Carol Singing - Monday, December 18th

 

Carol singing on December 18th

This year’s Christmas Carol singing starts on Monday, December 18th with roasted chestnuts at the Ashburnham Arms at 6.15pm. All welcome. 

Ashburnham Triangle Association AGM

The Ashburnham Triangle Association is having its AGM on Thursday 16 November at 7:00pm in the Ashburnham Arms.  It's expected to last no more than an hour.  All welcome. 

Breast Cancer Awareness

 

Security panel update

The SNT ward panel met on Tuesday 10 October. The ward are currently looking for new members from all areas of Greenwich Park and Greenwich Creekside wards. If you are interested, please attend the next meeting on Tuesday 23rd January at Armada Court Community Hall, SE8 3EZ.

Local crime statistic are available at https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/greenwich/greenwich-west/about-us/top-reported-crimes-in-this-area

See below for a brief lowdown on the main issues recently in each ward:

Creekside

- Street robberies and phone snatches along Creek Road. The robberies happen throughout the day and cover Creek Road, Millennium Quay, New Capital Quay, Town Centre and areas around Greenwich Park and High Road. Ongoing operations in the area to tackle this - plain clothes officers patrol. Some arrests have been made. Police attended Freshers week and have been working with the university to assist students with the personal safety.

Park Ward

- Robbery issue (phones snatches). Council have advised that approx 20 sites have been identified for opavement marking to warn pedestrians but funding needed to complete this. 

- Some homeless have been causing issues and the police are working to identify them but they are not always willing to engage. Have been offered support and help but not always accepted. Council are working to locate sleep sites.

- A male with mental health issues has been causing issues in shops. Police aware and have started dealing with him. 

- Greenwich Park and National Maritime Museum- main focus is robberies and phone snatches spilling into park. Less than town centre etc. Royal Park Police have done work to deter robbers from entering the park. Bike speeding issue remains. Royal Parks Police intervene with vehicles that aren’t road legal.

- Shoplifting is becoming more of a problem in the area (supermarkets, Boots)

Ashburnham Triangle specific

- Incident with dog biting child on Catherine Grove. Male arrested and charged.

- Dog destroyed. Dogs should remain on leads in Greenwich on public roads.

- Issues with other dogs in the area that police are aware of. XL bully legislation not changed yet. Ownership of these dogs to be confirmed in future. SNT have liaised with Status Dog Unit within MET.

AOB

Autumn Nights- Halloween etc- specific patrols around events. Start 21 October, certain red days (Halloween period, Guy Fawkes). Will be patrolling local neighbourhoods. Can try to target certain areas/times/places if information sent. 

- Licensing has contacted shops about selling fireworks, inspections being made.

- Licensing producing a list of shops allowed to sell them. May be recommending hiding eggs/flour. 

- 24th October 1830 Armada Court Community Centre Housing Panel

75 Ashburnham Grove meeting

A meeting has been arranged to discuss the development at 75 Ashburnham Grove.

• Wednesday 11th October, 2023
• Time: 7 pm
• Location: St Mark's Church Centre, 22 Greenwich South Street, SE10 8TY

This will be an opportunity for residents to ask questions, learn more about the project and meet the housing team at RBG and Noble Tree.

The 2023 ATA Street Party is on Saturday

A reminder that this year's ATA Street Party is in the Ashburnham Retreat on Saturday, September 23rd and the fun starts at 1pm. The weather forecast is good!

75 Ashburnham Grove update

IMPORTANT MEETING: Tuesday, 12 September 12th 6.30 pm Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich

A decision will be made on the retrospective Planning Application for the conversion of 75 Ashburnham Grove (formerly a hostel for 11 residents) into 26 self-contained flats to be let as “supported accommodation” for 26 vulnerable adults and up to 17 infants. 

If you are concerned, please attend the meeting. To read the report and agenda go to http://committees.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

ATA Street Party 2023 is on Saturday, September 23rd

 

New Chair and Secretary required

The Ashburnham Triangle Association is looking for a new chair and secretary to lead the ATA's local events and provide support in organising the annual ATA Street Party.

Would you be interested in getting involved?

Our Annual general meeting will be in October (TBD) if you would like to find out more.  Please email our current Chair if you'd like to attend or put your name forward for one of the vacant positions.

Greenwich Open Studios 2023

Greenwich Open Studios was founded in 1978. For two weekends every year the individual studios of artists who live and work in Greenwich are open to the public. With exception of the lockdown year of 2020, it has been an annual event which profiles the very best of visual art in Greenwich.

​This year's Greenwich Open Studios will take place on Sat/Sun 9/10th September and Sat/Sun 16/17th September. 

29 artists will be taking part this year and leaflets with details will be coming through your door at the end of August. You can find the leaflet here.

Local Ashburnham Triangle residents Jenny Bailey & Caroline Nuttall-Smith will be showing their ceramics with four other members at Greenwich Park Centre, Main Hall, King George Street SE10 8QB. 

ATA History talk

The next ATA history group talk will be on Thursday 17 August at 7.30 in West Greenwich Library. Please come along and find out about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who in 1931 exposed the famine in Ukraine and was murdered in 1935 aged 29. Our speaker is Triangle resident Matt Ginn.   

