Ashburnham Triangle Association

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. 

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.  

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 .

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 p...

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 an...

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.

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, 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 develo...

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