A trip to Eltham Palace
Something I’m trying to do at the moment is visit all the obvious tourist attractions that I’ve never set foot in – places near me or elsewhere in London that I’ve just never had the time or inclination to visit. I did the first earlier this week – Eltham Palace.
I was always under the impression that it was only open for a couple of days each week – but under English Heritage it’s now open all week, except when it’s booked for filming (a crew making a new Poirot drama were setting up camp while I was there). It’s a diverting place – and unusual in that its really interesting history is relatively recent; not as the remains of a royal palace, but as the home of Stephen Courtauld, from the wealthy textile family, and his wife, Virginia, during the 1930s and 1940s.
For those of us who know Eltham, it comes as a bit of a shock to see this home as their idyllic retreat – lavishly furnished inside in the art deco style, surrounded by beautiful gardens for the family – and their menagerie of pets – to frolic in. You can see home movie footage of the family larking in pools while their lemur climbs all over their dog’s back. Happy days, and a world away from modern-day SE9.
But on top of the old royal hall, Courtauld watched London for fires as the Blitz raged – which helped him save the building when a bomb fell there, but the scorch marks remain. The family left for Rhodesia in 1944, and sold their furniture – but after the army’s educational wing pulled out of Eltham in 1992, English Heritage did amzing work in retrieving and recreating the style in which the Courtaulds lived.
But I left thinking much more could be done – the palace still feels hidden (even a relatively local visitor like me managed to use the wrong bus stop) and the beautiful gardens seemed undersold, with old ladies getting drenched by a sprinkler on a footpath. It’s also tricky to find your way around the building and grounds, and the staff didn’t help – one grouching at me for using my camera inside (having missed the tiny “no photographs” sign at the door), and for the sin of following some Japanese tourists through a way that was actually closed.
With patience, though, it’s a rewarding place to spend an hour or two.
Michael Jackson remembered at the Dome
It might have been the apalling weather that hit London at the time the ceremony was due to start, it may have been people tiring of saturation coverage or dreading the tackiness of the event but the relay of Michael Jackson’s Los Angeles memorial service drew a sparse crowd of about 150 to Peninsula Square, the plaza outside the Dome. Most of those were passers-by, but a fair number of his fans showed up.
I was there while Stevie Wonder performed – a genuinely moving moment. Around those watching, though, for every tear, there was also a snigger from behind. I couldn’t stay for long – heaven knows what the reaction was to the gruesome spectacle of Jackson’s daughter being pushed onto the stage.
Around the corner, the “shrine” to the singer has been shoved around to a little-seen side of Peninsula Square with a note saying the tributes have a week left – they’ll go on 14 July, the date Jackson was due to play his first show, the first of 50 gigs that would have made Dome owner AEG a fortune.
The event was held at the Staples Center, which provided the template for AEG to turn the Dome into the O2. Another screening was held at another sister venue, O2 World in Berlin. Even in death, Michael Jackson will continue to be a gift which keeps on giving for many people.
Hopefully, once the flowers are cleared away, AEG will find a decent way to mark the man whose star power would have helped to burned the name of the O2 onto the world entertainment map.
Charlton Lido closed this summer, but…
The Greenwich Phantom has done some digging on what’s happening to Charlton Lido this summer. It’s closed – but what about its future?
It’s hard to find out information about the chequered fortunes of the 1939 lido – the council [web] page is broken – but, happily, wrong that the place is dead. It took a bit of snaffling out, but a lease has been signed between the council and a private company, Open Waters (who don’t seem to have a website, which seems a bit odd in this day and age.)
Apparently there will be a “four-storey dive centre with a 22m-deep, 25m-dive pool, a gym, treatment rooms, exercise studios and a crèche. The lido will be refurbished and will retain all its current facilities”.
The Phantom continues: “I understand from someone who doesn’t want to be named that the lease has been signed, an understanding has been reached and that they will be on site soon. Because it will be a bit late in the season, they’ve decided not to open it this year.”
So there you go. There could be a bright future ahead – it’s just a shame Greenwich Council doesn’t feel the need to keep us up to date with it. You know, us, who pay council tax to it? And also a shame that they’ve not been organised enough to open it this summer – particularly if the heatwave returns… good on the Phantom for doing the digging, though.
‘It’s only south-east London, it doesn’t matter’, part 1
At the risk of developing an almighty chip on this blog’s imaginary shoulder, I think it’s worth keeping a collective eye out for the national media – and the media which claims to represent London – and its oh-so-hilarious misconceptions about London’s glorious south-east.
Laziness, inaccuracy – let’s keep an eye out for it. Drop me a line if you spot any corkers.
1. BBC News website – Mayor ‘neglecting inner London’
Not where I wanted to start. But it’s a prime example of something being knocked out from a press release without anyone noticing that the story’s actually complete bollocks.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has been accused of “neglecting” calls for a tube extension in inner London in favour of boroughs that voted for him.
Chuka Umunna, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Streatham, said a Bakerloo line extension to Camberwell and Brixton should be considered.
Mr Umunna said he had confirmation of plans to extend the line to Lewisham.
