Approach Greenwich by its historic river highway

For a first visit, the river taxi gives more historical context than the Docklands Light Railway. In the hospital and college’s working centuries, the Thames was London’s principal artery for moving people and goods. Carriages and walking were alternatives, but maritime visitors and residents would naturally have understood the complex from the water. The river approach restores that relationship between the architecture, its naval population, and the wider port city. It turns the journey into historical context rather than treating the site as an isolated group of buildings.