Number 16 St Alfege Passage is now rather well known for being the B&B run by local actor, Robert Gray. But before it was turned into a guesthouse, it was F. Taylor’s corner shop and as this picture - provided by Robert - shows, it sold groceries, cakes, bread and Wall’s Ice cream.

Robert also gave me a copy of this sketch below which shows the preliminary workings of a painting of Number 16 by the artist, John Christopherson. Robert would very much like to track down the finished painting that came from this sketch.

Thanks to Fergal Spelman who contributed this photo of the railings at the junction of Halstow Road and Ormiston Road. He explains:

The photo shows a railing damaged when a car slid into it during the snow a month ago. A number of cars coming down the hill (over the railway bridge) just went straight on when the drivers braked and into this railing. Despite it being close to Halstow School and a very busy pedestrian area, the council has so far only managed to place bollards to mark it but done nothing to repair the damage and make the footpath safe again.

Greenwich Council has agreed to donate £3million, central government is contributing £3million and the Greater London Authority has stumped up a million too. There’s also a donation of £1million from the Michael Edwards Foundation.

Councillor Chris Roberts, Leader of Greenwich Council said:

“In Greenwich we are tremendously proud of our heritage, of which Cutty Sark is an iconic symbol. After the fire it was clear that our sense of place was shared by people across the world. We are proud to play our part in restoring and conserving the ship for generations to come. I would also like to pay a personal tribute to the Late Chairman, Maurice de Rohan OAM, who was such an inspiration to everyone involved in this project.”

Councillor Nigel Fletcher, Greenwich Conservatives’ Spokesman for Culture and Olympics, said:

“Restoring the Cutty Sark is a hugely important project for Greenwich, given its status as a world-famous tourist destination. The extra funding needed to finish the job would ideally have been found from private donations, but in the current economic climate that avenue has been all but exhausted.

“This is actually the first time Greenwich Council has provided direct financial support to the project, which demonstrates the hard work the Trust has itself done to raise funds. With the Mayor of London and Central Government now contributing to make up the shortfall, it is right we should play our part. Hard-pressed taxpayers may find it a tough pill to swallow, but pulling the plug on the project at this stage would be unthinkable.”

The Cutty Sark was devastated by a fire in March 2007 whilst work was being undertaken on it. Completion of the restoration was then put back to 2010 but in October last year, a further delay was announced with Richard Doughty, Chief Executive of the Cutty Sark Trust telling the BBC he was “confident we will open in spring 2011″.

Once complete, a new public space will be created with improved access to the dry berth by raising the ship up by three metres.

Update: “Cutty Sark restoration turning into a fiasco” - Andrew Gilligan, Telegraph

Descending into Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

Have you taken any photos in Greenwich lately that you would like to see posted here as one of the Daily Photo series? Email it to rob@greenwich.co.uk

We are already half-way through the last uninterrupted week there’ll be until 2013. The closures start this coming Monday and the tunnel will henceforward be closed southbound after 9pm every night except Friday and Saturday.

Anger is whipping round the web. A meeting has been called on February 12 (see this Facebook site) to discuss some form of protest. As someone on the site says, “the bloke in Shawshank Redemption didn’t take that long to sort his tunnel.”

Does it really take 6,240 hours to fit “new safety, lighting and communications systems”? Surely not. Couldn’t they keep both directions open by having a contraflow in the remaining bore, without HGVs if they’re worried about a collision? Of course they could, but they won’t.

Boris Johnson told me a couple of weeks ago that his TfL officers simply refused point-blank to implement his election manifesto commitment to restore the old tidal flow arrangement in the tunnel during rush hours. They claimed that it was not safe. The contraflow during closure has no doubt been scuppered on the same pretext, even though that too was the preferred solution during tunnel works for many years.

Safety seems unlikely to be TfL’s main motivation, since it was perfectly happy to allow contraflows for many years and since, as far as I know, no serious accident ever occurred. Nor was the ending of the arrangement the result of any considered or empirically studied process - it was just stopped one day, and that was that. The main reason is that it is another part of “Transport for Livingstone’s” historic and continuing jihad against the motorist.

You should be going by Tube instead, scum! No, hold on - the Jubilee Line’s closed quite a lot of the time too, isn’t it? Oh well, you’d better cycle then, through the foot tunnel. Not a chance, buster. That, too, will be closed at night (and possibly during the day) for months this year and next as Greenwich Council carries out yet another tiresome, unnecessary and frankly offensive piece of Olympic-related window-dressing.

We still don’t have a clear timetable for the closures, although we’ve been demanding one for months. But, in the second tunnel-related story of the week, the plans for the refurb have been published - so we do have an idea of what the all-singing, all-dancing, refurbished tunnels are going to look like.

