Walks in London

Greenwich

Greenwich home of Cutty Sark , Gipsy Moth IV, St Alfege's Church; Royal Naval College; Trinity Hospital; National Maritime Museum; Queen's House; Old Royal Observatory; Ranger's House; the Fan Museum; Greenwich Park; Groom's Hill area Ideal place to wander; the riverside walk; several good pubs, superb views of London from the observatory; market place and arts and crafts market.


Greenwich
Location 5 miles (8 kilometres) south east of Charing Cross .

Transport Greenwich Station (trains from Charing Cross and Cannon Street ), DLR Cutty Sark or Island Gardens Station DLR (and then Greenwich Foot Tunnel), Greenwich Pier (boats from Westminster, the Tower and Charing Cross Pier).

Things to see: Cutty Sark , Gipsy Moth IV, St Alfege's Church; Royal Naval College; Trinity Hospital; National Maritime Museum; Queen's House; Old Royal Observatory; Ranger's House; the Fan Museum; Greenwich Park; Groom's Hill area Ideal place to wander; the riverside walk; several good pubs, superb views of London from the observatory; market place and arts and crafts market.

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Background


Greenwich was established as a little fishing port on the Thames long before the Norman Conquest in 1066. Its recorded history begins in the 9th century when King Alfred and his daughter granted it to the Abbey of St Peter in Ghent.

Greenwich's recorded history resumes with its acquisition in 1427 by Henry VI's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. He rebuilt the old abbey buildings into a mansion called Bella Court, with a fortified tower on the hill behind and enclosed 200 acres of Blackheath to form a deer park, to hunt in. Bella Court was subsequently enlarged by the Tudors into the great royal palace of Placentia , the birthplace and favourite residence of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Meanwhile, The old village centre of Greenwich stretched back from the riverside along Greenwich Church Street, with the church on one side and the Royal Hospital and Queen's House on the other. After Charles II began his new palace, the village began to expand, mainly around the park, which Charles had commissioned Andre Le Notre to landscape. The earliest developments were along Groom's Hill, the road that runs up the hill along the west side of the park. Later came Park Vista along the south side, and Maze Hill along the east side.

Croom's Hill, the finest street in modern Greenwich, along with Park Vista are both visited on our walk.

Regency rebuilding

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries elegant streets were added to the west of the village below Point Hill, and in the 1830s the old congested village centre was rebuilt in flamboyant Regency style. Following that the building of the pier for steamboats in 1836 and the opening of the railway station in 1838 (the Greenwich-London Bridge line is the oldest railway in London ), the village rapidly developed into a suburb and now a historical tourist centre.

Today its main attractions are concerned with its maritime past and its role in the development of the world's time zones. The two are related since the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park , through which runs the Greenwich meridian line, was originally set up by Charles II to solve the longitude problem for sailors.

GREENWICH WALK Top


Start and finish at various points I have attempted to set the start and finish at convenient points, it is unwise to drive in as parking is a nightmare, and limited at best, so

Walk 1. Greenwich Station Via London Bridge Station. Distance about 3 miles (approx 5 kilometres). from centre of London

Walk 2. If you arrive on the DLR Via Stratford / Fenchurch Street at Cutty Sark or by bus although you start part way through walk 1, you rejoin and return here.

Walk 1: start here:


Come out of Greenwich Station onto the forecourt. Directly opposite across the High Road is Queen Elizabeth's College, the almshouse founded by historian and local landowner William Lambarde in 1574 and rebuilt by the livered Drapers' Company, who now run it, in 1817.

Turn right on the High Road, walk on and take the first right into Straightsmouth. Follow this road under the railway bridge and then round to the right.

As you approach the village centre, you get a fine view of the parish church of St Alfege's.
it has a small churchyard at the rear with access to many well preserved 19 & early 20th century dwellings, in the side roads and pathways leading off.

Alfege the 29th Archbishop of Canterbury , probably would be lost to time but an invasion by Viking raiders captured the Archbishop of Canterbury Alfege, and brought him hostage to their camp at Greenwich and on 13 April. 1012. Where he was murdered. The parish church, dedicated to his memory, was later built on the site of his martyrdom.

13th century
A new church was built around 1290. Cardinal Morton was vicar 1444-1454; King Henry VIII was baptised here in 1491;
and Thomas Tallis - the "Father of English Church Music" - was buried here in 1585. But the building, undermined by burials, collapsed in a great storm in 1710.

