I’m sticking close to the river for this week’s ‘What’s On’, with a raft (geddit) of events current-ly (ha ha) happening alongside the Greenwich stretch of the Thames. Ok, river puns over now, I promise.

On Saturday, the Thames Discovery Programme are hosting an archaeology lecture at Greenwich Heritage Centre, showcasing their work to discover more about the river’s history.   Their expert speakers will also be discussing the remains of what is believed to be a large warship, possibly the HMS Duke of Wellington, discovered at Charlton.

Whilst you’re down at the riverside in Woolwich, the Firepower museum at Royal Arsenal is also taking a trip to the past with it’s Second World War Evacuee Day, also on Saturday.  This informative and moving commemoration features first-hand written accounts from evacuees and memorabilia from the time, as well as the obligatory in-character guides such as an air-raid warden and soldiers to entertain the younger visitors.

The rejuvenation of one of the borough’s other rivers – I know, there are others! – is celebrated this week with the River Quaggy’s Annual River Walk.  Five years on from the success of the Quaggy Waterways Action Group’s efforts to transform Sutcliffe Park from wasteland into a wildlife haven, they re-visit the park to see how it’s thriving.

Back at Greenwich town’s riverside hub, the Cutty Sark Gardens, there’s a Continental village market on Friday and Saturday.  It’s mainly a food market, featuring the best cuisine from France, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Germany (to name but a few) and it will be moving inland to Eltham on Sunday.

Rounding up the non-river events, if you ever wondered what happened to Tony from Eastenders, well he’s alive and well and featuring in a new take on Dickens’s The Signalman at Greenwich Theatre this week.  For budding DJs, this Friday the British Music Experience at the o2 is featuring a Q&A session with some top name DJs from independent dance label Hospital Records.  And if space exploration floats your boat (sorry, couldn’t resist…), the Invaders of Mars showcase runs until Monday at the Planetarium, narrated by Tom Baker of Little Britain / Dr Who fame.

Every week in my ‘What’s On’ article, I attempt to glean a vague a theme out of the coming week’s events, but this week the sheer diversity is making it tricky, so I’ve instead gone for a collection of goings-on that have almost nothing in common.  After all, random events are nearly always the best kind.

If you’re not totally festival-ed out for this summer or are keen to squeeze one last fest in before September descends (bringing immediate winter of course), there’s the Well Hall Summer Festival at the eponymous Pleasaunce on Sunday afternoon.  As well as the usual proliferation of sugary food, balloon-related activities and brass instruments to send your kids loopy there is also a promising Abba tribute band and some owls and falcons on display.   Not simultaneously, I hope; falcons don’t strike me as the Mamma Mia! types.

If you’re keen to stretch your legs and meet some new people then St Alfege’s Church is leading a multi-faith walk on Saturday.  The informal walk takes participants around some of the different religious centres in Greenwich and Blackheath encompassing, amongst others, the Muslim and Quaker communities.  The walk’s itinerary also promises abundant refreshments so you’ll be well taken care of.

The indigo2 are going for the longest name for a tournament in Greenwich’s history, with the G Force Street Dance Weekend UK Championships on Sunday.  Apparently Britain’s Got Talent champs Diversity are past winners of this competition, so the standard is likely to be high and it will no doubt be an energetic, grafity-defying spectacle – how do break dancers do it?

In anticipation of the forthcoming Greenwich Comedy Festival, The Albany are hosting their own brand of funny stuff with the Sweetfellows Comedy Show on Friday evening with some well-known urban comedians taking to the stage.

Over on the Blackheath side of town, the Railway pub are holding their cider festival, aptly name CyderFest, all next weekend with live music and… cider.  Young jazz/folk singer Janet Penfold is also performing at the British Oak on Old Dover Road on Saturday evening.
Finally, for those of you on the home stretch with the summer holidays, there’s a Wildlife Drop in at Greenwich Park on Wednesday morning.  The squirrels are out in force at the moment and don’t seem to be too bothered by having kids chase them so now seems like a good time to find out a bit more.

Those of you who follow Greenwich.co.uk on Twitter will have noticed that in last weeks column I shamefully omitted to mention the annual Rose and Crown ‘Drag Race’. In light of this I wanted to go in search of a few more left field options for activities this week, inspiring us to do something a little bit different.

