The Trustees of the National Maritime Museum are delighted to announce that – marking HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – Her Majesty has formally approved Royal Museums Greenwich as the new overall title for the Museum, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

This comes at the beginning of an exceptional year for the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Greenwich itself becomes a Royal Borough by Letters Patent from February; in April the National Maritime Museum opens the spectacular exhibition, Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames, celebrating the Diamond Jubilee and marking its own 75th anniversary of opening by King George VI. The Cutty Sark also reopens to the public at the same time, after four years of restoration work; and in the summer Greenwich will have the eyes of the world upon it during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Maritime Greenwich was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997 for the outstanding architectural quality and historical significance of its great buildings and their Royal Park setting. The Site as a whole has unique associations with the Crown (dating back to the 15th century), the Royal Navy and the development of maritime welfare, science, technology, education, and the arts. The Queen’s House (1616–1638) has been part of the National Maritime Museum since its foundation in the 1930s and the Royal Observatory since 1953; but from now on, all will be known under the new group title, to strengthen understanding of the links between them. Each will also retain its individual identity, reflecting the different roles and collections they bring to public appreciation of the overall group and Maritime Greenwich as a whole.

Kevin Fewster, Director of Royal Museums Greenwich said: ‘We are very proud that Her Majesty The Queen has granted the Museum the right to use this overall title. Its aim is to help our ever-increasing numbers of visitors understand the royal connections between our three museums, their significance within historic Greenwich and the extraordinary stories we have to tell here.’

Notes to Editors:

• On 27 April 1937, the opening of the National Maritime Museum by George VI, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary and (then) Princess Elizabeth was the first public event that Her Majesty The Queen attended – the day after her eleventh birthday. Since November 2010 she has been the last living participant in that event.

For further information or images, please contact:
Sheryl Twigg, Jenny Stewart or Jenny Orton
Royal Museums Greenwich Press Office
Tel: 020 8312 6790/6732/6545 | 07903 547 268 or Email: press@rmg.co.uk / jstewart@rmg.co.uk / jorton@rmg.co.uk