There are two connections with Greenwich. Jones’s aunt and biographer Margaret Siriol Colley worked at the Greenwich Seamen’s hospital during her career as a doctor and as a child our speaker, Matt Ginn, met the very elderly sister of Gareth Jones. She spoke to him about her mother’s time in the Ukrainian town of Hugheskova.  

Planning Matters

The ATA has been advised that a planning application is being heard at the next Planning Board Meeting on Tuesday, 18th July 2023 at 6.30pm regarding the former Greenwich Magistrates Court (including rear car park), 7-9 Blackheath Road & 2 Greenwich High Road. The meeting is open to the public and is being streamed live on the Council’s website https://royalgreenwich.public-i.tv/core/portal/home. The agenda and the reports for the meeting, and the relevant procedural information, can be found at http://committees.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

We've also been notified that a retrospective planning application has been made for a change of use from a former hostel at 75 Ashburnham Grove to supported accommodation for vulnerable individuals. More details at https://planning.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/online-applications/files/010702428A50691C164F9D8D251AD007/pdf/23_2275_F-PLANNING_AND_HERITAGE_STATEMENT-945894.pdf or the full documentation can be sourced here.

Swifts in the Triangle

It’s Midsummer – and the Greenwich swifts are back in town. In good numbers this year.  These extraordinary birds nest in tight colonies under the eaves of suitable buildings. Extraordinary because, apart from nesting, they literally live the rest of their lives in the air, eating, drinking, mating, even sleeping, all on the wing,  and all at great speed.   And you can see all this happening in and over the nesting colony up in the eaves of Davy’s Wine Shop,  on the corner of Greenwich High Road and Kay Way  (by the red telephone booth).  The swifts come back from Africa every year for 3 months, to breed here.   Their numbers in the UK have fallen heavily over the last ten to fifteen years.   So this year’s relative abundance of occupied nests in the Davy’s colony,  and the size of the immature parties of non-breeders,  the “Screamers”, is good news.  

 

From now till the end of June and through July, the parent swifts will be incubating eggs,  and feeding the hatched fledglings on the insects they catch on the wing. When they have a full load, individual parent birds shoot back up into their nests  at speed.  Then, after feeding their young, they drop down into the air,  and power off again.  They are so quick, you have to focus hard to catch them.  But this year there are enough occupied nests at Davy’s to mean there’s movement into or out of a nest every few minutes.  

 

Meanwhile, at various times of the day – late mornings seem good – the non breeders gather in small groups, or sometimes larger parties,  and screech and scream close past  the nests,  without entering them, barrelling and twisting just overhead.  These “screamers” were born here last year or the year before,  and aren’t yet ready to mate .  They have already made at least one journey down to Southern Africa,  and one back.  But some will have done this two or even three times. Amazingly, they won’t have touched ground the whole time.  Watch out for the screaming parties above Davy’s in July, as they test out the nests, and the Greenwich skies,  ahead of becoming parents themselves back in Greenwich next year or the year after.  When they will finally, briefly, fall out of the sky.  And if you do manage to see the action, wish both parents and screamers well in the first half of August, as they leave Greenwich, and head off back to Africa. 

Local Security Update

The SNT ward panel met on Tuesday 23 May.

The ward are currently looking for new members from all areas of Greenwich Park and Greenwich Creekside wards. 

 

Local crime statistic are available at https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/greenwich/greenwich-west/about-us/top-reported-crimes-in-this-area

 

See below for a brief lowdown on the main issues recently in each ward:

 

Creekside- Street robberies and phone snatches along Creek Road. The robberies happen throughout the day and cover Creek Road, Millennium Quay, New Capital Quay, Town Centre and areas around Greenwich Park and High Road. Ongoing operations in the area to tackle this

 

Park ward- robbery issue (phones snatches), violent crime (drugs related near town centre), distraction burglaries 

Re. Distraction burglaries, please try to raise awareness of this issues elderly/vulnerable residents (friends, neighbours, family). Individuals may approach addresses with high vis and attempt to gain access by saying they have noticed an issue. 

- Bike thefts continue

- Graffiti in the colonnades and in the cycle route at ORNC

- Recent car thefts in area reported, particularly of VW and Alfa Romeo cars

Ashburnham Triangle- There was a recent robbery in broad daylight in the area. Male was followed home from the DLR during the day and was robbed at knife point on his doorstep. SNT officers have looked into the investigation and are going to visit the victim.

 

Our local SNT officer is PC Jaime Welch who is supported by PCSO AK.

Buy a second-hand bike and get cycling!

You can buy a bike for just £40 if you live in Royal Greenwich and are in receipt of benefits such as Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or Child Tax Credit. Please bring official proof along with photo ID. You can buy a quality, serviced second-hand bike on Saturday 20 May between 10am and 4pm at Morrisons in Thamesmead.

Dementia Action Week 2023

This week is Dementia Action Week and you can read more about dementia and local support available here. 

