Maritime Museum to host new 2010 Greenwich Horse Trials

Thanks to Abe for the heads up on this one…

Britain’s National Maritime Museum announced today that it is to host the new 2010 Greenwich Horse Trials. A Museum spokesman explained: “This is a key initiative in our strategy to attract a wider audience, and will serve as an important dry run for our hosting the Equestrian Events of the 2012 Olympic Games. A great deal of management time has gone into planning this new event which maps directly onto the DCMS core objective of increasing and broadening the impact of culture and sport. Given the magnificent effort so far from all our staff, I am confident the event will be a great success.”

Read on here

Greenwich Uni and Cutty Sark Win Award

The London Knowledge Transfer Awards 2008 were held on Friday, and there was good news for Greenwich. A collaboration between the University of Greenwich & Knowledge East working with the Cutty Sark Trust was the winner of the Knowledge Base Collaboration Award, as well as winning the overall “champion” award, the Knowledge Transfer Collaboration of 2008.

The pioneering partnership saw experts from the University of Greenwich use sophisticated computer models to work out the best way in which to dismantle and reassemble the ageing tea clipper as part of its major refurbishment.

The Knowledge Transfer Awards are supported by the London Developement Agency and are intended to recognise London’s Innovation in the business arena.

Peninsula Projects On Hold

Regeneration projects on the Greenwich Peninsula could be delayed by up to half a decade. That was the verdict of Andrew Storey - joind Chief Exec for the Greenwich Peninsula - when he spoke at the Thames Gateway Forum.

“‘House prices are now 20 per cent below where they were [when permission was granted in 2007], so we need to wait until they return to what they were before we can go ahead” said Storey.

This means that planned developments for thousands of new homes in the area will be mothballed, and even projects where work had begun may be put on hold.

Read more about what came out of the Thames Gateway Forum at The Architect’s Journal.

Olympic Organisers Hold Public Meeting

LOCOG held a public meeting on Thursday to answer questions regarding the use of Greenwich Park as an Olympic venue for 2012. The meeting was attended by LOCOG Chief Exec, Paul Deighton, and LOCOG Chair, Lord Sebastian Coe.

Deighton told the meeting - held at Indig02, part of the O2 Arena - that LOCOG are “making provision so that the park is restored to how it was in the first place.”.

The next phase of the LOCOG consulation will be an exhibition from Monday to Friday this week at the Greenwich Tourist Information Centre at 46 Greenwich Church Street.

Useful Links:
Excellent summary of the meeting at the 853 blog.
Evening Standard’s report on the meeting.

O2 Is Number One With Music Fans

The O2 Arena in North Greenwich has been named as the winner of the 95.8 Capital FM Best Music Venue Award at the Visit London 2008 Awards. The award was one of the evening’s People’s Choice awards, meaning the winner was voted for by the public.

Each category awarded gold, silver and bronze awards, with the O2 also receiving bronze for the Sports Tourism Award, silver for the Sustainable Tourism Award and another silver for the Accessible Tourism Award.

Other good news for Greenwich at the awards including bronze prize for Best Tourism Experience going to the Astronomy Centre and Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory.

See the full list of winners from the Visit London 2008 Awards.

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