Prize for ‘most different’ must go to the Crossness Pumping Station, who this Sunday are holding a public steaming day. It sounds a little dubious given the context (in case you weren’t aware it’s a sewage pumping station) but as Andrew Gilligan assures us, Crossness is actually a beautiful building, Grade 1 listed and noted for its Romanesque Victorian cast ironwork.  Andrew also assures us that the smell is more or less non-existent, so I’d say its worth a visit.

Also having a good go at inspiring young people to try something new are the London Councils, who are teaming up with TARA and the Greenwich Theatre to run a two-week workshop from today called Sailing to Britain. The participants’ task is to develop a play based on the lascars, migrant workers who sailed to Britain in the 19th/20th centuries. The workshop is part of a wider three year project that will culminate in performances of the devised plays on river boats during the 2012 festivities.

If, like me, you don’t usually venture too far for green space due to your (correct) belief that other London parks are pretty disappointing after Greenwich, then this week might be that time to be brave and give another green space a go as Parksfest 2009 comes to Eltham Park South for an afternoon of music on Sunday.  The ubiquitous Trinity College and Greenwich Youth Band will be there to make Greenwich folk feel at home, along with the Bob Hope Theatre company and Crown Woods School.

Other notable quirky happenings are a new art exhibition featuring local talent at Blackheath Village Library and, if you still haven’t given it a go, Oliver’s Music Bar are hosting a jazz jamming session on Saturday evening.

On 10^th August 1675, Charles II climbed the hill in Greenwich Park (or was carried by some minions, or came from the Blackheath side) and laid the first paving stone of the world’s first observatory. Three hundred and thirty four years later the Royal Observatory is still thriving. This Thursday you get a chance to be guided around their North-West Passage Exhibition by their team of curators, who’ll be telling stories about some of the expeditions featured therein.  The Volunteer Guided Tours of the whole museum are also running every weekday this week and for younger audiences the summer programme features almost daily storytelling and interactive craft sessions such as Family Treasures and Play Tuesdays. Makes me wish I were 5 again!

The Park is also playing host to the Garden Opera Company this Sunday for their rendition of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.  Working hard to overcome the stuffy connotations of the ‘O’ word, the Garden Opera Company’s aim is to make the whole thing as fun as possible; their strap line “Hair dressing, salad dressing, cross dressing” certainly sells it to me and this colourful, stripped down version of an Italian masterpiece should be lively enough to hold the attention of even the newest (and most discerning) opera spectators.

At the more modern end of the musical scale Oliver’s Music Bar is hosting young London based jazz singer Jeanie Barton this Thursday evening; The King is apparently alive and well and coming to Greenwich on Sunday, with an Elvis Anniversary Concert at the indigo2; and there’s pop, rock and soul classics to be bopped to with covers band Nightshift playing at Well Hall Pleasaunce in Eltham on Sunday afternoon.

We’re getting into the third week of the summer holidays now.  The kids are bored of their bikes (ok, X-boxes), you’ve taken them to see Harry Potter 4 times and they’re threatening to make you go and see Ice Age for the 6^th time.  Luckily, you live in Greenwich, so there are plenty of things happening to keep the younger folk entertained this week.

Blackheath Halls are running some rather imaginative workshops every morning aimed at bringing out your children’s creative sides. Activities include making an enchanted garden, learning to dance salsa and having a go at taiko drumming (I’m not quite sure what that is either but I imagine that’s the point!)  There’s even a class teaching Maypole dancing; 4 months out of date, maybe, but at least they’ll know for next year and it is marginally healthier than X-box.

For the very little ones, the Old Royal Naval College are also getting creative on Friday afternoon with their back-to-back ‘Animaltastic’ and ‘Tactile Tales’. The former is a finger-puppet making session and the latter tells the story of kings and queens through a multi-sensory rug. Greenwich Theatre is also showing a musical adaptation of The Gruffalo from Thursday to Saturday, which if you’re anything like me will probably be as much of a treat for the adults as it is for the children.

