Daily Photo 31/03/09: Henry VIII Birthplace

A stone in the grounds of the ORNC that marks the site of the Tudor palace in which Henry VIII was born.

Daily Photo 30/03/09: Greenwich Park

Man Stabbed To Death in Greenwich Church Street

A man in his 20s has died after a stabbing in Greenwich Church Street in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police were called to the scene of an incident at just gone 2am where they found a critically injured man. He was taken to hospital but sadly died later from his knife wounds.

A suspect – described as mixed race and about 5ft10 – was seen running down St Alfege Passage towards Roan Street.

Update: The victim of this crime has been named as 25 year old Paul Martin from Blackheath.

Update: Police have arrested two 27 year old men in connection with this incident.

Update 02/04/09: 27 year old Michael Bowden from Bermondsey has been charged with Paul’s murder and put on remand by Greenwich Magistrates.

Vodafone Fonehouse Coming to Greenwich

Opponents of indentikit towns may be further disheartened by the news that a new Fonehouse franchise dedicated to Vodafone will be opening up in Greenwich.  Fonehouse, of course, already has a branch in Greenwich Church Street, and it’s not yet been confirmed where this new Vodafone specific store will be.

Do you welcome the arrival of another mobile phone shop in Greenwich?

Monopoly Competition: Purple Squares

There’s another three entries in our Monopoly competition up for grabs here. This time we are deciding the purple squares from the original London Monopoly. Those squares are Pall Mall, Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue.

To enter, simply state the name of the Greenwich street you’d like to nominate.

You can nominate one, two or all three squares. Keep an eye on the Competition summary page which tells you all the Greenwich Streets that have been used up already.

If your nominations are selected, you will receive an entry for each one into the Greenwich Monopoly Prize Draw. Your entry doesn’t need to be unique – if someone posts the same suggestions you were going to make, you both still receive a prize draw entry if that one is selected.

Deadline for this one is Monday lunchtime. If you’re unclear of how to play, please just ask.

Daily Photo 27/03/09: Meeting Lord Nelson

Dave Levitt has nicely captured this shot of someone admiring the statue of Lord Nelson.

Andrew Gilligan: Hellish Copters

AS it finally starts to look like spring, our thoughts in SE10 turn to sunshine, weekends in the garden or the park, open windows… and helicopters.

Anyone who spends the summer in Greenwich will know that in recent years, these things have become a scourge. With the better weather, it’s started happening already: whenever we have a combination of sunshine and a weekend, we also have helicopters. In July and August, there will be maybe a couple of dozen to ruin the average Sunday afternoon, making it unpleasant to open our windows or sit outside.

Greenwich residents’ anger was clear in their responses to a London Assembly enquiry into helicopter noise three years ago. Caroline Welch said: “Just a few years ago helicopter overflights were rare. Nowadays at weekends when I am in my garden, one after the other passes over. Many of the helicopters circle around and around, and it is not at all uncommon to see three or four in the air at once.”

“Living in the same house in Greenwich since 1980, my neighbours and I have experienced an exponential increase in exposure to the growth in environmental noise,” said Kenneth May.

Derk Fordham, of the Greenwich Society, called them an “appalling nuisance” which “create very disturbing noise levels.”

Jeff Daley, who lives on the Isle of Dogs opposite Greenwich, said: “I seem to be on the flight path of all helicopter traffic in summer. When sitting in the garden it becomes unbearable. What used to be a nice day sitting reading and chatting to friends is now gone, thanks to the constant drone of the helicopters all day.”

So why us? Alas, Greenwich has two features which place it, more than almost any other part of London, in the target zone. As this map from the Civil Aviation Authority shows, we are at the far eastern end of the so-called Helicopter Route H4, which runs along the Thames from Barnes to a point north of Greenwich Pier.

H4 is the only route that single-engined helicopters are allowed to take through central London and to Battersea heliport. And Greenwich is the “compulsory reporting point” for the route, on which all choppers coming from the east, north-east or south-east must converge. Sometimes, when H4 is busy, or a fixed-wing flight is going into City Airport, the helicopters have to circle in the air over Greenwich before they can proceed.