To Lewisham? “Outer London“? I’m sorry, has Mr Umunna looked at a map lately? Did anyone at BBC London before writing this?
And in the BBC’s own voice: In the mayoral election of May 2008 support for Mr Johnson was greatest in the outer boroughs such as Lewisham and Bromley.
This is actually wrong – if you check the 2008 mayoral election results – and you’ll need to download these ward-level figures to see Lewisham on its own – you’ll see that Ken Livingstone comfortably won the poll in the borough of Lewisham. In fact, he – and Labour – also topped the poll in the complete Greenwich and Lewisham constituency, although you’ll see Greenwich narrowly favoured Boris if you break the figures down.
Mr Umunna said that meant the mayor was now devoting more resources to their needs – while neglecting working class inner London boroughs such as Lambeth and Southwark, where more Labour supporters live.
Except that if you drew a map from the Elephant and Castle, where the Bakerloo Line currently ends, to Lewisham, which borough do you pass through? That’s right – Southwark! In fact, you may even pass under Camberwell on the way – in fact, you probably would, because the Bakerloo’s tunnels already extend a fair distance that way anyway, as a result of a pre-war plan which later got binned.
So we can probably agree that Chuka Umunna is a bit of a doughnut. Or, as the story would sadly have it, “donut”. But what the hell is Mr Umunna on about? Probably a little-reported study into extending the line to Hayes, near Bromley. Ah, now that’s more like Boris country. But where he – and BBC London – get this idea from that Lewisham is some kind of Tory stronghold is beyond me. Perhaps the voters of Streatham should be warned they’ve a man in place to be their next MP who doesn’t seem to have the first clue about the capital, and is quite happy to run down other bits of south London just to get himself a cheap bit of publicity.
2. The Guardian – Let’s move to… Deptford
After having found Greenwich to be “tubeless”, the Guardian’s rubbish property column moves a few feet west to SE8 to patronise the locals.
Apparently, now Deptford is “drowning in creative juices”. They’ve only just noticed? It’s another weird piece – no mention of the market, while apparently, people should look “eastwards” to live there, when I think he actually means “southwards”, towards St John’s station. But then again… “You’ll have to heft up the hill to Greenwich Park and Blackheath for a blade of grass.” Not Brookmill Park? Deptford Park? Or, if we’re talking St John’s, you’re a stone’s throw from Hilly Fields, which is a terrific spot.
Perhaps too much effort to research that. Maybe next time.
Well, here’s your lucky day…
For reasons hinted at in the bottom photograph, my memories of Blur in Hyde Park on Friday are possibly not as sharp as they should be – but bloody hell, what an evening.
I was concerned that it could be a bit embarrassing, a desperate attempt to hang onto past glories; and that’d just be the crowd. But that couldn’t have been further from how it actually was – simply a glorious night of fun on a baking summer evening in London. Great memories are made of nights like this. (Except when you drink too much Tuborg in the sunshine. Ooops.)
Top t-shirt of the evening – these natty Vote Dave garments – they’ll be seen again in the West End between now and next May…
Madonna? Race For Life? Nah, let’s cut the trains anyway
You run Network Rail. You earn hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. This weekend, your trains on the Greenwich line will have extra passengers because…
- the Jubilee Line is closed
- of Race for Life taking place on Blackheath
- Madonna is playing at the Dome
What do you do? That’s right, you close the line between Plumstead and Dartford, prompting your pals at Southeastern to cut the service back to a miserly two trains per hour! Brilliant work!
Madonna fans are now being squeezed onto the Docklands Light Railway, and being herded onto boats to cross the Thames from a pier by East India station. I don’t envy them…
Gordon and Boris’s south London tax
Transport blog London Reconnections has done some digging on the move of the new Shoreditch High Street rail station into zone 1. Part of the revamped East London line, it was originally due to be in zone 2, just like its Tube station predecessor – hiking fares for anyone even passing through the station.
A reader put in a Freedom of Information Act request, and discovered that part of the fare rise will not apply north of the river Thames…
TfL will be offering a local fare for passengers travelling between Dalston Junction and Wapping. Therefore passengers travelling between these stations will pay a fare as if they were travelling through one zone, and not two zones, including zone 1.
…however, if you’re south of the river, including local users of the old Tube service between New Cross, New Cross Gate, Surrey Quays, Canada Water and Rotherhithe, you can bloody well cough up. The reason? According to a letter from the government to TfL released as part of the request, it’s to protect the revenue of Southern, the private monopoly which runs trains from London Bridge and Victoria.
TfL will need to confirm that the new Shoreditch High Street is in Zone 1 – this reduces the revenue loss on South Central services as a result of the new East London Line, and is the reason why I can expect to make savings as high as £24m.
We know the Labour government is happy to make sure south London suffer under private train monopolies – it’s just re-let Southern’s franchise. Mayor Boris Johnson hasn’t fought against this. Sorry to flip into political bore mode here, but I can’t express this any other way – the needs and wishes of south Londoners simply don’t matter to either party. I hope that at the next elections, south Londoners return the sentiment.