18th century
This existing church, the third on this site, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, who trained under Sir Christopher Wren, working with him on the Greenwich Royal Naval College . It was dedicated in 1718. The medieval tower was strengthened and refurbished in 1730 by John James of Greenwich . It continued to be associated with celebrated personalities: John Flamsteed - the first Astronomer Royal - worshipped here; General Wolfe - the hero of Quebec - was buried here; John Julius Angerstein - the inspiration for Lloyd's insurance - was Churchwarden; and General Gordon - overwhelmed by the Mahdi at Khartoum - was baptised here.

The church suffered extensive fire damage from bombing in World War II. It was rededicated in 1953.

Go straight on into Churchfields. At the end look left along Roan Street and you will see the early 19th-century master's house of the Roan School, one of Greenwich's old charity schools founded in the 1670s by John Roan, a local man and Yeoman of Harriers to Charles I. The original school site is marked by a plaque. straight across Roan Street into St Alfege Passage. This takes you past the old burial ground on the left and the church and 1814 National School on the right, and brings you out in the centre of the village in Greenwich Church Street .

Left is the river and right is the park, go straight over Church Street and through the arch into Turnpin Lane. This is one of the old lanes of medieval Greenwich, rebuilt around a new covered market between 1828 and 1831. Halfway along the lane, turn left into the market (stalls open weekends, shops open weekdays as well) and walk straight through,

Please note the odd and ungrammatical trader's warning
"A FALSE BALANCE IS ABOMINATION TO THE LORD BUT A JUST WEIGHT IS HIS DELIGHT"

above the arch as you pass out into College Approach, to the right are the gates of the old Royal Naval College built on the site of former Royal Palaces, The old Greenwich Hospital, opened in 1705, closed in 1865 and then replaced by the Royal Naval College.
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Old Royal Naval College Top


On the site of the Tudor Palace in which Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I were born, is a range of some of the most palatial buildings in the country.

The 17th century building was replaced by two new buildings: the early-17th-century Queen's House, the first elegant classical domestic building in England , and the later 17th-century palace begun by Charles II after his restoration. The new palace, unfinished by Charles II and lying close to the royal dockyards of Woolwich and Deptford,

Begun for Charles II by architect John Webb, it was completed by Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor and John Vanburgh as the Royal Hospital charity, founded by William and Mary in 1694 to care for disabled and veteran sailors.

The first block on the right was the one intended by Charles II to form part of a new palace. The other buildings were all completed later once the decision had been taken to build a seamen's home instead. From the centre there is a fine view of the Queen's House and behind it, up on the hill, the 17th-century Royal Observatory.

From the early 1800s, the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones, housed the Royal Hospital School . Later in the 1930s, the school moved out of London ,

The hospital closed in 1869 and four years later the Royal Naval College was moved from Portsmouth.
The magnificent painted hall, the work of Sir James Thornhill in the 18th Century, and the Chapel, designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart, are open to the public.

The old Hospital, is currently open and you can see this fabulous Painted Hall with its impressive paintings on the walls, ceiling, columns just about everywhere, the paintings are a history lesson in it’s self, with all the trappings of intrigue mystery and backbiting, this is a MUST SEE. This was the dining room for the old sailors simply unmissable, and Opposite is the hospitals church, another worthwhile visit, take care not to miss the cobbled yard right next to the hall, you can imagine all the old sailors parading here.

Meridian Top


Between the painted hall and the church building look south and up the hill, you will see the Royal Observatory, The Observatory is both the home of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and the dividing point where longditude starts

The ball on top, originally installed in 1831, drops at 1pm precisely to signal the correct time for ships passing down the Thames, but at five minutes to 1pm the ball rises slowly and completes it’s journey at about 2 minutes to 1, you can imagine all the ships masters along the Thames, raising their telescopes and shielding their eyes against the sun, and checking their watches, remember they had a clear view, with few buildings in those days .

Retracing our steps back into College Approach and then right, following Greenwich Church Street down onto the waterfront. Sport’s enthusiasts will recognise this as part of the London Marathon course………..

