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The demolition of Greenwich Castle

Built at the behest of King Charles II between 1675 and 1676, the Royal Observatory was built on the cheap on the foundations of Greenwich Castle.

More commonly known as Duke Humphrey’s Tower and sometimes as Millefleur, the Castle was erected in the 1430s by the brother of King Henry V,  Duke Humphrey (1390–1447), who also built a manor house by the river at around the same time. This was demolished about 1500 and the much larger Greenwich Palace erected in its place. Remodelled in the 1520s, improved in the 1610s and demolished at some point prior to the decision being made to build an Observatory, the exact date of the Castle's demolition is unclear.

So too is the use to which the Castle, Greenwich Palace and the Queen's House (built between 1615 and 1635) were put during the Civil War (1642–1651) and afterwards during the Commonwealth – a period in their past that is often glossed over, even in the more authoritative histories due to the paucity of evidence.

The aim of this page it to take a look at sources that shed light on the matter.

 

Hollar's long view of Greenwich

Although the Castle appears in the distance in several seventeenth century views, there are no known images that show the Castle in any detail. Nor are there any known contemporary plans. One of the clearest images comes from Hollar's 1637 long view of Greenwich (above).

 

The diary of John Evelyn

John Evelyn (1620–1706) made several references to Greenwich in his diary. Those relevant to the Park, Palace and Queen's House are copied below. Unfortunately, he made no reference to the Castle.

Transcript of the Diary of John Evelyn from Project Gutenberg

16 September 1648: Came my lately married brother, Richard, and his wife, to visit me, when I showed them Greenwich, and her Majesty's Palace, now possessed by the rebels.

29 April 1652: Was that celebrated [total] eclipse of the sun, so much threatened by the astrologers, and which had so exceedingly alarmed the whole nation that hardly any one would work, nor stir out of their houses. So ridiculously were they abused by knavish and ignorant star-gazers.

We went this afternoon to see the Queen's house at Greenwich, now given by the rebels to Bulstrode Whitelocke, one of their unhappy counselors, and keeper of pretended liberties.*

1 August 1652: Came old Jerome Lennier, of Greenwich, a man skilled in painting and music, and another rare musician, called Mell. I went to see his collection of pictures, especially those of Julio Romano, which surely had been the King's, and an Egyptian figure, etc. There were also excellent things of Polydore, Guido, Raphael, and Tintoretto. Lennier had been a domestic of Queen Elizabeth, and showed me her head, an intaglio in a rare sardonyx, cut by a famous Italian, which he assured me was exceedingly like her.

19 October 1661: I went to London to visit my Lord of Bristol, having been with Sir John Denham (his Majesty's surveyor) to consult with him about the placing of his palace at Greenwich, which I would have had built between the river and the Queen's house, so as a large square cut should have let in the Thames like a bay; but Sir John was for setting it on piles at the very brink of the water, which I did not assent to; and so came away, knowing Sir John to be a better poet than architect, though he had Mr. Webb (Inigo Jones's man) to assist him.

24 January1662: His Majesty entertained me with his intentions of building his Palace of Greenwich, and quite demolishing the old one; on which I declared my thoughts.

4 March 1664: Came to dine with me the Earl of Lauderdale, his Majesty's great favorite, and Secretary of Scotland; the Earl of Teviot; my Lord Viscount Brouncker, President of the Royal Society; Dr. Wilkins, Dean of Ripon; Sir Robert Murray, and Mr. Hooke, Curator to the Society.

This spring I planted the Home field and West field about Sayes Court with elms, being the same year that the elms were planted by his Majesty in Greenwich Park.

* The fourteenth Monograph of the London Survey Committee: The Queen's House, Greenwich also records that:

Parts of the great palace by the river were let or sold in various lots. The buildings and land occupied by the King's Works went to Simon Bassill, perhaps a descendant of that Simon Basil on whose death Inigo Jones had succeeded to the office of Surveyor. Other parts went to Henry Henn and to Uriah Babbington (who was retained as "under housekeeper" after the Restoration) for which the following three references were given: Commissioners of Crown Lands, Index of Lands C/423; D/521 & D/523.

 

The Journal of William Schellinks

Between 1661and1665 Jakob Thierry de Jong undertook a grand tour of Europe accconied by the Dutch artist William (Willem) Schellinks (1627–1678) as his guide. Throughout their travels, Schellinks kept a journal, those parts related to their visit to England were later translated into English and published in 1993.

On 14 August 1661, Schellinks recorded the following about his journey up the Thames:

'We came to famous Greenwich on our left, very pleasantly situated on the river. The royal palace stands close to the water along the river, a very large, long building first begun by          . It was damaged during the recent troubles and is at present in a badly ruined state; it was used by Oliver Cromwell as a prison during the war against the Dutch, of whom many died there of privation and disease [The first Anglo-Dutch War took place from 1652-1654]. A little inland is the Queen's House or palace, a fine, stately building with many large and small rooms and nice stone spiral stairs with iron banisters [the famous Tulip Stairs] leading up to the upper rooms to the flat roof, which is lead-covered and railed in, from where one has beautiful views all around. This building too has suffered some damage in the recent war and is at present without furniture and pictures, but is now on the King's orders being repaired. There is a fairly large deerpark, surmounted by a wall, but the soldiers have killed all the game, which used to be here in large numbers. On a hill in this park are the ruins of a castle which has been raised to the ground by the parliamentarians’.

