Aluna Greenwich

When I first met Laura Williams, two years ago, at an open day at Trinity Wharf, and saw her models - and plans, I was excited enough about the Aluna Project to write about it even though it was planned to go the wrong side of the river.

In case you missed it, it's a wonderful, spiritual, gigantic piece of art; a working lunar clock, powered by the tide, marking the phases of the moon - and the tide itself. I won't go into it all again here, but it caught my imagination in a way that most public art doesn't. Let's face it - there can be few projects that have excited Pagans, Scientists and Phantoms alike...

Well - it seems that after a shaky start, it's beginning to gain momentum - and it's changed location - whilst negotiations for East India Dock Basin have faltered, it's now planned for a site on the Peninsula on our side of the river, marking the Meridian line, and it just feels so right.

There's a long way to go before this staggeringly beautiful, profound work gets made reality, but I'm nailing my colours to the mast here - I love it. Join their mailing list for updates here.

Underground Greenwich (17) - Preserving (Or Not) The Conduits Of Greenwich Park

Dr Per Von Scheibner, of the splendid blog Subterranean Greenwich, has prepared a fascinating document as part of his objections to the current Olympics proposals.

Whether or not you're into the Olympics in the Park, it's really worth a read. It's full of history, insight and wonderful photos, as well as an impassioned plea not to even consider the euphemistic 'preservation by record'* of this medieval and Tudor warren of conduits, some of which are so beautiful they could have been made as passages the main Greenwich Palace - indeed it's one of the only bits of the old palace left. I mean - who would think about giving an underground water system Gothic arches these days?

I have worried about this from the very start, even before I knew the full extent and beauty of the passages (as much as anyone can - they have not been fully explored even now) and I am even more concerned that no one seems to be bothering to bring in archaeologists to excavate this vital part of royal history in anything but what seems like piecemeal fashion.

Of course to find the full extent of all the tunnels would create far too much damage to the park, but surely a team should be brought in to discover just how serious a danger the system would be to life and limb, and, vice-versa, how much danger the heavy vehicles needed to create the Olympic course would be to the tunnels.

By rights, any such team should be led by Dr Scheibner and his cohort-in-caving, Dominic Clinton, who, since the conduits have been closed to the public for longer than anyone alive can really remember, probably know most about them.

I don't get why this isn't a Number One priority, paid for by the Olympics as part of this legacy we keep being promised. The choice of discovering some really important, unique, medieval palace remains or a few bits of outdoor gym equipment in parks? Hmmm. Tough decision...

I mean this is (for the moment at least, until we mess it up just that little bit too much) A WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Why aren't LOCOG being forced by UNESCO to do the right-thing-by-heritage here?

In Phantom Fantasy Land, Royal Parks would be excavating, preserving and cleaning those passages easily found without serious further damage, so that sections could be opened to the public for a small fee - like the Catacombs in Paris or the Sottorranea in Naples. Not seriously discussing the possibility of 'preservation by record' as a viable way to treat a World Heritage Site.

Whatever your views on the Equestrian Events at Greenwich Park, I urge you to take a peek at Dr Scheibner's document. It makes compulsive reading for any lover of Greenwich.

*In case you haven't come across this term before, it means taking photos of, then destroying artifacts - a similar proposal was made for the Durnford Street buildings by Greenwich Hospital Trust with their plans for the redevelopment of the market, happily quashed (unanimously) by Greenwich Council, who found some balls at the eleventh hour.

London Grinding To A Halt

Forgive the title of this post. There are times when only cliche will do.

Today I am going to a place just north of Farringdon. This journey would normally take - what - 35 minutes - if that. Today I'm allowing just over an hour. the TFL website journey finder reckons my best bet will include a walk, followed by a train, followed by a tube, followed by another walk, followed by a bus. Frankly I'm just going to take a chance that Cannon St will be open (TFL reckon it will be, but I'm always edgy until I get there) and walk the rest.

Weekend engineering works are such a sore point it feels tedious just to mention poor transport links - every blog I read moans about them on a weekly basis. But just because it's getting boring now doesn't mean to say that it's any less inconvenient, irritating or downright fury-inducing.

The weekday services have been utterly appalling - especially during the snow which created excuses a-gogo for Southeastern, and yet, strangely, didn't seem to affect anyone else nearly so badly - even those companies in the west of London that had it so bad TV reporters camped out to gloat managed to get on their feet more quickly that our lot.

But the weekend services have been on a trickle of misery for years now. The Jubilee line is worst of course, especially when it's closure has coincided with Southeastern closing the Charlton/Westcombe park/Maze Hill/ Greenwich line (and not mentioning on any kind of notice a the station that there's no point taking a bus to the Jubilee line 'cause that's shut too...)

And now it's all kicking off with the Northern Line. However much Boris may huff and puff, I'm guessing that it will make no difference. Tube Lines will continue to be inefficient because they know they can't get kicked off the job (I'm convinced they just factored the fines for late delivery into the initial cost).

It's enough to make you get back in the car.

