A new map charting the history of East Greenwich and the Greenwich Peninsula was launched on Wednesday night at the Cutty Sark Tavern in Ballast Quay

The project, which tries to “connect the past with the present”, has been a six year labour of love for editor of the map and professional storyteller, Rich Sylvester.

After getting the “fever” for local history, Sylvester came up with the idea, originally titled Peninsula Stories, in 2004. Since then, he has worked with local residents, schools, researchers, designer Luke Eastop, and historians such as Dr Mary Mills, to complete the first edition of the map.

It’s an ambitious attempt to bring together an overview of over 1000 years of local history in a pocket sized document.

The map plots historical sites of note across the familiar shape of East Greenwich and the Peninsula, and features a time line of important events. The reverse of the map has background information, pictures and stories in nine categories: People, Transport, Leisure, Ships & Barges, Industry, War, Buildings, Art & Memorial and Wildlife.

In an entertaining speech to invited guests, Rich said that whilst the area  adapted to new titles like “North Greenwich” and “City Peninsula”, it was important to look back at names from the past such as the Greenwich Marsh and the  South Metropolitan Gas Company.

Rich told Greenwich.co.uk how the project was first inspired by the discovery of a coconut:

I liked coming down to the beaches expecting driftwood. I was very obsessively into driftwood and I realised after a while I had a bit of a problem with driftwood. I was waiting until my partner was watching Corrie at night and then sneaking in with this huge box of timber.

I got that under control by starting to focus on smaller stuff on the beaches and some of the smaller stuff were things like coconuts which kind of led me to enquire “why is this here and how did it get here?”

That led me into Lewisham and Greenwich local history libraries, and in the libraries, as opposed to the foreshore, suddenly I’m in a much deeper kind of trouble because I’ve really got the fever in terms of local history and this map – six years later – is one of the outcomes.

2000 copies of the map, which received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, have been produced initially and they are available free of charge from Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park, Greenwich Communication Centre (164 Trafalgar Road) and Warwick Leadlay Gallery at Greenwich Market.

There will be opportunities to “walk the map” towards the end of July, and Rich Sylvester can be booked for guided story walks. Keep an eye on the website for more information.

Map editor, Rich Sylvester.

You can listen to some of Rich’s comments at the launch of the map. He begins in this clip by describing how school children interviewed local residents and workers.

A coconut – a symbol of where Rich’s inspiration came from.

A special exhibition beginning this weekend will give local people the chance to get a closer look at proposed changes for Greenwich town centre.

Greenwich Council is asking for the views of residents and businesses on two schemes – the revamping of Cutty Sark Gardens and the part-pedestrianisation of the town centre.

The revised pedestrianisation proposal has been arrived at following an earlier consultation held last December. The headline features of the pedestrianisation are:

• One-way clockwise gyratory on Creek Road, Greenwich Church Street, Greenwich High Road (east of Greenwich South Street) and Norman Road.
• Greenwich High Road west of Greenwich South Street will remain two-way.

The exhibition will be held at Devonport House in King William Walk on the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th of June between 10am – 8pm.

A new forum has gone live on the Greenwich.co.uk website.

The Greenwich forum is designed to encourage discussion and debate in Greenwich. Commenters on Greenwich.co.uk have thus far been limited to conversations in reply to posts on the Greenwich.co.uk website, but now anyone can start their own discussion on the topic of their choosing.

Got a bee in your bonnet about bin collections? Trying to find a recommended tradesman to get a job done? Need to sell or “freecycle” a piece of furniture? The Greenwich.co.uk forum is your place for all that and more.

Click here to visit the Greenwich.co.uk forum. Before you can post, you need to register for an account.

Advertising and commercial messages are not allowed in the forum.

Win a Greenwich Monopoly Set

Last year, with the help of Greenwich.co.uk readers, we designed and made a Greenwich Monopoly set. The special edition was manufactured at the main Monopoly factory. To help kick start the new forum, we’re giving away another one of these very special sets, which will be only the third time it has ever been made (we did a second competition late last year).

To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, all you need to do is register on the Greenwich.co.uk forum and post at least one Greenwich-related message – either as a new topic or a reply to another post. The closing date is midnight on Sunday 27th June.

A winner will be chosen at random from all user accounts that have posted at least one Greenwich related message.

Greenwich Kasapah has been granted a new community radio licence by Ofcom.

The new station for Greenwich and South East london, which we first reported on last October, was one of seven that Ofcom announced today had been successful in their applications to operate not-for-profit, community radio projects.

Greenwich Kasapah will be primarily speech-based and specifically target the African communities in and around Greenwich. Kasapah, meaning good or decent talk in a Ghanaian language, has been given a slot on the medium wave (AM) band.

Sixteen other applications for licences were unsuccessful, including one for Greenwich-based, Talk Africa Radio.