Thursday 29 June 2017

Guildford Grove will be a play street this Saturday


From 12 noon to 6pm on Saturday 1st July, Guildford Grove will be for children to play in. It will be closed to cars, except that if you live there you can drive to or from your house at walking speed. 
Parents can come out and socialise and enjoy the space along with their children. There will be chalks and possibly a face painter. Otherwise it's up to parents and children what they want to do. 


The individual initiative of Oana Agheorghiesei, who lives in Guildford Grove, has made this happen, by taking up Greenwich Borough's Street Play project. It's not an ATA event. More information from oana.agh@gmail.com

She says, 'Here are the websites that explain what the initiative is all about: londonplay.org.uk or playingout.net''

Good going, Oana!

Tuesday 27 June 2017

Alfege needlework panels on show now

Jesus preaches from a boat on the Thames, with Revd Chris Moody far left
Four large and beautiful needlework panels showing stories from the bible, but set in present-day Greenwich, are on display in St Alfege Church until 9th July. Opening hours: 
11am-4pm weekdays
10am-4pm Saturday
12noon-4pm Sunday.

The Last Supper takes place in the Admiral Hardy pub.

Jesus calls Zaccheus from the rigging of the Cutty Sark, with Canary Wharf in the background.

The reception for the Marriage at Cana happens on the green outside St Alfege Church.

Jesus preaches from a boat on the Thames, with the Revd Chris Moody, Vicar of St Alfege, depicting St Peter at the tiller. Other St Alfege's members also feature.


The panels were started in 2011 to mark the millennium of the death of Alfege, beaten to death by Danish raiders in 1012. Captured and held to ransom for an enormous sum of money, he refused to allow it to be paid. He was later canonised and the church in Greenwich built to commemorate his martyrdom.

The panels have been created by members of St Alfege Church, of the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, and by other people from Greenwich and its surrounds.  

The panels are set in triangular frames and can be displayed together or separately. They are intended for use by schools, churches etc, and to be displayed on a changing basis in a variety of locations in Greenwich. For more information please contact office@st-alfege.org.uk or telephone 020 8853 0687. 

Sunday 25 June 2017

Swifts and bats in the Triangle

Mick Delap writes:

It's spring. And the Triangle swifts are back (four seen overhead). But how many will there be all told this year? And will they nest under the Davy's Wine Store eves again? I will be watching out - to see if there is anything more we can do to help this severely endangered, but gloriously exciting, Triangle resident.

I have also seen what for me is a new Triangle species - bats hawking in the dusk over our Egerton Drive garden. Do other gardens have regular sightings of bats, or is this a new arrival? All thoughts and observations gratefully received.
mick@delap.plus.com

The RSPB says:
Where and when to see swifts:
In the sky in summer, April to August, often very high. They never perch on wires like swallows. Towards dusk you might see excited screaming parties of them careering madly at high speed around rooftops and houses, often low.
What they eat: Flying insects and airborne spiders.
www.rspb.org.uk

The Bat Conservation Trust says:
Food: A common pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 tiny insects in a single night! You can help provide food for bats by planting a wildlife friendly garden.
How do bats catch their prey in the dark?
Bats are not blind, but at night their ears are more important than their eyes. As they fly, they make shouting sounds. The return echoes tell them about anything ahead of them, including the size, shape, and direction of an insect. This is echolocation - locating things by their echoes.
Flying: Bats are the only mammal that can truly fly (rather than glide). www.bats.org.uk

Street party date September 16th


This year's street party will be on Saturday September 16th, neatly clashing with one day of Open House weekend, but missing OnBlackheath, which is on 9th/10th weekend.

The street party is held in Ashburnham Retreat, usually called the Play Street, next to the Ashburnham Arms, Ashburnham Grove SE10 8UH, from 1pm to 7pm.

We hope that one new feature of the street party will be a Triangle history tent, where photographs of the Triangle in the past will be shown, and where anyone interested in the local history archive can find out about how to take part.

And no need to wait for the street party for that - have a look at the archive via the History button on the Home page of the ATA website and tell Mick Delap or Tom Webb what you think of it. They'd also like you to let them know if you have any information to add to the archive, like people's reminiscences, or historical documents like original house deeds or past census returns for your house.

www.ashburnhamtriangle.com
mick@delap.plus.com
thos.webb@gmail.com

Friday 23 June 2017

Consultation on proposal to reconfigure the Guildford Arms

Residents are invited by the owners of the Guildford Arms to consult their plans for a reconfiguration of the pub and proposal to reinstate No. 61 Devonshire Drive. The plans will be available to view on Saturday 8th of July between 10:00 and 12:00 at the Guildford Arms, 55 Guildford Grove, SE10 8JY

Any questions ahead of this consultation or after, please contact our Planning Hub Rep Simon Barrs at si_barrs@hotmail.com

Thursday 22 June 2017

Dawn's garden is open in the Triangle this weekend, 24th/25th


In Dawn's garden

Open Gardens Festival

It's the turn of Greenwich gardens to open this weekend, and we have a Triangle garden in the list for the first time. Artist Dawn Harverson has joined the effort to raise funds for the Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, whose website says: 

1 Egerton Drive
Greenwich SE10 8JS
Dawn Harverson – 24th & 25th
A formal Italian style garden with box hedging, clipped yew and olive trees. There is a wide variety of plants in the borders and a large circular pond. The garden has been designed and planted by the artist owner and has evolved over 30 years. 

