Film gives Greenwich an added dimension

The splendour of Christopher Wren's Old Royal Naval College has impressed visitors for more than 200 years - and now it has a starring role in multi-million-dollar movie The Golden Compass.

To make the venue even more imposing, the film-makers have added stunning computer generated imagery.

The building is one of several London sites in the first film instalment of Philip Pullman's dimension-hopping fantasy epic His Dark Materials.

It acts as headquarters of the Magisterium, the religious organisation that seeks to control humanity and is designing cruel experiments on children. The interior of the listed building becomes Pullman's fictional Jordan College in Oxford, home of young heroine Lyra.

Turning the Painted Hall at Greenwich into the Jordan dining hall involved closing it to the public and blacking out 29 70ft-high windows to simulate night-time.

Ray Faithfull, director of facilities management at the college, said: "We're part of a World Heritage Site so the main thing is to protect the historic nature of the buildings.

"With such a large film as this, it's very difficult to try to allow the director to get the effects he wants while trying to protect everything. But there's always a willingness on our part."

The Golden Compass, out on Friday, is the adaptation of Northern Lights, the first book in Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. It takes Lyra, played by 13-year-old Dakota Blue Richards, from Oxford to the Arctic as she flees from and then challenges the fiendish plots of the Magisterium's Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), with the help of talking armoured bears and heroic gipsies.

Director Chris Weitz and the cast, which also includes Daniel Craig, who plays Lord Asriel, spent more than a fortnight filming in London in September last year. Other London locations that can be seen in the movie include the Sheraton Park Hotel in Piccadilly, Chiswick House, streets in central London and Crowley Wharf in Greenwich.