Delivery and returns

• Closed: Saturday December 20th
• Closed: Sunday December 21st 
• Open: Monday December 22nd
• Open: Tuesday December 23rd
• Open: (Christmas Eve) Wednesday December 24th
• Closed (Christmas Day): Thursday December 25th
• Closed (Boxing Day): Friday December 26th
• Closed: Saturday December 27th
• Closed: Sunday December 28th
• Open: Monday December 29th
• Open: Tuesday December 30th
• Open Wednesday December 31st
• Closed (New Years Day): Thursday January 1st
• Open, Normal Hours Resume 2026: Friday January 2nd 2026

Dates shown in this table are for standard orders (excluding custom and online exclusive items). These dates are based on our delivery partners last post dates, Royal Museums Greenwich cannot guarantee delivery times. 

Please check with your local couriers Christmas post dates for international orders when ordering from overseas. 

Recommended last order dates

• Rest of the world* Saturday 06th December 
• US** and Canada Saturday 12th December 
• UK (Inland, excluding Northern Ireland) Saturday 20th December 

Excludes Custom Prints (those which are customised by choosing a size and frame), online only telescopes, and pre-orders as these are subject to their own delivery terms. 

Orders placed after these dates can be dispatched but delivery in time for Christmas cannot be guaranteed. Royal Museums Greenwich cannot accept responsibility for orders placed after these dates being received after Christmas. 

Dates are subject to change, but up-to-date information will always be displayed here 

*We are currently unable to ship to countries in the EU due to GPSR please see our International Delivery and Returns section for more information.  

**Please be aware shipping to the US may require additional customs information and processing time please see our Important Update for USA Customers page for more information 

As our Custom Prints are made to order, shipping times take a little longer than normal orders. Please see below for the latest dates we recommend ordering by, to have the best chance to receive in time for Christmas, including international shipping destinations.

All orders are sent on a tracked service so you can check their progress through the network, though we cannot guarantee delivery times.

Unframed prints

• UK: 8th December
• International: 24th November

Framed prints

• UK: 8th December
• International: 1st December

Custom prints cannot be shipped via FedEx.

As our online exclusive telescopes are shipped directly from our supplier, they adhere to different ordering and dispatch times. To have the best chance to receive in time for Christmas please place your order before 12 noon on Monday 15th December.

An extended returns window is granted for purchases over the Christmas period. Orders placed from Saturday 1 November 2025 can be returned until Saturday 31 January 2026, subject to our usual eligibility criteria.

FREE standard UK shipping on all orders over £50.*

For orders under £50, we offer a UK flat rate of £4.95 per order via Royal Mail Signed For First Class, which aims to deliver the next working day.  

We also offer a FedEx** 1-3 working days service for £9.90, for UK inland locations only. This excludes the Isle of Man, Scottish Highlands and Islands, Northern Ireland, Scilly and Channel Islands. Custom Prints and Personalised clothing cannot be shipped via FedEx.

*Temporarily excluding Northern Ireland, please see International Delivery - Statement on the General Product Saftey Regulation (GPSR)

**Please note, in some circumstances we may need to use ParcelForce as a FedEx alternative. 

Our standard processing and fulfillment time is 1-3 working days. Excludes Custom Prints and personalised clothing.

All UK orders, excluding personalised clothing, are sent by a tracked service, with either Royal Mail, ParcelForce, or FedEx for larger items. You'll receive an email to let you know your order is on the way. You can expect to receive your item in 2-3 working days from when you placed your order. 

Excludes Custom Prints (those which are customised by choosing a size and frame), personalised clothing, online only telescopes, and pre-orders, as these are subject to their own delivery terms. 

Working days exclude weekends and public holidays. 

We ship online orders using no additional single-use plastics. Our postal packaging is 100% recyclable and, where possible, made from recycled materials.

A Custom Print has the option to customise the size and frame to suit. As each Custom Print is handmade to order they take a little longer to prepare. It will be dispatched separately from any other items in the same order. We are unable to offer a refund or exchange on Custom Prints, unless they are faulty.

As our Custom Prints are made to order, shipping times take a little longer than normal orders. Please see below for the latest dates we recommend ordering by, to have the best chance to receive in time for Christmas, including international shipping destinations.  

All orders are sent on a tracked service so you can check their progress through the network, though we cannot guarantee delivery times.

• Unframed International Sunday 23rd November 
• Unframed UK Monday 08th December 
• Framed International Sunday 30th November 
• Framed UK Monday 08th December 

Working days exclude weekends and public holidays.

Please note: Custom Prints cannot be shipped via FedEx.