But that is only a partial reason why we seem so particularly plagued with helicopters flying around and around over our heads. Nor does it explain why there seems to be such a heavy concentration of flights on weekends and sunny days.

For the major part of the explanation, we must look at one of the most pernicious London growth industries since the lap-dancing club: the helicopter sightseeing tour merchants.

Their rise and rise can be traced to a rule change in 2005, when the CAA decided to allow helicopters over London to fly lower. They used to be forced to keep above 1500 feet. Now they can come down to a thousand. You can see a lot more sights from a thousand feet. The change was manna from heaven for the helicopter tour folks, mayhem from heaven for the rest of us.

As I mentioned, central London – apart from the river – is off-limits to single-engine choppers. The exclusion zone, called R160, covers an area roughly equivalent to the Travelcard zones 1 and 2 – and Greenwich is just on the eastern edge of that, too.

So if you want to run a nice quick helicopter tour to somewhere that looks pretty and “iconic” – but don’t want to have to make costly detours around the twisting course of the Thames, then back again the same way, where do you go? Why, right here. The park, the observatory, Canary Wharf, the Dome: all the things which make Greenwich interesting to visit on the ground make it just as attractive from the air.

The difference, of course, is that by visiting from the air, five people in a chopper spoil it for all the other tens of thousands of visitors, not to mention shattering the peace and calm for 50,000 or so residents, over an area of about five square miles.

I’ve considered this quite hard, and I simply cannot think of a more contemptible and selfish way to sightsee. The C02 emissions, too, must be nothing short of horrific.

To those of you who say that helicopters are necessary for the police, the ambulance service, the military and even to get our beloved captains of industry around, I would agree, sometimes. (I wouldn’t agree always – the burden of being kept awake by the police helicopter for hours probably outweighs the benefit of catching whoever it is they are after.)

But statistics published by the CAA show that helicopter movements in London rise dramatically in the summer. That confirms that much of the traffic is not for any socially or economically useful purpose, but purely for pleasure trips and corporate jollies. You will notice the sharp rises in helicopter movements on the days of Wimbledon and Royal Ascot, for instance.

What can we do about it? For a start, there’s no-one to complain to, as you’ll find out if you try. The CAA only holds itself responsible for safety. The various official noise monitoring bodies seem only to concern themselves with fixed-wing flights. The local councils have opted out.

There are a few grounds for hope. The National Air Traffic Service (NATS) is thinking about extending route H4 further to the east – and moving the reporting point away from Greenwich. That could just dump the problem on the people of Woolwich or Bexley, however. NATS has, I might add, been considering this change since 2005, without any sign of action so far. And it won’t help with the sightseeing tours.

We may also hope that, with the recession, selfish behaviour in helicopters goes the way of all those other boom-economy manifestations of casual indulgence. But even if it does, it will probably return in the next upswing of the economic cycle.

The only permanent answer must be strict limitations on sightseeing flights – or perhaps even an outright ban. I can’t really agree that looking down on the Dome from a thousand feet constitutes a vital human right.

In the meantime, you might try a little telephone terrorism. Next time somebody in a chopper ruins your Sunday, get on to the nearest helicopter sightseeing tour operator and make some loud noise of your own.

New Bike Shop Suffers Break In

Rather depressingly, the new branch of Cycles UK in Creek Road has suffered a break in before it has even opened for business. The store has reported on its dedicated blog that thieves got into the shop last Thursday evening and stole eight bikes.

The bikes stolen were:

• 2009 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp Medium
• 2009 Specialized FSR XC Comp Medium
• 2009 Specialized Stumpjumper HT Expert Carbon 19″
• 2009 Specialized Langster 56cm
• 2009 Cube Reaction XT 18″
• 2009 Wilier La Triestina Mirage Large
• Mezzo D10
• Mezzo D9

If you hear of anyone trying to sell these bikes in the area, you might want to let the police know. The robbery hasn’t affected their schedule though and the new shop should be open on April 4th.

