A Little Tour

I thought that after seeing the seamier side of my local area, you might like to see some of the pleasanter surroundings that are within a few miles of my home.

I'm sure Lewisham grew up where it did because it was at the confluence of two rivers - the Ravensbourne and the Quaggy (which only surfaces briefly near the town centre, otherwise it's culverted). Here's the Ravensbourne

and here's the Quaggy.

Believe it or not, they both used to look much worse than this!

OK, apparently I loaded these wrong. Photobucket won't let me into my album, so I had to do this straight from the computer.

This path is between two beautiful streets where the richer members of Lewisham society reside. It's actually in Blackheath, parts of which are in the borough of Lewisham. As Ientered the path, two mounted police officers came out.

The second picture is from an almost derelict staircase leading from an observation platform preserved for its wonderful views over London. As you can see, it's a good hunting spot for cats!

Then there are two pictures of the views from this vantage point. I was desperate for a pee at this point, and the area was so deserted, I just squatted and watered the plants.

At the bottom of this section is one of the old houses on the old Earl of Dartmouth's estate.

Above is another of the very old houses on the same street.

Below is a pair of houses which are some of the oldest semi-detached houses in Britain.

Another 200-year-old house on the Dartmouth land.

This is a close-up of the blue plaque on the wall.

Now you know who to blame!

The Ranger's House was built to house the Ranger of Greenwich Park.

It now houses the Werner Collection, and amazing collection of jewellery and other fine pieces of gold and other precious stones and metals. Greenwich Park was close to the road the Romans built to the Kent coast. It's the same road that Chaucer's pilgrims used to go to Canterbury in the Canterbury Tales.

This was the hunting park for Greenwich Palace, where Henry VIII was born.

From this hill, beside the Royal Observatory, you can see the National Maritime Museum, with the Queen's House in the centre. I've made posts about these before. Beyond is the Royal Naval College, which is now part of the University of Greenwich. Then there is the Thames, and on the other side, the Isle of Dogs, with the tower blocks of the new business district at Canary Wharf.

To the left you can just make out the new big wheel, the Greenwich Eye.

This view shows the Millennium Dome, or the O2 as it's now known.

Ahm the 24-hour clock on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich,

the place where the day begins and ends.

It shows Greenwich Mean Time, which is an hour behind the current British Summer Time.

There are some incredibly old trees in the park.

This sign tells the story of the Elizabeth Oak, which managed to stand for centuries till modern technology failed to save it (they put a metal stanchion inside to support it, but failed to attach it to the ground, so its weight pulled the tree over some time after a heavy storm).

This is the view back up to the Observatory. This is probably no more than a tenth of the park, maybe a lot less than that. You can just see a statue in the middle, which is of General Wolfe, the man who subdued Quebec. Apparently, today was his 239th birthday.