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Greenwich news and information

Blackheath Bluecoat to move to Peninsula

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Blackheath Bluecoat Church of England school is set to move to a brand new building off Millennium Way on the Greenwich Peninsula.

The Governing Body of the 300 year old school has unanimously agreed the move, subject to the decomissioning of a nearby gas holder, or the provision of a suitable site nearby if that isn’t possible. If all goes to plan, the move could be complete by the summer of 2012.

Executive Headteacher Jeffrey Risbridger said:

“We are absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity to move to what promises to be a remarkable building.

“We are enormously grateful to Greenwich Council and the Diocese of Southwark for their unflinching support for this proposal. However we will also remain focused on the vital work of continuing to raise the standard of pupil achievement at Blackheath Bluecoat School.”

Chair of Governors David Prescott added:

“It’s fitting that 310 years on from the first Bluecoat in Greenwich, we’re now writing the next chapter in the school’s impressive history.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to provide a first-class secondary school specialising in maths and computing on the Peninsula and we’re absolutely delighted that staff, pupils and parents are fully behind the move. ”

Councillor Jackie Smith, Greenwich Council Cabinet for Children and Young People said:

“The Greenwich peninsula offers excellent educational opportunities for young people to really drive up their attainment as part of the huge investment in new facilities, skills and local partnerships.”

“The year sees the relocation to the peninsula of the internationally renowned Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. The College is a world leader in its field and will provide students additional access to the very best technology and learning facilities.

“The school will further benefit from its close proximity to an ever growing business community, and on its doorstep will be The O2, the world’s most successful music and entertainment venue.”

In November 2009, a planned move for the John Roan School to the peninsula was called off.

The Blackheath Bluecoat school is currently on Old Dover Road, SE3, but its history can be traced back to 1700 when a school for 30 girls was created in a house on what has now become Greenwich High Road.

Daily Photo: 05/02/10 – Number 16 in days gone by

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16 St Alfege Passage

Number 16 St Alfege Passage is now rather well known for being the B&B run by local actor, Robert Gray. But before it was turned into a guesthouse, it was F. Taylor’s corner shop and as this picture – provided by Robert – shows, it sold groceries, cakes, bread and Wall’s Ice cream.

Robert also gave me a copy of this sketch below which shows the preliminary workings of a painting of Number 16 by the artist, John Christopherson. Robert would very much like to track down the finished painting that came from this sketch.

Sketch of Number 16

Daily Photo: 04/02/10 – Ormiston Road

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Thanks to Fergal Spelman who contributed this photo of the railings at the junction of Halstow Road and Ormiston Road. He explains:

The photo shows a railing damaged when a car slid into it during the snow a month ago. A number of cars coming down the hill (over the railway bridge) just went straight on when the drivers braked and into this railing. Despite it being close to Halstow School and a very busy pedestrian area, the council has so far only managed to place bollards to mark it but done nothing to repair the damage and make the footpath safe again.

Cutty Sark funding secured, restoration to finish by 2012

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Further funding has been announced for the Cutty Sark restoration project which should see the famous tea clipper open to the public again by 2012.

Greenwich Council has agreed to donate £3million, central government is contributing £3million and the Greater London Authority has stumped up a million too. There’s also a donation of £1million from the Michael Edwards Foundation.

Councillor Chris Roberts, Leader of Greenwich Council said:

“In Greenwich we are tremendously proud of our heritage, of which Cutty Sark is an iconic symbol. After the fire it was clear that our sense of place was shared by people across the world. We are proud to play our part in restoring and conserving the ship for generations to come. I would also like to pay a personal tribute to the Late Chairman, Maurice de Rohan OAM, who was such an inspiration to everyone involved in this project.”

Councillor Nigel Fletcher, Greenwich Conservatives’ Spokesman for Culture and Olympics, said:

“Restoring the Cutty Sark is a hugely important project for Greenwich, given its status as a world-famous tourist destination. The extra funding needed to finish the job would ideally have been found from private donations, but in the current economic climate that avenue has been all but exhausted.

“This is actually the first time Greenwich Council has provided direct financial support to the project, which demonstrates the hard work the Trust has itself done to raise funds. With the Mayor of London and Central Government now contributing to make up the shortfall, it is right we should play our part. Hard-pressed taxpayers may find it a tough pill to swallow, but pulling the plug on the project at this stage would be unthinkable.”

The Cutty Sark was devastated by a fire in March 2007 whilst work was being undertaken on it. Completion of the restoration was then put back to 2010 but in October last year, a further delay was announced with Richard Doughty, Chief Executive of the Cutty Sark Trust telling the BBC he was “confident we will open in spring 2011”.

Once complete, a new public space will be created with improved access to the dry berth by raising the ship up by three metres.

Update: “Cutty Sark restoration turning into a fiasco” – Andrew Gilligan, Telegraph

Planning permission sought for new 450 bedroom hotel on Greenwich Peninsula

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Ansco Hotel

A planning application has been lodged with Greenwich Council for the construction of a 452 bedroom hotel next to the O2 arena.

The large development, on what is known as plot NO301, would also include a separate 22-storey tower comprising of 100 serviced apartments, a ballroom & events space and a health spa.

The Evening Standard quotes David Campbell, of AEG Europe, as saying: “The O2 has already created more than 2,500 direct jobs in Greenwich. However, the real economic prize for Greenwich and east London is adding overnight visitors.”

