenwich Hospital Trust; administered, by the Church of England Soldiers and Sailors and Airmens Clubs.
It has 21 one-bedroom flats and appears to be specifically for ex mariners or widowed spouses. Sadly they can’t bring their parrots as pets are not allowed. Maybe that’s the real reason for the
parrot-ical invasion in Greenwich Park…
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 7:51 am and is filed under Mostly-Accurate History, Places of Interest, Streets."