Originally the street ran right down to the riverside past the Ship Hotel on the right. Having been heavily bombed during World War II, as much of the surrounding area was, ( if you look carefully as you walk around london, you will pick up on old buildings next to perhaps 50’s and 60’s tacky reconstructions, now when I was a boy a bus ride would show you (from the top deck) all the “bomb site’s” which London wore with pride, many of which were not rebuilt on for quite a few years. Until the poorly trained planners with little insight took over)



Foot tunnel

This area was left open to form today's esplanade. Right by the river is the domed entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, opened in 1902 to allow workers to reach the docks on the other side of the river, (workers further down had the free ferry at Woolwich) the tunnel is a spooky place it if, you are unlucky to be walking through it on your own…. If you take the manned lift down there is an inscription as to it's cost which is claimed to be £125,000 and lined with some 200,000 glazed tiles, when you are across, at Island Gardens (DLR station close by) at the other end of the Foot Tunnel on the north side, it is called the Isle of Dogs and opens to a small park, ideal spot for a packed lunch with spectacular views over Greenwich, and you will see close to here another part of the London Marathon course here as well, at about mile 17.

Walk 2: start here, if you join us at the DLR station) Top
when you get to the end of the walk, follow on back to here, as from walk 1



Looking toward the new dockland's over the river Thames, on the left is Gipsy Moth IV, the first boat to be sailed round the world single-handed (by Sir Francis Chichester in 1966—67) he was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth here, and to the right is one of the great sights of maritime Greenwich , the Cutty Sark, one of the clipper ship’s that brought tea from China and wool from Australia in record times in the 1870s and '80s.

Walk toward the side of the Cutty Sark, turn right under its bowsprit look up and see the figure head see below for more details….* and continue past the pier entrance along the riverside walk. Ahead is a fine view of the Blackwall peninsula, the site of the Dome Millennium exhibition and the new port of Greenwich .

On the right you pass the granite monument put up in 1853 to the memory of Frenchman Joseph Bellot who lost his life attempting to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin's doomed Northwest Passage expedition.

Beyond the College turn right by the Trafalgar Tavern stop and have a rest here this was a favourite with diners of Thames whitebait in the last century, built in 1837 and up until 1883 it used to hold Ministerial "whitebait" dinners at the end of each session of Parliament.

The Trafalgar Tavern
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Famous visitors to the tavern have included authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. walk along Park Row, past a row of terrace houses, crossing a major road (Romney Road) and continuing straight ahead almost to the river front. Just before the riverfront, stop at the entrance to Crane Street (on the right) turn right along Crane Street and stop in front of the white building on the left fable has it Crane Street is so-called because ships used to be unloaded by cranes along it. this takes you into High Bridge and High Bridge brings you in turn to the Trinity Hospital almshouse’s.

Trinity Hospital and the Cutty Sark Tavern, Trinity Hospital.

Trinity Hospital was founded in 1613 by the Earl of Northampton to house 20 poor, retired men. His tomb is in the chapel.

If you wish to view the lovely gardens and building, you must arrange an appointment with the Warden.
Behind the hospital is Greenwich power station, built in 1906. It provides a reserve power supply for the London Underground.

Then continue along the Thames Path to the Cutty Sark tavern.

The Cutty Sark Tavern

The Cutty Sark tavern is a listed building, built around 1804. It is worth wandering in just to see the exposed beams and old naval charm, not to mention a small ale!

Lord Lumley had a house here in Tudor times. After the court left Greenwich in 1601, Lord Northampton acquired the house and in 1616 converted it into an almshouse for 21 local men. Rebuilt in Gothic style in 1812 and run by the the liveried Mercers' Company, it still fulfils that function today, though it looks somewhat incongruous in this rather industrial location.

Carry on under the power station gantry and turn right along Hoskins Street past the scrapyards. At Old Woolwich Road turn right behind the power station and then first left into

There used to be two fairs held at Greenwich : the Easter fair and Whitsun fair. The Easter fair is mentioned in Thackeray's Sketches and Travels in London. Dickens also describes the fair in Sketches by Boz, calling it "a sort of rash; a three days' fever which cools the blood for six months afterwards".

Greenwich Park Street, Cross Trafalgar Road and walk up to Park Vista and turn right. Here many of the houses — such as the Manor House no 13 - date from the expansion of the village in the late 1600s and 1700s.

When you get to Feathers Place look around and you will see a plaque in the wall (and a metal strip in the pavement) marking the meridian, i.e. 0° longitude.