If your kids are now old enough to not really be kids anymore, but lucky enough to still have summer holidays, they may wish to check out The Albany’s Summer Arts Season, a series of courses for budding film-makers, actors and scriptwriters that starts this week.  Most of the courses run for 3 weeks but there are some 1 week courses available too, all from as little as £10 / week. Throughout August under 16s also get in free to the British Music Experience at the o2, who are hosting their own Summer Kids’ Festival, with master classes in hip-hop, drumming and other ‘cool’ stuff, beginning this week.

Finally, in the ‘Fun for All the Family’ category, this weekend Greenwich Park will be hosting the Thai Festival at the bandstand area.  There’ll be live music, dancing, Thai massage and craft stalls, but, like Thailand, it’s really all about the food.  Our city’s best Thai restaurateurs will be out in force and if you’re feeling brave you can even have a go at making green curry yourself in one of the cookery classes.

Is there anything else happening in Greenwich this week? Add details of your own events in the comments section of this post.

‘Community spirit’ isn’t a term many people associate with London but Greenwich is proving itself to be something of an exception, with our most neighbourly out in force this week.

Blackheath Halls Community Programme, which has over 300 members and includes kids from six schools in Greenwich & Lewisham, is this week staging its community opera, Orpheus and Eurydice, at the Halls.  As well as the local pupils, young people and community musicians, Trinity Laban have lent some of their own talented folk to the project, so it promises both quality and a warm fuzzy feeling. (7.30pm Tue-Fri, 3pm Sat)

If Something Wicked this Way Comes whet your appetite for Shakespeare, then you might wish to pay a visit to The Albany in Deptford, which is staging The Timon of Athens inspired Feeble Minds this week.  This philosophical play about the journey to madness is a collaboration between two theatre companies, HotPots, exclusively for over 60s and inc.Theatre Ensemble, which is made up of artists with learning disabilities.  There’s also a post-show discussion on Thursday evening: all very good for the soul.

As part of the Young London Into Music festival, participants of Greenwich Council’s local residency programme are staging The Missing Link at Greenwich Heritage Centre on Friday, as part of a weeklong specially commissioned audio instillation. Friday’s free show will feature the installation’s headline talent MC Bashy performing live.

Another community favourite, the Greenwich Concert Band, will be lighting up Greenwich Park next Sunday afternoon – traditional Big Band repertoire in a traditional Bandstand setting, so take a blanket, a hamper and some sunscreen (ok, an umbrella) and get yourself down there.

To mark this week’s monumental event in Greenwich – a whole week of good weather – I wanted to go in search of a soundtrack to the sunshine and with a raft of musical events happening in and around the town this week, there’s hopefully something to please everyone: get your dancing (or toe-tapping) shoes on.

If you’ve been watching Glastonbury on BBC Three with a tinge of jealousy then most notable is the brilliantly named ‘Nestival’ at the Bird’s Nest in Deptford next Friday and Saturday. Here’s your chance to dance away in the sunshine with a BBQ burger and a beer and in fact, it’s better than Glasto on two counts. 1: you don’t have to sleep in a tent or wear wellies and 2: it’s all absolutely free.  Friday night is the club night featuring what my Mum calls ‘doof doof’ music, so it’s best to venture down on Saturday if you’re looking for something more relaxed as that’s when the live bands are on.  (Fri 8pm-2am & Sat 4pm-2am, Free)

If that all sounds a bit loud and energetic for you, you might prefer to head to Mycenae House in Blackheath this evening for some laid-back Jazz with trumpeter Leigh Henson.  A regular on the Jazznights scene, Leigh’s vibrant style should see off the Monday blues nicely and if you’re a player yourself it’s worth taking your instrument along as you may get to join in for a jam session. (7.30pm; £5/4)  The Birds Nest is also rounding off the Nestival activities with some Jazz and Bossa Nova from Antonion Marzinotto on Sunday evening (Free).

Along the more classical lines the Old Royal Naval College continues its homage to Handel in his 250^th anniversary year by teaming its choir up with the Greenwich Baroque Orchestra for a celebratory concert on Wednesday, in the college chapel. The spectacular setting of the chapel, worth a visit in its own right, fits this style of music perfectly and these two very proficient groups will no doubt put on a great show. (7.30pm, £15). For those of you with budding young musicians Trinity are also holding a Junior Composition Workshop on Saturday and admission is free for spectators.

Is there anything else happening in Greenwich this week? Use the comments box below to share any info.