London - National Maritime Museum

The impressive collection of the National Maritime Museum illustrates the history of the British Navy from Tudor and Stuart times to the period of the Napoleonic Wars. The collections of the National Maritime Museum, the most comprehensive of their kind in the world, are housed in the two side wings of Queen's House. These, which are connected by colonnades to the main building, were added between 1805 and 1816. Until 1933 they accommodated the Royal Hospital School for the children of mariners; the museum was opened in 1937.

The paintings in the museum form a small art gallery in their own right.

They include seascapes by Van de Velde, William Turner and Muirhead Bone, and portraits of famous seamen by leading artists (Godfrey Kneller, Peter Lely, Wilhelm Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney).
The National Maritime museum underwent a massive expansion leading up to the year 2000, as well as some ongoing renovations post 2000.