“Our approach to the new installations has been bold,” say the designers, “meeting our clients’ challenge to bring the tunnels into the 21st century.” The design, they say, “aims at a ’supermodern’ aesthetic… a contemporary aesthetic that acts as a counterpart to the old” and will make “use of the tunnels an event in itself.” Oh, God.

One of the nicest things, I think, about the foot tunnels is that they are not supermodern or contemporary - but a little breath of Edwardian Britain, from the unflashy white tiling to the wood-panelled lifts.

The lift panelling will be kept, it turns out, but will be placed behind glass screens on stainless steel fixings, with a stainless steel railing round the car at waist height and “LED feature lighting to highlight the panelling.” All the hallmarks, in other words, of the 538 other clueless, over-buffed heritage sterilifications there have been in London over the last ten years.

The glass panels in the domes on at either end will be stripped out and replaced with… almost identical glass panels, only these ones (wait for it), these ones will be aligned “in clearer association with the meridian, with each segment representing 30 minutes of the time dial.”

The claimed objectives of the refurb include “improved safety” and a “more welcoming environment.” This will no doubt be why those dreary heritage features so totally irrelevant to safety and welcoming, the lift attendants, are to be scrapped. As the document admits, “the lift cars will no longer be manned.”

At tunnel level, the tiling stays, but there is a “central services spine… designed to emanate a serene glow.” The lighting will “allow colour and animation to be subtly manipulated to create different moods at different times of the day,” will “wash a feature colour on the walls,” and will provide “the infrastructure for contemporary art installations so that the tunnels can contribute to cultural life in the locality.” The brochure is full of lower-case, marketing-man’s promises about “invitation, exploration and exhilaration.”

Let us pause briefly here, to collect our thoughts and grind our teeth. Since this scheme was announced, life in Britain has changed. The country faces a public spending deficit of £175 billion; a deficit that will require painful cuts to things we actually value. Does anyone really think that, in this new Britain, spending £11.5 million to damage the aesthetic of the tunnels, get rid of the staff and install “mood lighting” should be a priority?

The tunnel is not a “cultural installation,” but a transport one, a job (subject to simple mechanical repairs of the lifts) that it does pretty well at the moment. As for my “mood,” it would be much improved if basic infrastructure was just allowed to carry on doing its job. I do not want my use of the tunnels to be an “an event in itself,” particularly since the most regular event over the next two years will be closure. You want to see “exhilaration?” Scrap this idiotic scheme, and all the other woeful 2012 nonsense. Stop meddling, and just leave us alone.

The Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park provides a stark contrast to the modernity of of the O2 and surrounding buildings, and yet is only a few minutes walk away.

A planning application has been lodged with Greenwich Council for the construction of a 452 bedroom hotel next to the O2 arena.

The large development, on what is known as plot NO301, would also include a separate 22-storey tower comprising of 100 serviced apartments, a ballroom & events space and a health spa.

The Evening Standard quotes David Campbell, of AEG Europe, as saying: “The O2 has already created more than 2,500 direct jobs in Greenwich. However, the real economic prize for Greenwich and east London is adding overnight visitors.”

At present the nearest hotels to the O2 - recently named as the World’s most popular music venue in ticket sales - are the Express by Holiday Inn and the Pilot Inn guest house.

The planning application and association documents can be seen in full at the Greenwich Council website.

Related link: Greenwich Hotels

The owners of Baba’s Sandwich Bar in Greenwich South Street were shocked to see the listing on the council’s published listings, which was also included in a report on Greenwich.co.uk.

Mrs Bolsoy, who started the café 14 years ago with her husband, told Greenwich.co.uk:

“To say that we were furious seeing our business name listed as failed inspection,would be an understatement. I immediately contacted the Environmental Health department, who on investigating, realised there had been an error on their part. We have never failed an inspection in all the years we have been trading. We have a reputation of being very clean, not only with Environmental Health, but with our customers.”

Upon being made aware of the error, Greenwich Council told us:

“We would like to apologise to Baba’s sandwich bar and their customers for any confusion or distress that may have been caused as a result of an error on our website, which incorrectly listed Baba’s as not having a Food Hygiene Award.

It seems that there was an error in updating the information on the website relating to this particular establishment. Regular spot checks are carried out on our website in order to reduce the risk of errors like this taking place, but unfortunately this particular error was not caught by those checks.

Following an internal investigation the error has now been corrected on the website. We have written to Baba’s apologising and have also contacted them by telephone.”

The Food Hygiene Award is given to catering premises where an Enviornmental Health officer has decided that food is handled and prepared safely. Greenwich Council introduced its Food Safety Award scheme in 2004, with the results of inspections published on its website, and say they were the first borough to do so.

The council say they believe this is an “isolate case” and are reviewing their “procedures to ensure that standards of accuracy are maintained and any improvements identified as a result of this review will be acted on.”