At present the nearest hotels to the O2 – recently named as the in ticket sales – are the Express by Holiday Inn and the Pilot Inn guest house.

The planning application and association documents can be seen in full at the Greenwich Council website.

Related link: Greenwich Hotels

Council apologises for café blunder

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GREENWICH Council has apologised to a café in Greenwich after wrongly listing them as having failed to receive a Food Hygiene Award.

The owners of Baba’s Sandwich Bar in Greenwich South Street were shocked to see the listing on the council’s published listings, which was also included in a report on Greenwich.co.uk.

Mrs Bolsoy, who started the café 14 years ago with her husband, told Greenwich.co.uk:

“To say that we were furious seeing our business name listed as failed inspection,would be an understatement. I immediately contacted the Environmental Health department, who on investigating, realised there had been an error on their part. We have never failed an inspection in all the years we have been trading. We have a reputation of being very clean, not only with Environmental Health, but with our customers.”

Upon being made aware of the error, Greenwich Council told us:

“We would like to apologise to Baba’s sandwich bar and their customers for any confusion or distress that may have been caused as a result of an error on our website, which incorrectly listed Baba’s as not having a Food Hygiene Award.

It seems that there was an error in updating the information on the website relating to this particular establishment. Regular spot checks are carried out on our website in order to reduce the risk of errors like this taking place, but unfortunately this particular error was not caught by those checks.

Following an internal investigation the error has now been corrected on the website. We have written to Baba’s apologising and have also contacted them by telephone.”

The Food Hygiene Award is given to catering premises where an Enviornmental Health officer has decided that food is handled and prepared safely. Greenwich Council introduced its Food Safety Award scheme in 2004, with the results of inspections published on its website, and say they were the first borough to do so.

The council say they believe this is an “isolate case” and are reviewing their “procedures to ensure that standards of accuracy are maintained and any improvements identified as a result of this review will be acted on.”


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LOCOG: Greenwich Park "most suitable and cost effective venue for the Equestrian Events"

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Following last week’s column by Andrew Gilligan (“”), London 2012 organisers have asked us to publish their response.

Andrew Gilligan is wrong to state that “LOCOG admits Windsor is a better venue” than Greenwich Park. We selected Greenwich Park as the most suitable and cost effective venue for the Equestrian Events and Modern Pentathlon events following a detailed evaluation of a number of potential venues by sporting and competition experts looking at all the requirements needed for an Olympic and Paralympic venue.

As part of our bid pledge we are committed to hosting a ‘compact Games’ with most venues within or near the Olympic Park in Stratford. The close proximity of Greenwich Park to the Olympic Park was a significant factor in the venue selection and this allows riders to be accommodated in the Olympic Village. There is more than adequate space for stabling in Greenwich Park and Circus Field and it is not true to claim that riders stay with their horses, they will stay in the Olympic Village.

As Tim Stockdale, Show Jumper, and member of the British Equestrian Team, said last November: “I am very impressed. I was not aware of the Greenwich Park’s sheer magnificence, tradition and heritage. It will be great to be able to stay in the Olympic Village as well so that the riders can be part of the action.”

The use of Windsor Park would result in a need for a second village to accommodate athletes for Equestrian because they would be competing over an hour away from the Olympic Village. The use of Royal Holloway College in Egham would not be a viable accommodation option for Windsor Park because it is already being used to accommodate rowers from Eton Dorney and canoeists from Broxbourne and will be full.

While Windsor Park was deemed to be adequately served by public transport it is only served by two overground links. In contrast, Greenwich Park is significantly better connected with four overground rail stations, the Jubilee line, the DLR and river services. This serves our commitment to host a public transport Games, and to allow better transportation links for spectators with minimised disruption for local residents.

Windsor Park scored well as an alternative venue in our evaluation, however, it was always a challenge to secure support for Windsor Three Day Event from the athletes and the sport because of the historically poor ground for the cross-country. In contrast, Greenwich Park has the full support of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), the International Modern Pentathlon Federation (UIPM), the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) and Pentathlon GB.

Windsor Park does not have the infrastructure in place to host all the facilities associated with an event of this scale, for instance accommodation and catering facilities for over 200 grooms, offices and meeting space for officials, hospitality spaces and a media centre. There would be a requirement to create significant temporary facilities to host these functions, whereas all of these facilities can be housed within the existing buildings at Greenwich such as the National Maritime Museum, the Queens House and the Devonport House Hotel.

In addition, if the Equestrian events were located outside London, another London venue would have to be found to host Modern Pentathlon because all disciplines have to be completed in one day. This would not be as simple as using an existing stadium, because Olympic venues consist of many additional back of house elements which in this case would need to include stabling and training areas for the horses. Providing this for just two days of competition, when such duplication can be avoided by sharing the Greenwich facilities, would not represent cost effective delivery of the Games. It should be noted that in fact three of the five modern pentathlon events take place at Greenwich Park, not just the riding element.

Mr Gilligan is being emotive in claiming large parts of Greenwich Park will be closed for eight months and smaller parts for five years. The Park will only be closed off for four weeks in total, with the Children’s Playground and large parts of the Flower Garden remaining open apart from the days around the Cross Country event. We are clear in our planning application that all ground works related to the Games will be completed by November 2012. After the Games, The Royal Parks will implement an acid grass restoration and enhancement programme which will be funded by LOCOG. This will improve the quality and extent of the acid grassland in Greenwich Park, and will not inhibit regular use of the Park.