HMS Illustrious At Greenwich

I took these pictures of HMS Illustrious at Greenwich.

Apparently, she is going to be preserved for the nation, as is reported here.

To Greenwich Under The River

I’d never been through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, when I used it to get from Island Gardens station on the DLR to Greenwich Pier, so I could get pictures of HMS Illustrious.

As the pictures show, I shared the lifts and the tunnel with a party of extremely well-behaved Primary School children. I mentioned to the teacher in charge, that I’m surprised Health and Safety let children into the tunnel. She said things were getting better and the children loved using the tunnel.

The World At Greenwich

I took these pictures of the cruise ship; The World at Greenwich.

It would be good to see it go downriver from somewhere like Barrier Park.

The World From The Emirates Air-Line

I had actually gone over the cable-car to see if I could get a good picture of the cruise liner; The World. This was the best I got.

The World From The Emirates Air-Line

It has been reported that Greenwich is going to get a new berth for cruise ships, which will be nearer to the cable-car.

The Old Royal Naval College At Greenwich

The Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College is being restored.  So I went and took some pictures.

In a few weeks time, they will be allowing you to get close to the work.  I shall go again.

I Don’t Like The Cutty Sark Either!

The Cutty Sark has won the Carbuncle Cup and the Victorian Society doesn’t like it either.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like it either!

I much prefer the Tenacious, which is a real ship with a purpose and not a collection of timbers put together after a disastrous fire.

Poor Signage At Greenwich

I had intended to get to Deptford, by using the DLR to Greenwich and then changing. It sounds easy, except that the signage at Greenwich wasn’t the best.

In the end I made it, but I just missed one train and had to wait fifteen minutes for the next.

An Amazing Coincidence

Yesterday, whilst descending to the DLR on the escalator at Bank station, I held a lady up because I rather slowed the queue. I apologised and then we found we were both going to Cutty Sark. I was going to see HMS Ocean and she was meeting a group of people to explore Maritime Greenwich.

We sat together on the DLR and then found that she had been brought up in Westpole Avenue in Cockfosters, which was a parallel road to where I lived at the time in Sussex Way. We were also very much in agreement, that the area was the coldest place in London.

We exchanged memories all the way to Cutty Sark.

The View From the North Bank of the Thames

After an excellent gluten-free sandwich and a coffee in the Starbucks by the Cutty Sark, I got onto the DLR again and travelled back to Island Gardens, where I walked along the North Bank of the Thames taking pictures.

Note you can just see the three masts of Cutty Sark in some of these pictures in front of HMS Ocean.

HMS Ocean Arrives At Greenwich

With a great deal of professionalism, the Navy’s largest ship, HMS Ocean, was positioned at Greenwich this morning.

She will act as a base for helicopters and Royal Marines during the Olympic Games.