View Larger Map

Andrew Gilligan is wrong to state that “LOCOG admits Windsor is a better venue” than Greenwich Park. We selected Greenwich Park as the most suitable and cost effective venue for the Equestrian Events and Modern Pentathlon events following a detailed evaluation of a number of potential venues by sporting and competition experts looking at all the requirements needed for an Olympic and Paralympic venue.

As part of our bid pledge we are committed to hosting a ‘compact Games’ with most venues within or near the Olympic Park in Stratford. The close proximity of Greenwich Park to the Olympic Park was a significant factor in the venue selection and this allows riders to be accommodated in the Olympic Village. There is more than adequate space for stabling in Greenwich Park and Circus Field and it is not true to claim that riders stay with their horses, they will stay in the Olympic Village.

As Tim Stockdale, Show Jumper, and member of the British Equestrian Team, said last November: “I am very impressed. I was not aware of the Greenwich Park’s sheer magnificence, tradition and heritage. It will be great to be able to stay in the Olympic Village as well so that the riders can be part of the action.”

The use of Windsor Park would result in a need for a second village to accommodate athletes for Equestrian because they would be competing over an hour away from the Olympic Village. The use of Royal Holloway College in Egham would not be a viable accommodation option for Windsor Park because it is already being used to accommodate rowers from Eton Dorney and canoeists from Broxbourne and will be full.

While Windsor Park was deemed to be adequately served by public transport it is only served by two overground links. In contrast, Greenwich Park is significantly better connected with four overground rail stations, the Jubilee line, the DLR and river services. This serves our commitment to host a public transport Games, and to allow better transportation links for spectators with minimised disruption for local residents.

Windsor Park scored well as an alternative venue in our evaluation, however, it was always a challenge to secure support for Windsor Three Day Event from the athletes and the sport because of the historically poor ground for the cross-country. In contrast, Greenwich Park has the full support of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), the International Modern Pentathlon Federation (UIPM), the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) and Pentathlon GB.

Windsor Park does not have the infrastructure in place to host all the facilities associated with an event of this scale, for instance accommodation and catering facilities for over 200 grooms, offices and meeting space for officials, hospitality spaces and a media centre. There would be a requirement to create significant temporary facilities to host these functions, whereas all of these facilities can be housed within the existing buildings at Greenwich such as the National Maritime Museum, the Queens House and the Devonport House Hotel.

In addition, if the Equestrian events were located outside London, another London venue would have to be found to host Modern Pentathlon because all disciplines have to be completed in one day. This would not be as simple as using an existing stadium, because Olympic venues consist of many additional back of house elements which in this case would need to include stabling and training areas for the horses. Providing this for just two days of competition, when such duplication can be avoided by sharing the Greenwich facilities, would not represent cost effective delivery of the Games. It should be noted that in fact three of the five modern pentathlon events take place at Greenwich Park, not just the riding element.

Mr Gilligan is being emotive in claiming large parts of Greenwich Park will be closed for eight months and smaller parts for five years. The Park will only be closed off for four weeks in total, with the Children’s Playground and large parts of the Flower Garden remaining open apart from the days around the Cross Country event. We are clear in our planning application that all ground works related to the Games will be completed by November 2012. After the Games, The Royal Parks will implement an acid grass restoration and enhancement programme which will be funded by LOCOG. This will improve the quality and extent of the acid grassland in Greenwich Park, and will not inhibit regular use of the Park.

Greenwich Yacht Club doesn’t seem the most obvious place for thespian endeavour – let alone an actual panto. Yet they do seem to put something on every year with a cast of thousands. It also seems you only find out about it by accident – so thank you Roger, for telling me at the last minute that it was on, and I really enjoyed it. (Roger, with his triple candelabra, is the musical director).

So this was all about the adventures of Dick Dangler and his faithful Puss cat who had to get the beanstalk Giant to eat chocolate instead of mud so that they could join Greenwich Yacht Club and save beautiful Virginia from the evil clutches of Commodore Tacktightly - or at least I think it was. Tacktightly came from Little Luffing, elsewhere on the river – and as Barnacle Bob explained he could face any danger on the high seas “but its people from Erith I can’t handle”. The whole thing was saved when the Giant took up with Virginia’s sister Chlamydia helped by the ministrations of Flossie, the Woolwich Free Fairy. Anyway, everyone married everyone else in the end so it must be alright.

The cast was headed by the redoubtable, current Club Commodore., Nick Day as Commodore Ophelia Nobbes – with a mountain of blue hair and an impressive bosom. Backing was provided by the GYC Combined Foot and Mouth Chorus who enthusiastically sang a vast selection of songs - anything so long as it had the word ‘sailing’ in it somewhere.

I suppose all there is left to say is that a good time seems to have been had by all and that proceeds will go to a selection of charities headed by the RNLI.