Visit Greenwich Blogger

Royal Celebration Weekend

31 January 2012
Gosh, what an exciting few days we've got coming up as Greenwich celebrates its shiny, new Royal status this coming weekend with fireworks, outdoor entertainment and a grand parade. Greenwich has even got a new Royal crest for the occasion - look!

The declaration of Royal Borough status for Greenwich is one of the first actions to mark the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and comes into effect on 3 February 2012 when Woolwich kicks off the weekend with a firework finale to a celebration party in the town centre.

Nearby Eltham, also a part of what will be the Royal Borough of Greenwich, gets in on the act on Saturday with a full day of events and jollity, culminating in some more oohs and aahs as the fireworks get under way again.

Sunday night sees a spectacular closing event in our own World Heritage Site with outdoor entertainment, a grand parade and an even more spectacular skyfull of fireworks. The Grand Royal Parade will be snaking its way through Greenwich town centre at 5.30pm, filled with lanterns, golden carriages and about a thousand, willing walkers, carriers and wheelers. Starting at the National Maritime Museum the golden carriaged, lantern-led throng will eventually fetch up in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College for a splendid riverside denouement.

The award of Royal status recognises the historically close links forged between Greenwich and the royal family from the Middle Ages to the present day. It also recognises Greenwich's global significance as the home of the Prime Meridian, Greenwich Mean Time and its status as a World Heritage Site. Greenwich joins the three existing Royal Boroughs - Kensington & Chelsea, Windsor & Maidenhead and Kingston.

So come along in your best red, white and blue and hip hip hoorah with the best of them this weekend when Greenwich gets the bubbly out.

Find out more about the Royal crest here and check the times for this weekend's events here.

Ship in a Bottle

9 January 2012
The National Maritime Museum would like to get their hands on this fantastic and enormous ship in a bottle and, frankly, who can blame them?

Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, as it's properly known, is by Yinka Shonibare MBE and it's been on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square since May 2010. It's being removed this month and the National Maritime Museum and the Art Fund are raising funds to try and buy it and put it on permanent display in Greenwich, which is a brilliant idea.

The artwork was the first commission for the fourth plinth that deliberately reflected the history of it's surroundings - Trafalgar Square was built to commemmorate Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. It's also the first commission by a black British artist. The ship has 37 sails made of brightly coloured fabric, patterned with African designs, which is the artist's signature material and the work, as a whole "considers the complexity of British expansion in trade and Empire, made possible through the freedom of the seas that Nelson’s victory provided." Well, that's what the Mayor's office say anyway, and they ought to know.

Dr Kevin Fewster, director of the National Maritime Museum, said: "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle is a superb work of art which has delighted Londoners and international visitors. We feel that Greenwich would be the perfect home for this outstanding piece of work, which chimes so brilliantly with the stories we tell through our museum's unique collections."

We say yes please - giant ships in giant bottles are definitely a good thing and we want one. If you'd like to help stack up the £362,500 that it's going to cost, you can follow the intsructions above or donate via the Museum's website and, hopefully, you'll be able to see this splendid piece of work in Greenwich very soon.

Cutty Sark

13 December 2011
After more than five years of renovation and re-building Cutty Sark finally got her masts back this weekend, in another step towards  re-opening in 2012.

Specialists began work on the ship early on Saturday morning and the final mast slotted into place on Sunday under leaden skies. The masts were initially removed as part of the wholesale renovation of the entire ship, which is now coming to a conclusion. They had, fortunately, already been taken down when work on the ship was interrupted by a fire which broke out on board in May 2007.

Luckily for all of us, all the deck furniture and about half the deck planking had already been taken off as well and the fire damage, although severe, wasn't nearly as bad as was first thought. Dramatic pictures, which appeared at the time, seemed to show the entire ship ablaze and led many to believe that the conservation project was triggered by the fire. In fact, the fire was probably caused by an industrial vaccuum cleaner that had been left on during the conservation work.

Anyway, that work is whizzing along and, although it's still a building site right now, Cutty Sark Trust plan to have the ship ready for visitors by Easter next year. During the conservation Cutty Sark has been raised by just over three metres and a glass structure is being built all around the ship that will roof in the space below.

