Greenwich is steeped in history and remains one of London’s most generous cultural areas. The park offers unrivalled views across the city, the Maritime Museum rewards curiosity without demanding too much, and much of what the area has to offer is free.

That generosity falters once you cross into the ticketed spaces.

Connection and Identity, an exhibition by Peter Walker housed inside the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College, runs until 25 January. Presented as two large scale interactive works using light and sound, it promises a transformative encounter between heritage and contemporary art.

In practice, it struggles to deliver.

Admission across Royal Museums Greenwich sites ranges from £17.50 to £38 for an adult day pass. As students, we paid £8.75 to access the Old Royal Naval College, which includes entry to the Painted Hall, Chapel and Visitor Centre. We attended during a designated social media hour, expecting a quieter experience.

The Painted Hall itself is breathtaking. Painted by Sir James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726, it is a space that demands time and stillness. Its scale and visual intensity are already overwhelming.

The exhibition feels as though it is competing with it.

The work is divided into two elements. Identity centres on illuminated sculptural hands, inviting visitors to cast shadows and interact with the light. It creates brief moments of shared attention, but the interaction is fleeting. Once the novelty fades, there is little reason to stay.

Connection consists of eight fabric cylinders fitted with LED strips, cycling through colour and a looping storm effect. From a distance, the installation frames the hall attractively. Up close, its purpose becomes harder to define. It gestures towards connection without fully realising it.

Large blocks of explanatory text accompany both installations, suggesting a lack of confidence in the work’s ability to communicate independently. Music by David Harper is intended to shape the experience, but during our visit it was so quiet as to be almost imperceptible.

There is a certain irony in encountering an exhibition concerned with connection during a tightly managed social media hour. While restricted numbers may be necessary, the structure sits uneasily alongside work intended to provoke reflection on selfhood and relationships.

A brief visit to the Queen’s House afterwards offered a useful contrast. With only a handful of visitors present, the space felt calm and unpressured, highlighting how strongly the experience of Connection and Identity is shaped by its conditions rather than its content.

The exhibition raises a broader question about how contemporary work sits within historic spaces. Here, the issue is not ambition but scale. The Painted Hall is already a complete experience. Anything placed within it needs to enhance that encounter, not interrupt it.

As it stands, the exhibition is difficult to justify at the ticket price on its own. For most visitors, the Painted Hall remains the real reason to go.