On a later visit to Greenwich on 25 October 1662 Schellinks recorded:

'At 10 o'clock in the morning we rode with Mr. Adrien Boddens, Mr. J. Seghvelt, and Mr. Samuel Hill to Greenwich, and looked at the King's House, now in somewhat better order than when we saw it anno 1661 on 7th September. On the hill in the park behind the house two avenues of trees had been planted from the bottom to the top, and near the top of the hill, where it was too steep to climb up, steps had been cut in the ground to walk up in comfort.

On the river side all the old buildings of the palace are pulled down to the ground, to make, to begin with' a large level area; His Majesty, who takes great pleasure in the place because of its beautiful situation by the river, and the understandingly pleasant view from the hill over the park, is planning to have a magnificent palace built there,'

Click here to read more about the Giant Steps which were constructed at some point between 1 September 1661 and 10 June 1662

 

Pepy's Diary

Pepys recorded the following in his diary on 11 April 1662:

‘At Woolwich, up and down to do the same business; and so back to Greenwich by water, and there while something is dressing for our dinner, Sir William [Penn] and I walked into the Park, where the King hath planted trees and made steps in the hill up to the Castle, which is very magnificent.’

 

Jonas Moore's manuscript map of 1662

Appointed Surveyor General of the Ordnance  in 28 July 1669, Jonas Moore not only became Flamsteed's patron, but was also influential in getting the Observatory built and in securing the post of Astronomer Royal for Flamsteed. First appointed as Assistant Surveyor at the Ordnance in 1665, Moore's first commission from a government body came several years earlier in 1662. It was to produce a map of the Thames. He chose to entitle it as follows: 

"A MAPP OR description of the River of Thames from Westminster to the Sea with the falls of all the Rivers into it the severall Creekes Soundings & Depths thereof and Docks made for the use of his Ma^ties Navy, made by Jonas Moore Gent: by Warrant from Sr Charles Harbord Kn^t, his said Ma^ties Surveyor General. In Pursuance of his Ma^ties Warrant and Command under his Royal Signature Anno Domini 1662"

The royal warrant to which Moore referred  is dated 7 February 1662.

The plan (now preserved at The National Archives (Work38/331)) is large being more than six feet wide, two foot high and edged by a gold border with a black outline. Drawn on three pieces of joined velum, the map has become rather rubbed over time, possibly in part, because of people brushing past it when it was pinned to an office wall. As well as showing buildings, the map has a coat of arms (top centre), a cartouche containing the title above (bottom right) balanced by an image of a pair of dividers on a ruler (bottom left). There are also five good size watercolours? edged in gold. They are titled: The prospect of London (top left) and then in a row along the bottom from left to right: Greenwich, Wulwich (Woolwich), Erith and Graves End (Gravesend). They have been attributed by some to Wenceslaus Hollar, possibly on account of similarities between The prospect of London and known Hollar views. That said, no Hollar views remotely similar to the other four watercolours have been identified.

As far as is known, the complete map has never been reproduced. However, the western third was reproduced in monochrome by the London Topographical Society in 1912 (below) and the western half in full colour as the endpapers in Philippa Glanville's London in Maps (1972). A cropped version of The London Topographical Society publication was included by Peter Whitfield in his book London in maps (2006/2017). Interestingly, the original seems to have suffered further damage since the 1912 copy was made.

The map includes not one, but two images of Greenwich Castle - one on the map itself and the other in the view of Greenwich. But how reliable are they as a guide to the state of the Castle in 1662? The three detailed map sections below help answer this question.

Taken together, it would seem that whilst some parts of the map were completely up to date, others were rather dated. As such, the Castle's appearance cannot be relied upon as representing its true state in 1662.

 

John Webb's proposed 'Grot and Ascent'

In around 1665, John  Webb, who was responsible for rebuilding the Palace proposed the construction of a 'Grot and Ascent' to close the view at the top of the Giant Steps. Although it was never constructed, it would have required the Castle to be removed so as not to distract from the scene. For more on the Grot and Ascent see John Bold's Greenwich (2000).

 

The Royal Warrant ordering the Observatory's building

The Royal Warrant ordering the construction of the Observatory is dated 22 June 1675 and begins:

'Whereas, in order to the finding out of the longitude of places for perfecting navigation and astronomy, we have resolved to build a small observatory within our park at Greenwich, upon the highest ground, at or near the place where the castle stood, with lodging-rooms for our astronomical observator and assistant, ...' (click here to read more)

 

So when was the castle demolished?

One thing that we can be sure of is that the Castle had been demolished prior to any decision being made to build the observatory in 1675. Although Evelyn mentions the Palace and the Queen's house in his diary, he makes no mention of the Castle. Schellinks on the other hand records that in 1661 the castle was a ruin and had 'been raised to the ground by the parliamentarians’. However, no other account has been found that corroborates this.

Although the obvious interpretation of Pepys's 1662 diary entry where he stated 'I walked into the Park, where the King hath planted trees and made steps in the hill up to the Castle’, is that the Castle was intact. However, at the present time, we tend to refer to both intact castles and castle ruins as castles (very little remains of Hastings Castle for example). Pepys may therefore have been referring to ruins.

The most likely scenario seems to be that the Castle was in a ruinous state in 1660 when Charles II was restored to the throne and that it was demolished at some point between 1662 and 1675. Given that landscaping works in the Park that commenced in 1661 had come more or less to an end by 1665 (money was in short supply), it might be argued that the Castle was more likely to have been demolished before rather than after 1665.

 

Acknowledgements

The images from the British Museum are reproduced under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license, courtesy of the The Trustees of the British Museum. All have been further compressed for this website.

Museum Number: 1856,0607.5 (detail)

Museum Number: 1850,0223.254

The 1912 copy of Moore's map of 1662 is reproduced at reduced size from the digitized copy on the Yale University Library website (Call Number: 32 L84 1662/1912)