Daily Photo 24/03/09: Pavillion Tea House

Thanks to Stephen for allowing me to use this photo of the Pavillion Tea House in Greenwich Park.

A Tribute To Greenwich Village Market

Greenwich Village Market closes this weekend. Author of the London Market Guide, Andrew Kershman, explains why the closure of the market is such a loss to Greenwich.

For a while in the early 90s Greenwich occupied a unique place in London’s market scene and seemed destined to rival Portobello and Camden. At that time there were five different markets taking place in Greenwich at the weekend including a small crafts market called Bosun’s Yard and a Flea Market on Thames Street, where traders sold junk from rusting ship containers.

When I returned from college to London with a car full of books and little money, I started selling my library at the market and saw the place in its prime. Since those halcyon days the Flea Market and Bosun’s Yard have closed and another Greenwich Market is soon to join them.

The covered market, in the central part of Greenwich, has become more dominant in recent years with its mix of arts, crafts and food and tends be the first port of call for tourists. Likewise, the Antiques Market, next to the cinema on Greenwich High Street, is still soldiering on at the weekends, but is small and without any roof it is vulnerable to the British weather. My favourite has always been the sprawling complex of shops, lock-ups and stalls just off Stockwell Street, opposite the Ibis Hotel, called The Village Market. It was here that I sold my second-hand books, bought some great furniture and acquired a wardrobe of retro clothing from the many second-hand stalls. It is this major Greenwich market that is due to close on Sunday 22nd March, marking the decline in the area’s status as a unique and interesting shopping area.

The best thing about the Village Market was that space was allowed for traders to sell large items like second-hand furniture and there was room for storage at the end of trading. This kind of spacious market with lots of cheap second-hand things has beeb disappearing as land values have increased and developers moved in. Famous markets such as Bell Street have closed, while the Stables Market in Camden has been transformed into a smart alternative shopping area, rather than the junk market it started as in the 1970s.

I now write The London Market Guide. Researching each edition of the book has allowed me to chronicle the rise and fall of many of London’s markets. When I returned in the summer of 2008 I was saddened to see the decline in the Greenwich Village Market. It still retained some of its charm, but the owners were planning to replace the market with another dull shops and residential development and the place had a neglected feel. Having wandered around the clothing stalls and noticed that the indoor collectables part of the market was actually a lot better than it used to be, it was clear that the place still had the potential to be a great market. I got involved in a campaign to save the Village Market in the hope that some more reasonable plans could be devised that took account of Greenwich as a great market area.

In the course of campaigning I was struck how many people were genuinely fond of the market and upset to hear of its imminent closure. The attempts at public consultation had been pretty limited with a display on the top floor of a municipal building and the planning documents lodged at the local library. It seemed that lots of people regretted the market’s closure but not enough to spend too much time campaigning for its survival.

I attended the planning committee meeting on 26th June 2008 when the council approved the planning application, having rejected a very similar proposal the year before. The councilors showed very little interest in the market and spent as much time discussing the exterior rendering of the new shops and residential units. The developers had cleverly allocated space for eleven stalls on the outside of the complex and this seemed to satisfy the council that a ‘market’ of some sort was continuing on the site. The fact that just a few stalls would be a shadow of the great market of the 1990′s didn’t seem to matter.

Since then the onset of the credit crunch has led to the developers shelving their plans for the site, but this has not given the Village Market any reprieve and on Sunday 22nd March it will close its gates for the last time.

As with many things in life you either get it or you don’t. You either think that junk and second-hand markets are great or that they are dirty events that are only tolerable until the space they use is built upon. Even if the developers and the council don’t understand, this closure is a big deal for Greenwich, particularly when the closure of the Central Market is also under consideration. If things continue in this way, Greenwich will soon have just one small market left. Maritime history is all well and good, but without its markets Greenwich will loose many of its younger visitors and its unique place in London’s shopping landscape.

Andrew Kershman’s The London Market Guide is available now from Amazon.co.uk

What are your memories of Greenwich Village Market? Post your comments below…

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