But no - you can forget that too, if you're planning to be out any later than 9.00pm and - heavens - decide to cross the river.

For the next three years, don't even think about driving south through the Blackwall Tunnel between 9.00pm and 5.00am, Sundays to Fridays, AND Sunday, 1.00am-8.am - so that's your Saturday night on the tiles scuppered.

Why is there no contraflow created? All I can find are mutterings about Health and Safety. I don't buy them. As Lupo-Lupo points out, this won't just affect motorists either - I don't think I'd go as far as to say that Evelyn Road, Blackheath Hill and Greenwich town centre will be 'paralysed' every weekday night, but the traffic will be heavier and we will get jams. Not least because there's not been that much advance warning of this, and there will be a whole bunch of confused motorists getting as far as the A2 and being forced to turn back. No hope of extended Ferry crossing hours, of course.

It doesn't seem like any time at all since this all happened last time.

It all kicks off from tomorrow - so here's a fun thing to do tonight:

Get a load of mates together and drive back and forth through the tunnel all night - between one o'clock and eight - just because you can, luxuriating in the delight of two tunnels at night.

Cutty Sark 'Ready By 2012'

Whoopee. The Cutty Sark will be ready by 2012, according to a joint announcement by the Mayor Boris Johnson and Gordon Brown today.

Dazza sent me a link to the news at the BBC website, where the two leaders seem to be announcing it like it's a good thing that it's two-bloomin'-years late. All they care about is that it will be ready for the Olympics.

The excuse is, apparently, that, in the fire, "the frame had corroded more than first thought". Hmm.

I thought I'd check out the Cutty Sark website and found a statement. (I never got a reply to any of my queries, btw).

It's mainly gushing about how marvellous it is that the ship's going to be around for the Olympics and the creation of the Royal Borough. Gordon Brown waffles some platitudes about how sad everyone was when the fire damaged it (sticking his neck out as usual...) and Boris Johnson has the gall to say "I am thrilled that the restoration is progressing with speed since the fire in 2007," which proves he's not visited Greenwich for sometime.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really keen to see the Cutty Sark back again, looking lovely. And I still think it could look spectacular with the plans to raise it, complete with lightshows and corporate jollies - as long as they can find a way to do it without totally killing the ship. I mean, let's face it, she was never going to sail again, and this could have been - and, yes, still could be - a fabulous focus for the town centre.

I just get the feeling that at the very least we've not been kept in the loop about this. I mean what HAS been going on?

By not telling the people who have supported them in the past how things are progressing, they've missed out on, if nothing else, a great money-raising opportunity. I, for one, would have cheerily put my hand in my pocket again - and been happy to join in fund-raising shindigs as far as this little blog's concerned - but I was hardly likely to do it when, even as a Friend, I got no news, only second and third-hand rumours which may or may not have any basis in truth - we just don't know.

They appear to have feted the big donors (understandable, of course) but completely ignored the smaller, possibly more local, supporters who may not have managed the millions that the big cheeses did, but who, together could have made a substantial difference.

At least we can be sure that this latest deadline is the last one - after all, if they miss the Olympics, we can pretty much kiss the entire project goodbye.

The Royal Road To Greenwich

Since we're about to become a Royal Borough, I thought it might be a good time to chivvy up calls for the old Royal Road to Greenwich to be upgraded. Of course, as far as I know it was only actually ridden along by royalty once, but there's a good excuse for that - it's the river Thames.

No one much fancied the trudge on land between Whitehall, the City of London, the Tower and the palace at Greenwich - The Thames was fast, easy and exciting, the road muddy, dangerous and slow. They left that route to the proles with their carts and waggons. In other words, the situation was much the same as it is today.

I'd wager the river's still faster. It would be an interesting test to see if someone in a car could beat a Thames Clipper to London Bridge (I think the Top Gear team may have done something similar once - probably Clarkson on a state of the art speedboat, May in some vintage motor and Hammond on a unicycle.) I'm guessing that at the moment with all the sodding roadworks, the Clipper would win hands down.

The river is constantly in the history books. When Henry VII commanded his wife Elizabeth to be crowned, she arrived by a royal barge "freshly furnished with banners and streamers of silk."

Henry VIII kicked up quite a hornets' nest when he paraded his new wife Anne along the river. Tongues wagged at the inappropriateness of Henry's insisting she be brought "by all the crafts of London" (I'm not sure whether that means all the seaworthy vessels of London, or the barges owned by the various 'crafts' or livery companies.) More was definitely more with Henry and he ordered her to be accompanied by "trumpets, shawms and divers instruments all the way playing and making great melody." I suspect there was a lot of gold involved. If memory serves she made a slightly less ostentatious trip three years later, ready to have her head cut off.

Henry always had his barge waiting outside his palace - much as we might keep a car outside our houses. The equivalent of taxi drivers frequently crop up in the palace accounts - often for trivial stuff - to collect some books from town or a forgotten hat. But it wasn't just the toffs that used the royal road - servants, goods and provisions plied their way up the river (it's no coincidence that all the major palaces are on the river - Greenwich, the Tower of London, Westminster, Hampton Court...)