The row of houses here — Nos. 36—33 incorporating The Chantry — was originally built for the Admiral Commissioner of the Naval Asylum (school). The westernmost section at the end of Park Vista now serves as St Alfege's vicarage.

Beyond the vicarage, turn left into the park and then right onto the path beside the Queen's House and the National Maritime Museum.
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National Maritime Museum Top


Britain 's seafaring history, all displayed in an impressive museum. exhibits which change on a regular basis, but include exploration and discovery, Nelson, 20th century sea power, trade and empire, passenger shipping, maritime London, costume, art and the sea and the future of the sea.

The Queens House and maritime museum

Up on the hill, where Duke Humphrey's Tower used to stand, is the Observatory we saw it earlier from between the painted hall
< the building to the left, of the Queens house which is in the centre of the colonnades, in the picture above>and the church <to the right in the picture above> in the former naval hospital, and to the left of it the statue of General Wolfe. Wolfe's parents lived in Greenwich and Wolfe was buried in St Alfege's church after his death at the storming of Quebec in 1759.

We can walk up here to visit:

The Greenwich Royal Observatory Top


The Greenwich Royal Observatory was founded by King Charles II to study astronomy and to fix longitude; see the bit about the Prime Meridian. The oldest building comprising the observatory is Flamsteed House. It was built in 1675, with Sir Christopher Wren as the architect. It was built as a home for the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. He lived in the ground floor, and worked in the Octagon room above until his death in 1719. His successor in the office was Edmund Halley, famous for the comet that bears his name. Later Astronomers Royal lived there until 1948. The time ball on the roof was first erected in 1833, providing the first public time signal. At five minutes to one p.m. G.M.T. every day the ball rises half-way up the pole, reaching the top at two minutes to one. The ball drops at exactly one o'clock . Since the ball can be clearly seen from the river, ships have used the signal to check their time, imagine the old masters checking their timepieces, intently seeking a time check by telescope, from their moorings.

Other buildings include the Meridian Building , built between 1749 and 1855, and the Great Equatorial Building with its onion-shaped dome. This was built in 1857, with a dome installed in 1893. The dome was severely damaged during the second World War, and the existing dome was erected in 1975.

The buildings now house many of the instruments used in the past, plus a collection of time-telling devices from sun-dials to atomic clocks. Among the exhibits is a 28 inch refractor telescope, one of the largest in the world. It was originally moved to Hurstmonceux, but was returned on the tercentenary of the Observatory. It is still used for research and teaching.

Back down Top


At the end of the tarmac walk, carry on past St Mary's Gate and then branch left past the Visitor Centre and the herb garden. Exit from the park at Circus Gate and go straight over Croom's Hill into Gloucester Circus, keeping to the left-hand side of the central garden. You are now in West Greenwich , adjacent to the old village developed from the late 18th century. The Circus was the work of Michael Searles and dates from the 1790s. Unfortunately, only the south crescent was built. The north side was completed as a square over 30 years later and then repaired after damage during World War II, like most of docklands Greenwich was severely damaged by bombs during WW2

Leave the Circus at the far end and turn left up Royal Hill, named after its main developer, Robert Royal. Opposite the Prince Albert pub, (another place to stop) turn left into Hyde Vale and walk up the hill past some rather nice houses, particularly the villas on the right dating from the 1830s. onward turn right into Diamond Terrace. Follow this round the side of the hill and then, at the end, turn left up steep Point Hill. Opposite West Grove Lane , turn right onto the tarmac path. From here there are super views of London and the City east London beyond. When you reach the steps climb up to the summit of the hill where there is a panel identifying some of the landmarks.

Cross straight over the open space Point Hill and continue on into West Grove.

The busy road on the right is the main road across Blackheath to Dover . Stick close to the left-hand side of West Grove. Go straight over Hyde Vale, up the steps and left onto Cade Road . Away to the right now you can see Ranger's House, built in 1699 on the edge of the park and between 1748 and 1773

Croom's Hill begins at the intersection of Cade Road and General Wolfe Road . Macartney House, on the right, was Wolfe's home after his father bought it in 1751. The Manor House on the left, behind the beech hedge, was built about 1690 for Rear Admiral Sir Robert Robinson and is one of the oldest surviving houses in the road.