Online only telescopes are shipped directly from Celestron, via a DPD 3-day delivery service. Confirmation of dispatch and tracking information will be sent via DPD. UK delivery only. Please allow 3 to 5 working days for delivery after placing your order with us. Any other items in your order will be shipped separately.

As of 1st January 2021, if you live in Europe you may be asked to pay tax and duties by your Customs authority, and orders will need to be cleared by Customs. Please read our advice on international delivery below and if you have any further questions please contact us using the contact form.

Our processing and fulfillment time is 1-2 working days. Excludes Custom Prints and personalised clothing.

All international orders are sent on a Royal Mail/Parcelforce tracked delivery service.

We ship online orders using no additional single-use plastics. Our postal packaging is 100% recyclable and, where possible, made from recycled materials.

For our United Arab Emirates customers: There is no mail delivery to street addresses in the UAE. All mail goes to PO Boxes at various post office locations or to business addresses for delivery to employees.

Please make sure you have the correct PO box address entered when you place your order, as we cannot refund shipping charges of orders returned to us for this reason. 

Order value up to £20

Europe: £6.95

Canada & USA: £9.95

All other locations: £12.95

____________________________

Order value over £20 and up to £40

Europe: £9.95

Canada & USA: £14.95

All other locations: £19.95

____________________________

Order value over £40 and up to £60

Europe: £14.95

Canada & USA: £29.95

All other locations: £29.95

____________________________

Order value over £60 and up to £120

Europe: £19.95

Canada & USA: £34.95

All other locations: £39.95

____________________________

Order value over £120

Europe: £24.95

Canada & USA: £39.95

All other locations: £49.95

Please allow at least 5-7 working days to receive after we have dispatched, subject to Customs clearance. For delivery updates relating to your country, we suggest checking with their bulletin boards:  

Spain 

Italy 

Germany 

USA 

Canada 

Australia 

All other countries  

Delivery estimates exclude Custom Prints (those which are customised by choosing a size and frame) gift membership and preorders. These are subject to their own delivery terms. 

Working days exclude weekends and public holidays.

European customers: We are unfortunately unable to ship food and perishable goods any longer. If your order is affected, we'll email you to ask how you would like to proceed with your order. 

If you are ordering goods for delivery outside the UK you may be subject to local import duties and taxes, which are payable by the
customer and not by Royal Museums Greenwich. These are set by the destination country and may vary by weight and/or order value.

From 1st January 2021 this will include orders destined for EU countries. If you have any queries relating to custom charges and what these may be, we suggest contacting the customs authority of the destination country for help.

In the event of charges remaining unpaid, and/or an order remaining unclaimed, a refund will be given when the order arrives back at
Royal Museums Greenwich. The time this takes will be dependent on the local customs authority, and a refund of the original shipping charge unfortunately cannot be given.

The following advice we’ve put together to help illustrate new charges is for illustrative purposes only, and is not to be taken as a guarantee of any charges that may be levied to allow you to import your order.

The charges you may be asked to pay will be made up of all or part of:

Import VAT – a percentage (%) charge, usually similar to the VAT in the destination country, and is applicable on the total value and any Import Duty.

Import Duty – a percentage (%) charge on the declared value. This depends on the type of goods and their origin.

Clearance Fee - an administration charge to cover the costs of, for example, additional handling, administration, collection of monies.

To illustrate the new charges our EU customers may be asked to pay after 1st January 2021, we’ve compiled our best-selling items below. We must stress, these are estimates only, using guidance on local tax provided by the European Commission, and Harmonised (HS) Tariff Code examples, provided by our courier Parcelforce (though Royal Mail may hand your order to a local courier to deliver). We do not guarantee, nor will we be able to pay, any charges levied by your local authority or postal service to import your order.

We unfortunately can’t provide individual assistance with customs matters, but may be able to provide individual HS Tariff Codes for our other items. Please contact us using the contact form and we will do our best to help. 

From 29th August 2025, the United States Government has announced a new Executive Order which outlines significant changes to customs obligations and processes for goods being imported into the USA. From this date, the duty-free threshold (‘de minimis’) of USD $800 will be removed and replaced by tariffs (duties).

How this affects your order:

Royal Museums Greenwich will continue selling to the U.S, shipping via FedEx DAP (Delivered At Place). When  you place your order, you will be charged at checkout for your order total and shipping cost. As per our existing import duties and tax policy, applicable import duties, taxes, and
customs processing fees are payable by you (the customer/receiver) and not by Royal Museums Greenwich. These fees will be handled by FedEx who will contact you to collect the fees before delivery. Royal Museums Greenwich will provide all required information to ensure accurate customs classification and a smooth process.

Required duties will be based on:

• An item’s value and,
• The country-based tariff rate
  (country of manufacture, not country of shipping).

