Category Archives: Greenwich

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel

29 Replies

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel

I’ve always said that any visitor to London should take a Boat trip from Westminster to Greenwich as it gives a fantastic view of the city from the river and ends up at one of my favourite areas of London. That said, there is an alternative way to get to Greenwich, and that is by way of the automated Docklands Light Railway which travels through Canary Wharf to Island Gardens, where you can use the foot tunnel to walk underneath the Thames to reach Greenwich on the other side.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2021-04-02 05:53:30.

The Cutty Sark

20 Replies

The Cutty Sark

Located in dry dock next to Greenwich Pier is the last surviving British tea clipper. This famous ship was built at Dumbarton on the Clyde in 1869 purely for the purpose of importing tea from China, a trade which became extremely lucrative after the British found a taste for it.

Her first voyage started out from London on 15th February 1870 with a cargo of wine, spirits and beer. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, she arrived at Shanghai on 2nd June, and after loading up with 1,305,812 lbs of tea, she left port on 25th June, arriving back at London on 13th October. As impressive as that may be, I bet the Chinese couldn’t believe their luck when they were able to swap a load of dried leaves for all that booze.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2021-02-15 09:56:25.

A Hospital Fit For Heroes

34 Replies

A Hospital Fit For Heroes

Taking a Boat trip down to Greenwich has to be one of the best days out in London, but unless you know exactly what you want to do when you get there, it’s worth dropping into the excellent Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre first before dashing off like a headless chicken.

If you’re anything like me, a day in Greenwich will be nowhere near enough, but for the purposes of expediency, I’m going to start my virtual tour of the town at the Old Royal Naval College, which the visitor centre is part of.

Greenwich has an exceptional maritime history, and next to the visitor centre is the Old Brewery, which used to supply sailors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen with their daily allowance of 4 pints of beer, but which now serves people like you and me, and although I suggested coming to the visitor centre first, I’m also suggesting that you leave the Old Brewery bar to last – otherwise you might not end up going anywhere.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2019-06-19 21:10:41.

Greenwich – A Place of Time and Space

38 Replies

Greenwich - A Place of Time and Space

At one time I hated clocks. The sound of an alarm going off is one of the worst sounds known to mankind, and although it may not be a scientific fact, have you ever noticed how the more time you need, the quicker the time goes? As somebody who was only interested in the time when the barman was calling last orders, I thought that clocks were the worst invention ever – and a complete waste of time. But help was at hand for my chronophobia, and a cure came in the form of a visit to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

In a world where time is now measured by atomic clocks, I discovered how clocks work, the correlation between time and space, why Greenwich was chosen as the centre of the universe for measuring time, and why it was even necessary to know about time at all.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2022-05-24 07:25:29.