Visitors will be able to see the hull which helped the ship become one of the fastest Clippers of her day from below, an angle normally reserved for ship-builders and fish. There will be an exhibition area and cafe here too - you can see the glass-work in the pictures, and find out more about how it might look underneath the roof on the Cutty Sark website.

Having the masts back is an important moment for Cutty Sark and for anyone who lives in, or visits Greenwich. Anyone can imagine, now, what the ship will look like next year when all the work is finished, and the rest of the masts, rigging and all the other sea-going bits and pieces that I don't know the names for are back in place.

If I was a big fat softie, I'd say that it feels like this famous old ship has been on a long, long journey to faraway places, but now the crests on the surf are feathering her wake as she finally, gratefully, nears her home port. But I'm not. So I won't.

Greenwich Christmas Lights

Deck the Halls
7 December 2011
Christmas arrived in Greenwich last week when the local children's lantern parade set off for Greenwich Market and the switching on of the Christmas lights by the panto cast from Greenwich Theatre and a special CBeebies star guest.

Local schoolchildren made the lanterns themselves, in workshops with children's art specialists and all round good guys Arty Party, and gathered outside Discover Greenwich in the chilly pre-dusk last Wednesday afternoon, ready for the off.

Then, led off by some splendid stampy crashing, drum and glockenspiel from the Sea Cadet band, the illuminated parade headed off through the Old Royal Naval College and snaked out of the main gates into the early evening commuter traffic, which was grumpily held up at the pass by friendly Greenwich police.

The bobbing lanterns, accompanied by mums and dads, stewards and more friendly police officers, turned round through the town centre and headed into Greenwich Market, already packed with more mums and dads, surprised shoppers, curious dogs and buggies. Millions and millions of buggies. There were buggies everywhere - I began to wonder if you were allowed in without one.

More and more little lantern bearers gradually moved in until it looked as if no one else could fit but, after an appeal from the makeshift stage, the buggies and their owners reluctantly gave ground and everybody found a place. A man in a Santa hat came on stage and introduced the star guest - CBeebies Sarah-Jane Honeywell, known to children all over the nation but not, sadly, to me.

She was brilliant though, as were the cast of Aladdin, from Greenwich Theatre, who joined her in the lead-up to switching on the Christmas lights which, after a tense and noisy countdown, sprung into electric life, sparkling and shining festively.

The lantern-bearers gradually slipped away now, as the buggies formed an inpenetratable barrier of solid metal, glittering and flashing in the seasonal illuminations, as they patiently queued to see Santa.

The Market stayed open with Santa and carollers keeping browsers happy until 7.00pm. We all had a very nice time. Greenwich Market, by the way, is open every day until Christmas, if you'd like to come and see just how festive it feels. Fa la la la la.

Greenwich Autumn Sun

21 November 2011
What a beautiful weekend we've just had. I went for a walk around Greenwich Park and took these artistic pictures to make you jealous. The park was full of falling leaves, dogs chasing sticks, stary Canada geese and thieving squirrels.

Yes, stary geese. The geese in the park are quite used to people coming up close but, just occasionally, they don't like it so much and they stare. At you. This is when to move quietly away. Quite quickly.

The thieving squirrels, on the other hand, don't leave you alone - especially at this time of year when they're storing up their loot for the winter. I've pointed this out before, but it's worth mentioning again that they are thieves and villains, the lot of them. And gosh there are a lot of them in the Park, particularly around the Wilderness where the deer live. That area is well protected from predators and don't they know it.

Up they come, playing the scampery cute card with all their might, in the hope that you've got some food they can nick. Frequently, if you're foolish enough to give one a nut, which I sensibly never am, his furry little buddy will scrabble up your leg in an attempt to half-inch the entire bag.

You can have some fun, though, if you pretend to have something in your hand, wait till the little robber is a foot away and then show him there's nothing there. He will be OUTRAGED. Literally open-mouthed at the very idea that you've had the gall to trick him. Generally he backs off at this point mumbling squirrel curses and spitting on your shadow as he goes. It's great.

So, if you go and see the deer, which I recommend, and you get mugged on the way by these little criminals, don't say I didn't warn you. Don't be fooled by the fluffy tails and furry cuteness. Remember this - thieves and villains. Thieves. And. Villains.