Below the Manor House is a green with a Catholic church and a fine presbytery next door. Downhill from the church is the oldest house in Groom's Hill, Heathgate House, built about 1635. Just further on you come to another old building, this is the roadside gazebo built in 1672 overlooking the park. The gazebo belongs to The Grange, an 18th-century house standing behind the gazebo wall in its own grounds.

There are some late 18th-century houses in and around King George Street , but from Gloucester Circus the houses are older as you approach the foot of the hill. On the left near the bottom is a particularly fine early 18th-century terrace, with No. 12 and its neighbour now forming the Fan Museum , the only one of its kind in the world.



The Fan Museum Crooms Hill Top


The two Georgian houses, dating from the 1720s, are home to the most incredible collection of fans in the world. The only Museum of its kind, the Fan Museum features spectacular changing exhibitions, a gift shop, an orangery and a Japanese garden.

On the right the Spread Eagle on the corner of Nevada Street is an old coaching inn and a relic of the days before the building of Nelson Road and College Approach when Nevada Street (then called Silver Street ) was the main road through Greenwich . The increase of traffic along this road and the need for a more direct route through the town was one reason for the improvement scheme of 1830.

Carry on past the Spread Eagle down Stockwell Street . At the bottom turn left onto Greenwich High Road . After about 250 yards you will reach the station.



*Cutty Sark Top


On the afternoon of Monday, 22nd November 1869 , a clipper ship of 963 tons gross was launched at Dumbarton on the Scottish Clyde. Cutty Sark was built for John 'Jock' Willis, a seasoned sailing ship master who had set up as a fleet owner in the port of London . His previous vessels had not had the performance results he wanted and his ambition for Cutty Sark was for her to be the fastest ship in the annual race to bring home the first of the new season's tea from China

Although her early years under her first master, Captain George Moodie, saw some sterling performances, fate was to thwart her owner's hopes of glory in the tea trade: in the very same year of her launching, the Suez Canal was opened, allowing steamers to reach the Far East via the Mediterranean, a shorter and quicker route not accessible to sailing ships, whose freights eventually fell so much that the tea trade was no longer profitable. So Cutty Sark 's involvement in the China run was short lived, her last cargo of tea being carried in 1877.

For several years, she was forced to seek cargos where she could get them, and it was not until 1885 that she began the second (and more illustrious) stage of her career.

The ship's heyday was in the Australian wool trade, from 1885 to 1895. Here was a virtuoso mariner who 'played' the Cutty Sark like the responsive 'instrument' she was: she repeatedly made the fastest passage home from Australia .

She laboured steadily for her new masters for almost three more decades ~ regularly trading between Oporto, Rio, New Orleans and Lisbon, servicing Portugal's overseas colonies & possessions.

Dismasted and damaged in a storm in the Indian Ocean in 1916

In 1922, at which time she underwent a refit at London's Surrey Docks.
On her journey home from that refit, she was driven into Falmouth Harbour by a fateful Channel gale.

This gale was 'fateful' because she was spotted there by Captain Wilfred Dowman, a Cornish mariner who, as an apprentice seaman back in 1894, had seen her 'at top speed' with full sail and had never forgotten that breathtaking sight.

She was now very much dilapidated, so Captain Dowman made his move ~ he approached her Portuguese owners, bought her for the sum of £3,750 and had her restored, re-rigged and flying the 'Red Duster' once again.

On Capt. Dowman's death in 1938, his widow presented the newly restored clipper to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College at Greenhithe on the Thames , just down river, where the vessel remained until after the Second World War, when the college acquired a larger, steel-built ship for its cadets. Once more, Cutty Sark became 'unwanted'.

Lengthy discussions ensued over her future, which ultimately led to her being towed to a mooring off Greenwich in 1951 for the festival of Britain .
Eventually, the Cutty Sark Society was formed by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and the ship was gifted to the society.
In December 1954 she was moved into a specially constructed dry dock at Greenwich .

Since her official opening in 1957 by HM The Queen, Cutty Sark has been visited by over 15 million people from all over the world, As a small boy, I went aboard soon after the opening, and it still has a magical feel, especially below decks when your imagination takes over.

Now, 137 years after her keel was laid, and long outliving a normal life expectancy of just 30 years for a ship of this type, she is still an amazing sight, delighting her visitors. If you have time take a tour of her decks and support the restoration and up keep of this beautiful vessel.

If you like what we are doing please follow one or more of the links