Greenwich’s Painted Hall will reopen to the public this weekend following an £8.5m restoration of its early 18th-century fresco-covered ceilings.

Sir James Thornhill spent nearly 20 years creating the Baroque maritime scenes that cover 40,000 sq ft of ceiling and walls of the room, which sits inside the Old Royal Naval College, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Spaces (@thespacesmag) on Mar 20, 2019 at 2:42pm PDT

Its elaborate frescoes have been cleaned and returned to their original vibrancy as part of the two-year project. The Painted Hall’s grand reopening is part of the wider transformation of the vaulted Sir King William Undercroft, which lies beneath the room.

It has been reborn as a new visitor centre, Sackler Gallery and cafe, designed by practice Hugh Broughton Architects.

Read next: London’s Pitzhanger Manor opens with a bumper Anish Kapoor exhibition