Other gardens are open in Crooms Hill, Hyde Vale, West Grove, Egerton Drive, Dartmouth Row, Park Row, Park Vista, and Restell Close (Westland Woodlands, off Vanbrugh Hill). The Prior Street allotments are also joining in, and there are one or two more gardens in Charlton and Woolwich.
In Dawn's garden



Some gardens have refreshments
Single garden ticket: £3
Ticket for all gardens for the weekend: £10, which can be bought on the day from any garden
Details from www.communityhospice.org.uk or info@gbch.org.uk or 020 8319 9230




Wednesday 21 June 2017

Festival and Armed Forces Day, 24th June




The Royal Borough of Greenwich's Great Get Together festival is combined with Armed Forces Day at the Royal Artillery Barracks Field, Repository Road, Woolwich, SE18 4BB on Saturday 24th June, 11am-6pm, or 1100-1800 hours, depending on which website you check:

www.armedforcesday.org.uk
www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/greatgettogether

Attractions include:
  • live bands and community performance
  • the Tigers Parachute Team
  • the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery 
  • animal shows 
  • have-a-go activities including cartoon workshops
  • giant inflatables and laser tag
  • funfair rides, stalls and food court
  • historical re-enactment
  • veterans' parade
  • healthy living zone and sports try-out sessions
  • under 5s area including 'baby rave'
  • information on local services and groups.

Tuesday 20 June 2017

GDIF opens Friday 23rd June



FierS à Cheval

Greenwich + Docklands International Festival opens this Friday, 23rd June, 6pm.

At 10pm in Cutty Sark gardens, there'll be a team of illuminated white horses (pictured) from Compagnie des Quidams. 

All over the weekend of 23rd/24th/25th in central Greenwich there'll be outdoor theatre, art, circus, games. 

Venues are: 
Cutty Sark gardens
Old Royal Naval College grounds
Greenwich park (some at the top of the park)
Greenwich town centre (car free on Sunday).

GDIF has more happening at other venues between Thursday 22nd June and Saturday 8th July: in Canary Wharf, in Woolwich, in Eltham, in Thamesmead, and on Greenwich Peninsula  

festival.org@GDIFestival



Saturday 17 June 2017

Rummaging in Triangle history


‘It was a lovely event,’ said people who went to the launch of the ATA local history archive last Saturday, 10th June. 

It certainly brought us together - the entire front part of the Ash and one side of it was packed with people to hear Mick Delap talk Triangle history, and see Tom Webb show pictures of our streets in times past. 


Mick and Tom are the team that have put together a digital archive of local historical facts which we can now all access.


After the talk, the walk: Neil Sinclair led everyone off round the Triangle to show the spots of historical note. Both talk and walk happened twice over, because a 60-strong audience couldn't squeeze into the part of the pub where they could see the screen. Pepi did well to make room for about 40 for the first sitting - and nearly everyone was indeed sitting. The overspill session was more relaxed with about 20 people. 

We were all surprised to discover from Mick how many firsts the locality’s history can boast:
* 1862 first of Bazalgette’s new-style pumping stations – for the sewers
* 1887 first petrol-engined vehicle
* 1891 first industrial-scale power station, which lit Greenwich High Road, which in
* 1891 probably made Greenwich High Road the world’s first electrically-lit street.

We learnt, among other things, that our houses were built for 'good class working people', according to Charles Booth. Our predecessors worked at Merryweather’s fire-engine factory, William Penn’s marine steam-engine factory, in other industries, and on the Greenwich Railway and Thames steamers. That was from mid-C19th on - no houses in the Triangle before that, only gardens. But the boundary roads were ancient routes, forming the same triangle shape for thousands of years.

Neil's walk complemented Mick's talk. Neil showed us, among other things:

* where the bombed houses on the event poster had been (in Greenwich High Road)
* where the practice rooms had been where David Bowie developed Ziggy Stardust (in South Street)
* the house where Bowie's costume designer Natasha Kornilof lived (in Egerton Drive)
* the pub where Natasha took the Supremes (the Guildford Arms)
* a hidden Tudor marker stone for the edge of the Queen Elizabeth's College alms houses estate
* the house where Charles Dickens's father and brother lived (in Egerton Drive)
the house of the inventor of the first petrol car, Edward Butler (in Ashburnham Place).

This and other historical information is in the new archive accessed via the History button on the ATA website. The archive is in Excel with instructions on how to navigate it, although Tom and Mick feel the ease of search needs improvement. Tom says he’ll be happy to give a lesson on searching the archive, if there’s a demand. 

Mick and Tom are keen for feedback. Do the history pages work for you? What do you like/dislike about them? Have you any family stories, photos, or other historical data to add? They are also looking for volunteers to help them turn this data into stories. If you'd like to do a bit of Hilary-Mantelery, now's your chance. Contact Mick at mick@delap.plus.com or Tom at thos.webb@gmail.com