Perched just above the banks of the Thames in Greenwich lies the royal palace known as Queen’s House. The site of royal residences since at least the 1400’s, legend has it that the grounds were gifted by King James I to his wife Anna of Denmark as an apology for having sworn at her after she accidentally killed one of his favorite hunting dogs.
Anna subsequently hired the famous architect Inigo Jones to design a new palace on the grounds, and the result was the first classical building in England in “modern” history. And the impact of Queen’s House was long felt – when Christopher Wren was commissioned to design the Royal Naval Hospital between the Thames and the palace, he settled on the split building design in order not to block the queen’s view of the river.