For example, for a $100 item:

• If the product is made in China (30% tariff rate), the estimated duty payable: $30
• If the product is made in the UK (10% tariff rate), the estimated duty payable: $10

Note: These are estimates for illustrative purposes only. FedEx will provide the final amount based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing.

If you wish to calculate the potential required duty for your order, please contact us using the contact
form and we will provide information on an items country of origin. We unfortunately cannot provide individual assistance with customs matters. We endeavour to update our product descriptions with the relevant product origin information in time.

Please be aware these new changes may result in some delay to shipping times. Thank you for your continued trust and support. If you have any questions about these changes or how they may affect your orders, please don’t hesitate to contact us

What is the GPSR? 

The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) aims to enhance the safety of consumer products sold across the European Union (EU) and Northern Ireland (NI), providing greater protection for consumers. It requires businesses like ours to meet stricter safety, documentation, and labelling requirements for any items we send to EU/NI customers. 

What Does This Mean for Our Service? 

Royal Museums Greenwich now offers a selection of products for purchase for customers based in the EU/NI. These products are certified to comply with the requirements of GPSR. Unfortunately, not every product we stock will be available to our EU/NI customers. We are continuing to work on expanding the available range.

We have established a dedicated EU/NI storefront which you may be redirected to depending on where in the world you access our store, your shipping location, and/or selected currency.

Thank you for your continued trust and support. If you have any questions about these changes or how they may affect your order, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

If you have pre-ordered an item, this will be sent when we receive stock. If you have ordered additional items, these will be sent at the same time as the pre-ordered item(s) in one order. If you would like your additional items sooner, please email us using the contact form as we can dispatch your additional items for an additional shipping charge.

If you need your order before our stated delivery timescales, or to discuss a click and collect requirement from one of our museums then please contact ususing the contact form. and we will do our best to help you (excluding Custom Prints, as these are handmade to order and take longer to prepare, and some items that are shipped direct by our suppliers).

If an item is out of stock we will email you with details as to when we expect the stock to be in.

Our normal delivery time scale may be delayed by severe weather, industrial action or other issues beyond our control. We will contact you if anything will delay your delivery.

You can cancel your order at any point in the order process for a full refund. Please email us using the contact form, and we will acknowledge the cancellation. If we have already dispatched your items, you have 14 days to please return the goods to us from the acknowledgement of cancellation date.

An extended returns window is granted for purchases over the Christmas period. Orders placed from Saturday 1 November 2025 can be returned until Saturday 31 January 2026, subject to our usual eligibility criteria.

For all returns, please contact us as soon as possible using the contact form, expressing your wish to return. Please wait for confirmation from one of our team before returning.

We hope you will be pleased with your purchase. Should you wish to return anything bought from us, we will be happy to refund or exchange a product provided it is in fully resellable condition. Returns should be made within a reasonable time (28 days) and in original, undamaged packaging.

Unfortunately we cannot offer a free returns service, or refund your shipping charge.

If returning an item from outside of the UK, please wait until you have received an email from us advising how to return so we can make arrangements for any customs and duties required to return. 

Under new safety measures, returns will be held for 3 working days before handling. Please see our FAQs for more information on changes made due to Coronavirus.

Our policies have been updated to comply with the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. This section sets out your rights to return an item, or cancel an order under defined circumstances.

We recommend the goods are returned by recorded delivery so that you have proof of postage, as we cannot accept responsibility for goods lost in transit. You must cover the delivery cost for returning unwanted goods.

The goods must be returned in their original packaging, stating the reason for the return.

Please return to:
Royal Museums Greenwich Online Shop, National Maritime Museum, Park Row, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF

The goods must be returned to us before we can action a refund. We will not be responsible for the cost of returning the goods to us unless they are faulty or delivered to you in error. A refund of the delivery costs you have incurred when returning the goods to us, no greater than the original delivery charge, will be given in the instance of incorrect, damaged or faulty goods.

You may also return goods by bringing them, with your order reference number, to any of our shops. A refund will be processed within seven working days of the branch receiving the goods.

We are unable to offer a refund or exchange on the following products unless they are faulty:

• Custom Prints (those where size and frame is customisable), as these are made to order
• Goods made to your specification (including personalised clothing)
• Perishable goods such as food or drinks
• Pierced jewellery
• CDs, DVDs, Tapes or other recorded media
• Digital Products and Online Learning Courses

Please contact us in the first instance of your watch not working as expected by using the contact form.

Our watches have complex workings and from time to time may require the attention of a watchmaker. Once we have received your email, we will advise the best course of action for your timepiece. It is important you contact us first, as every case is different. We may be unable to accept a watch for repair if sent to us without prior confirmation to send.