The local Dementia Reference Group are also hosting a local event to mark the week (apologies for the short notice). All are welcome on Friday 19th May 2023 from 11am - 3pm at Greenwich Centre Library, 12 Lambard Square, Greenwich, SE10 9HB

The event will consist of activities such as the magic table, community art demonstrations,  brain health activities, information stalls, dementia-inclusive businesses, an award ceremony and refreshments.

For any questions please contact Angelika, Dementia Action Co-ordinator, by e-mail angelika.welzel-connolly@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

Ewan Hooper

Ewan Hooper, a  much loved and long-standing resident of the Ashburnham Triangle and a stalwart in the early days of the Ashburnham Triangle Association, died in April. 

Ewan was a well known actor producer and director with parts in many films, including the priest in Dracula has Risen from the Grave, and in plays on stage and radio. He was best known in the Triangle as the moving spirit behind the founding of the Ashburnham Triangle Association in 1975/6, and as a regular attendee of St Marks church. Earlier, he had been the force behind the redevelopment of Greenwich Theatre, which reopened in 1969. 

He was a close friend to Max Wall, who regularly played at Greenwich, and became chairman of the Max Wall Society.  As further evidence of his commitment to local theatre, in 1971 he was involved in setting up the Greenwich Young People's Theatre in Burrage Road. Here he came across the disused Woolwich Tramshed, and suggested to Greenwich Council it be developed as a theatre.

After the ATA had been revived in 2006, in recognition of his many and various local contributions, he was asked to become the ATA's Chair Emeritus, and accepted.  

We offer our condolences to Ewan's family.

The next ATA history group talk

A reminder that the next ATA history group talk is on Nikolay Ogarev (1813 - 1877), a Russian poet, historian and political activist who spent the last years of his life living in Ashburnham Place. Our speaker Joe Fean will be sharing his fascinating research on Ogarev’s life with us. 

The title of the talk is The Tragedy of My Life: a comedy in five acts.  It will take place in West Greenwich Library on Thursday 18 May at 7.30pm

Spring Plant Swap

 

Our Safer Neighbourhoods Team

The Safer Neighbourhoods Team ward panel met on Tuesday 14 March. 

The ward are currently looking for new members from all areas of Greenwich Park and Greenwich Creekside wards. 

The panel is also searching for a new Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. Please do let us know if you are interested in any of the positions.

The next SNT meeting will be on 23 May at 1830 in St Alfege’s Church Hall.

Local crime statistic are available at https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/greenwich/greenwich-west/about-us/top-reported-crimes-in-this-area

Are you interested in the history of your house?

House History Workshop

Saturday 25th March - 1:45 to 4:30pm at the Trafalgar Road Forum, Greenwich

Interested in researching the history of your house? When was it built? Who has lived there and what were their lives like?

Bring your laptop perhaps and any information you may already have found. The Greenwich Society hopse to be able to learn and share stories together with the help and advice from some expert researchers.

* Julian Watson, retired Local History Librarian for Greenwich has a wealth of knowledge about how the town developed.

* Ellen Lesley is a heritage consultant and historian and

* Angie Birkett, who lived for many years in Greenwich, now works as a professional genealogist.

Book early to secure your place as numbers will be limited. You can book through the Greenwich Society at https://greenwichsociety.org.uk/Events/

£15 for members, £20 for non members.

Ashburnham Triangle Carol Singing for Shelter

Resident Janet Stott writes

On December 19th at 6 pm we met at the Ashburnham Arms for chestnuts, mince pies and mulled wine. There was a very good turnout kids and adults alike. The weather looked like rain but everyone cheerfully set out and we sang carols round the Triangle with great gusto. Children rattled collecting boxes  and the residents generously put their money in. We got back to the pub just in time to avoid a downpour. Pepina at the Ash was ready with drinks, shepherds pie and a vegetarian option. An unusually high number squeezed in for the Christmas Quiz that Barbara Reid had prepared.  Pepina provided the food at cost with the rest of the proceeds going to Shelter, there was a small charge to enter the Quiz and the ATA residents made up the rest of the collection which amounted to £347.  

2023 Gardening begins

Our ATA gardeners have set first date for early planting: 

• Saturday 28 January 10.30 am at Ada Kennedy Court

Please join them if you can.

January update from the Royal Greenwich Community Champions

Your views on cervical screening in Greenwich

Cervical screening (smear test) is an important test which checks the health of your cervix (the opening to your womb from your vagina). Screening can help prevent cancer and saves lives.  All women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 are invited to be screened. 

We would like to hear what women and people with a cervix in the borough of Greenwich aged 25 to 64 feel and think about cervical screening to enable us to improve the process and make it easier for people.  💬

Take our short survey - you could win £50 in Love 2 Shop vouchers. Click here to start the survey

Covid-19 Vaccination

Do you have a weakened immune system, or live with someone who does?

You can get a Covid -19 vaccination this winter to help protect them and yourself.  Click here to book 

The Industries of Deptford Creek

Please see above an invitation to an event at the Creekside Discovery Centre on Thursday 12 January at 6.00pm to launch Mary Mills's new book on the Industries of Deptford Creek. It’s a rare opportunity to hear Mary in person. I hope some of you can make it. 

Barbara