The greatest non-monarch to be taken along the river was of course, Admiral Nelson, though he was in no fit state to enjoy it himself. His funeral procession from Greenwich to St Paul's Cathedral was re-enacted on the bicentenary of his death back in 2005.

I was part of the crowd for that one, standing, freezing outside, watching poor, sweating rowers in 19th century costume freeze too, while dignitaries took their time indoors. It was a lovely event, marred by the inconsideration of the bigwigs (a party of schoolchildren in front of me froze too - then missed the main event entirely as their teacher gave up and took them home just half an hour before it all actually happened), but I can't help feeling that exactly the same thoughtlessness would have happened 200 years ago too, so maybe they were being 'authentic.'

The river now is quieter than it's ever been - but that doesn't mean it's empty. There's always something going along there - but given the congestion on the rest of the roads, it could be better used.

Of course the inconvenient bend around the Isle of Dogs slows it down, but it's still a fast and comfy way into town - you always get a seat, even in rush hour - and a view - unless the river mist/spray is particularly skanky that day.

One of the few things that Greenwich Council have done in the past few years that I have wholeheartedly supported was their Clipper Campaign, which lobbied for more frequent services, a guarantee to continue the boat onto Woolwich and Oyster Cards to be usable on the river buses.

I notice that since Oyster cards HAVE been allowed on the Clippers, and subsidy is in place for Woolwich until the year after the Olympics (curious, that one, eh...) the council is so busy boasting about how successful they've been, they've quietly forgotten the third part of the campaign, the 10-minute service. Still, I guess two out of three isn't bad. Maybe we'll get it for two weeks in 2012.

Oh, I forgot to mention the one time a monarch actually rode up the Thames. In 1536 (the same year that had earlier seen Anne Boleyn hauled up the river to the Tower) the river froze so hard that Hall's Chronicle tells us "the king's majesty, with his beautiful spouse, Queen Jane, rode throughout the City of London to Greenwich."

Puts our recently little cold snaps into some kind of perspective, eh...

Remember Me

Last of the asks for today, folks, and definitely the oddest.

Jan is on a documentary photography course, and as part of her assignments, she has to create a portfolio. She has decided to record the impromptu tributes erected to people who have died from RTAs on the streets around Greenwich. She says:

"I am interested in capturing how and why deaths are remembered. Some tributes are just flowers, others have photographs and personal items. Some can be identified with a little research."

It is interesting - and quite a recent phenomenon. A few years ago, the most you might have seen would be a bunch of flowers tied to a lamppost. Now the tributes are getting really quite large.

At first I wondered if a project like this might somehow be intruding upon private grief - but no - this is very definitely public grief - something we Brits have never been very good at in the past. Perhaps the advent of these roadside memorials is a nation trying to find new ways to explore the concept of grief from what is essentially scratch - we've always bottled it up before, and now we don't really know how to deal with it, so we're trying out different forms of expression. And Jan's decision to capture it is a fascinating social document of something happening now.

After getting over the shock that there are indeed enough of these things in the area to make a project from, I turned my thoughts to Jan's question, which is quite specific. She asks:

"For many years of driving up and down Shooters Hill Road I have noticed at the junction of Farjeon Road imitation flowers attached to a pole. I have been unable to find out why they are left there and what they "commemorate" if anything. Would you happen to know, as I would like to include this in my PF and am hoping to have a little background info for each image."

Parochial old Phantom, once again, has no idea - (oooh - Shooters Hill Road - it's -oh, about a mile away. Nah, guv, not my manor...) but maybe someone here does?

Oh - and Jan - maybe you could upload your project onto a website or a Flickr account so we can see the finished results?

Cupboard Love

Simon's considering getting new furniture, and is missing the old store that used to be on the corner of Stockwell St and Greenwich Church Street as part of the Village Market. He says it was called SE10 Experience - though I confess I never noticed the name.

I don't think that's ever coming back - like so many of the vendors from the old market, they've disappeared. And I've been racking my brains trying to think of stores that deal solely in furniture or which might sell

"...a chest of drawers/unit with cupboard doors and drawers to go in the sitting room for chucking junk/post in and then maybe something to put a TV on..... "

He's checked out Lancelot in Blackheath, and agrees with me that though they have very nice stuff, there's not a huge selection. Ditto Minerva, who have rather more on their website than on display, as far as I can see.

I suggested downstairs at Stewart John, who, alongside all the chandeliers in their Turnpin Lane shop, have a selection of made-to-order furniture styles. They also restore furniture, over at their workshops in Charlton (which have all kinds of antique furniture for sale too), so if you find a nice piece of antique furniture, but it's in a bit of a state you could get them to fix it up for you (I don't know how much that costs.)

Failing that, Graham and Green downstairs have a few new items, but then I start to run out. But there are loads of carpenters around here - why not draw exactly what you want on the back of an envelope, and get someone to make it for you? It won't be cheap, but it's not necessarily as pricey as you might think - and you'll get exactly what you want...