Maritime Greenwich: which museums are free, and the Royal Observatory closure

The short answer

Royal Museums Greenwich runs four sites, and they divide cleanly in two. The National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House are free; the Royal Observatory and the historic ship Cutty Sark are paid, with a Day Pass that covers both paid sites.[2] Members of Royal Museums Greenwich get into all four free.[1]

The more pressing news, when XTOUR read these pages on 11 October 2026, is a closure. The Royal Observatory, home of the Prime Meridian line, closes on 2 November 2026 for a refurbishment project.[4] Anyone planning Greenwich after that date is planning a visit without it, for a while at least.

The Royal Observatory's 2026 closure

Royal Museums Greenwich calls the project First Light. Its project page says the work began in autumn 2025 and is due to be complete by spring 2028, with phased closures that started on the south side of the site; the rest of the Observatory stays open until 2 November 2026. After that, the same page says, the Meridian Courtyard will reopen in summer 2027, with tickets going on sale in January 2027.[5] XTOUR reads that as the courtyard, with the meridian line, coming back before the rest of the refurbished site; the page does not say which other parts reopen in 2027.

The plans include a new entrance pavilion, new galleries, and a lift tower that, according to the project page, will give full access to the Great Equatorial Telescope for the first time.[5] The Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Observatory is already closed for the renovation; the Observatory page points instead to a new planetarium experience at the National Maritime Museum.[4]

The Prime Meridian line itself is not a free stop. Its page is marked "Ticketed" and says standing on the line is included with entry to the Observatory. The same page explains why it is there: since 1884, distances east and west have been measured from the Prime Meridian line in Greenwich.[6]

The four sites

National Maritime Museum (free). In Royal Museums Greenwich's words, "The National Maritime Museum is free, and you do not need to book."[7] Free tickets can be booked to guarantee entry. Special exhibitions are ticketed and include museum entry.[7] The tickets page also lists an astronomy photography exhibition and the planetarium experience as paid tickets.[2]

Queen's House (free). The Queen's House page says it is free to visit, and that although booking online is recommended, "you can normally also turn up on the day". Further down, the same page says entry is free "but you must have a ticket to visit".[8] Those two lines do not agree. Given that conflict, XTOUR's reading is that booking the free ticket avoids depending on which of the two lines applies on the day. Royal Museums Greenwich's heritage guide says the house was commissioned from Inigo Jones by Anne of Denmark in 1616 and completed around 1638.[10]

Royal Observatory (paid, closing 2 November 2026). Booking online in advance is recommended, and on-the-day tickets are subject to availability; members do not need to book. The Observatory page lists discounts for students, for holders of an Art Pass, Museums Association membership or English Heritage membership, and reduced-price tickets for visitors receiving listed benefits, as well as free tickets for carers accompanying a disabled visitor.[4]

Cutty Sark (paid). The same booking pattern applies: book online to guarantee entry, or buy on the day subject to availability.[9] The heritage guide says the tea clipper was launched in 1869, brought to Greenwich in 1954 and opened to the public three years later, and now sits in a dry dock raised more than three metres so that visitors can walk beneath the hull.[10] The café under the hull is for Cutty Sark ticket-holders only.[9]

Tickets: the Day Pass, children and members

The tickets page sells a Day Pass covering the Royal Observatory and Cutty Sark. It says child tickets are for ages 4 to 15, that under-4s go free at every site, and that exhibitions are priced separately. Royal Museums Greenwich membership, by the same page's description, gives free unlimited entry to the Observatory, Cutty Sark and exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum.[2]

What XTOUR does not know: whether the Day Pass will still be sold, or what it will cover, once the Observatory closes. None of the pages read on 11 October 2026 said.

Where the pages disagree

Royal Museums Greenwich's pages were not consistent with each other on 11 October 2026, beyond the Queen's House point above. The plan-your-visit page gave two different closing or last-entry times for the Royal Observatory in two places,[1] and the opening-times page gave a third combination.[3] The tickets page showed one Cutty Sark child price in its summary line and a different one in its price table.[2] XTOUR publishes none of these figures; its reading is that the booking calendar at the point of purchase is the one to trust.

Maritime Greenwich, the World Heritage Site

The four museums sit inside a larger designation. The UK National Commission for UNESCO lists Maritime Greenwich, in Greater London, as a cultural World Heritage Site inscribed in 1997, built around the Queen's House, the Royal Observatory and the former Royal Hospital for Seamen, now the Old Royal Naval College, in a Royal Park, and the work of Inigo Jones, Christopher Wren and the landscape designer André Le Nôtre. It says the site also takes in Royal Museums Greenwich and the late-Georgian town centre.[11]

The Old Royal Naval College is not one of the four Royal Museums Greenwich sites. The museums' own heritage guide lists it separately, describing the Wren and Hawksmoor buildings built between 1696 and 1751 as the Royal Hospital for Seamen.[10] XTOUR has not read the College's own visiting terms and says nothing about entry there.

Where this fits

The Royal Observatory is in London. For the free national museums in central London, and how their ticketing differs, see the free museums guide. XTOUR does not publish opening hours, prices or travel times to Greenwich.