The Queen's House in Greenwich holds a quiet distinction: it was England's first purely classical building, a Palladian jewel that must have seemed almost alien when Inigo Jones designed it in 1616.

Commissioned for Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, it took so long to build that she never saw it finished. Henrietta Maria, Charles I's queen, eventually moved in, lending the house its royal name and adding the famous Tulip Stairs, the first geometric self-supporting spiral staircase in Britain.

The building now forms part of the Royal Museums Greenwich collection, housing an impressive array of maritime art. Its Great Hall, a perfect 40-foot cube, remains one of London's most elegant rooms.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours explore Greenwich's maritime heritage and royal connections, placing the Queen's House within the broader story of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that surrounds it.