Queen’s barge Gloriana to be shown in all her glory in Greenwich

With flags fluttering and the crests of 16 Commonwealth nations resplendent in gold leaf, she led a flotilla of 670 small boats down the Thames at the forefront of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The following month, before a huge television audience, she transported the Olympic torch from Hampton Court Palace to City Hall before it was carried by speedboat to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games in Stratford. Since then, however, Gloriana has struggled to find a permanent home.

The 27m wooden royal rowing barge has been moored at St Katharine Docks, by the Tower of London, for the past eight years after a scheme to build a visitor centre in Richmond, southwest London, was sunk by local opposition in 2014.

Now she is finally to be given a fittingly sumptuous berth on the Greenwich peninsula as part of plans to redevelop the site of an old Tate & Lyle refinery.

The 18-oar vessel, which was the first royal barge to be built for 250 years, is set to become the “focal point” of a £763 million project to create 1,500 homes at Morden Wharf, opposite the Isle of Dogs, which has been proposed by the developers U+I. Named after the character representing Elizabeth I in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and maintained by a charitable trust, Gloriana was built for the Diamond Jubilee in a project overseen by Lord Sterling of Plaistow, the former executive chairman of P&O Ferries.

She will be kept in a dedicated boathouse on an existing jetty, according to plans lodged with Greenwich council and revealed by Architects’ Journal.

Designed by Carmody Groarke, the architects who completed the acclaimed Windermere Jetty Museum in the Lake District last year, the boathouse will be comprised of sheet metal and glass, allowing passers-by on the riverside path to view the £2 million barge.

Large folding doors at one end of the building will allow Gloriana to be returned to the Thames to take part in events such as the Henley Royal Regatta and support the fundraising efforts of royal and maritime charities, with a particular emphasis on introducing underprivileged children to the delights of rowing.

A glass and metal boathouse will serve as the home for Gloriana

“The new boathouse will provide a permanent shelter dedicated to the long-term protection and public-exhibition of Gloriana,” Andy Groarke, of Carmody Groarke, said.

“The fully glazed walls of the pavilion will open-up uninterrupted views of the Queen’s row barge from both the Thames and the river path, whilst the existing jetty will be rehabilitated and extended to enable the Gloriana to be safely launched on to the Thames, as well as providing a public belvedere.”

Richard Upton, chief development officer at U+I, added: “The U+I proposal to create a working boathouse for Gloriana is part of a wider scheme to create a new three-acre public park that will provide full public access to more than 275 metres of Thames riverside that has for decades been closed due to industrial use.

“Sited as it is at the end of the jetty at Morden Wharf, it was important that the design of the boathouse would be inviting to passers-by, both showcasing the Gloriana and signalling that it is a public building.

“We want the proposed design to frame the Gloriana and entice the public out on to the jetty, where they can view this beautiful boat and learn more about its history and the history of the monarchy’s relationship to the river. We hope it will be a great visitor attraction and bring people to Morden Wharf and this regenerating part of London.”

Greenwich council is expected to grant planning permission later this year, with work at Morden Wharf scheduled to start in 2023 and take ten years.