(For the record, of course the Conservatives back rail privatisation – but so do the Liberal Democrats. On a personal note, it’s one of the main reasons why I back the Greens.)
Greenwich Council misses the beat
Remember these chaps? Last October saw a half-marathon, Run To The Beat, snake an awkward path through the streets of Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich and Blackheath in appalling weather. The conditions didn’t help matters, a Jubilee Line breakdown caused difficulties, and organisers generally didn’t seem up to the job of coping with these problems – the event had, at best, a mixed reception, condemned by some as an outright fiasco, others as something that showed promise.
Amusingly, runners were apparently promised a flat route, news to anyone who knows the socking great hill that runs between Greenwich and Woolwich. Like a sad memorial, loads of bus stops around here still have maps on warning people of a day of diversions because of the event.
I heard the organisers were coming back to have another go in 2009, I remember hearing somewhere that Greenwich Council would insist on it going through a proper planning process but I can’t easily find proof of that, alas.
Anyhow, that process is under way, for it is due to return on 27 September (announced in February to little fanfare) with a tweaked route which sees a dangerous-looking kink through Charlton Park (pictured above) replaced with a charge down two Blackheath side streets.
But how can the public have its say on the event? For this, we need to turn to Greenwich Council’s propaganda newspaper, Greenwich Time, which has just popped through my door. Buried in the sports pages is an odd-looking application for a premises licence in the name of Chiswick-based IMG UK Ltd, applying for a single licence to cover several locations in Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich and Blackheath. The licence is for “live and recorded music played at various times throughout the day between 09:45 and 14:00 on the stages listed above”. Two details are missing – one, the name Run To The Beat, and two, the date of the event. (Wouldn’t the lack of a date invalidate the advertisement?)
Does the council make any attempt to draw residents’ attention to this? So that they might object, comment, invite mates down or plan a weekend away to avoid it? No. There’s no supporting editorial in the rest of Greenwich Time at all. You might think the planning for such a big event, which will put a lot of people out, might be worth a quick news story to alert people. So unless you’re a bit clued-up/a bit sad (delete as applicable), you’d have absolutely no idea what’s being planned. And, as far as I can tell, the application can only be seen by visiting a council office in Woolwich.
You how I always bang on about Greenwich Council’s utter inability to communicate with its residents? This is a golden example. Is this a cock-up, because they can’t be bothered to actually talk to people about issues that affect them; or a conspiracy, because the council sees the race as being part of its Olympic ambitions? Who knows?
But with the Olympics on the horizon, this is just the kind of sneaky trick we need to be aware of, as the council buddies up with big corporations to make sure they get whatever they want – whatever locals think.
Serpentine Session – without the Serpentine
Tindersticks in Hyde Park should have been a terrific show – the band were wonderful as always, but the last of the Serpentine Sessions shows was probably one of the most atmosphere-free events I’ve ever been to; astoundingly perverse on a balmy summer’s evening. The Sessions were a series of shows designed to make use of one of Hyde Park’s stages on the gap between the Hard Rock Calling gigs last weekend, Blur tomorrow and Friday, and next week’s Wireless shows. I’m a sucker for Tindersticks’ lush orchestration, so when I found out they were playing, I splashed out £25 + £4.50 Ticketmaster booking fee + £3.25 fee for printing out my own ticket with my own paper and ink. Ah, the joys of going to big-ish gigs.
What did I get for my £32.75? Two stages – one a tiny bandstand where a couple of unremarkable acoustic acts played. And another… in a tent. On one of the hottest evenings of the year, with the sun streaming down, we had to go into a dark tent to watch Tindersticks and Big Star play. No lounging around by the Serpentine watching the bands – in fact, no sight of the lake at all, in fact – this was going to be an evening of mournful swaying in the dark.
Oh yes, and the suspicion that my £32.75 had also subsidised a hell of a lot of guest listers.
So while it was very nice to sit in the sun swigging cider with chums, it them seemed a bit of a chore to go inside a dark tent, whose accoustics muffled the sound, where people couldn’t smoke (and got nagged for smoking just outside), far away from the bars and the sunshine that seemed the main attraction for paying £25 + £4.50 + £3.25 to sit around and listen to music. “It’s like the second stage at a festival, but without the festival,” a mate said. At this most middle-class of events, I caught one poor group sat around trying to have a picnic inside the tent – clearly they’d also thought they’d be able to see the band outside.
By the encore, I gave up, and twigged what my pals had realised before me – the gig could just as easily be enjoyed by sitting in the sunset outside the bar, listening to the sound from the tent. I’m not sure £32.75 was worth it for what was, effectively, the equivalent of listening to the radio at the bottom of the garden.
At least Tindersticks were great, although in a passion-free tent the gig just didn’t seem to work very well (a few years back I saw them play a mesmerising set at Somerset House, which was more the kind of event I was expecting). Hopefully, the Serpentine Sessions will sink, or at least be rethought, for next summer.
But in a live music industry with the gall to charge £7.75 in service charges on a £25 ticket, they probably don’t really need to. I’ll think again next time…
