Greenwich Time

Hi!  It is me, Wilfred!  And my two dads and I are still living in London. 

Last week was my half term break at Ravenstone Preparatory School and since Poppy was working, Dad and I did all kinds of fun stuff together.  We went back to the Science and Natural History Museums, because there is always lots to see and do, and one day we went to Regent’s Park and the London Zoo. But the trip I liked the best was down the Thames to Greenwich.

Greenwich is a part of London, but in the old days, it was a separate town down the Thames River on the way to the sea.  In olden times, Greenwich was the last stop for ships coming up the Thames to the City. Nowadays, Old Greenwich is on the eastern edge of London.  It takes about half an hour to get there by Tube, or train, DLR (Docklands light rail), or boat.  I love trains, but the funnest way to get to Greenwich is by boat.

Dad and I took the Tube from Gloucester Road Station.  Dad has an Oyster card that he bought at the station.  It’s like a credit card and gives you cheaper fares than paying with money.  Kids ride the Tube free with an adult, so Dad lets me swipe the Oyster card at the turnstile and we go through together.  

We got off at Embankment Tube stop and had to cross a BUSY street.  Londoners dash across when the way is clear, but I always make Dad wait for the green man crossing light, because dashing is NOT SAFE!   

We bought our ferry tickets at the wharf (Dad used his Oyster card again).  Soon, we were on the ferry and heading down the Thames.


                     (Me on the ferry in a front row seat) 

The Thames is what is called a tidal river because the direction of the water changes with the tide from the sea. 

We travelled down to Greenwich as the tide was coming in.  My friend, Adelle, told me the tide lets all kinds of sea creatures into the Thames.  Sometimes,  there are seals and dolphins and every once in a while they get a WHALE! 

(The whale I did not see.  Dad found him on the internet)

We didn’t see any whales, but we did see a lot of London from the Thames River – even though it was kind of a foggy London day.  We saw Big Ben and the houses of parliament, the London Eye (of course), the Tower of London and we even went right under Tower Bridge.  Can you even believe it?

After Tower Bridge, the ferry really picks up speed and we zoomed down to Canary Wharf, past lots of new office towers and condos.  And then on to Greenwich!

The ferry lets you off in the centre of old Greenwich.  Right next to the wharf is the Visitors’ Centre where they have all sorts of fun stuff for kids, explaining about Greenwich.  There have been people living here a long time but it was just a fishing village until kings and queens started coming here from London – like their summer cottage (or Grandma Phyllis’ beach house only for Henry the 8th). 

Out in front, they have a big cannon, because the British Navy has been in Greenwich for a long, long time.  They also have a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was an adventure guy from the pirate days who laid his coat in the mud so the Queen wouldn’t walk in a puddle.  Crazy.  I like walking in puddles.  

(This is me being an adventurer with Walter Raleigh  Arrgh!)

Inside, they have exhibits and models and dress up clothes, armour you can put on and lots of buttons to push that make maps light up.

After the visitor centre, I was hungry, so Dad and I walked over to an old pub, called the Admiral Hardy.  The pub was so old, it didn’t even have any HEAT except FIREPLACES!  It was damp and cold outside and you could smell the sea.  I got us a table right in front of the fire.  Dad had scampi and chips and I had a hamburger with lots of ketchup.  I told our server I wasn’t from around there and she said, she KNEW.

When we were done lunch, we walked out of the Admiral Hardy and through the Greenwich Market that sells food and crafts and stuff and out into the old village of Greenwich.  There is an old church there called St. Alfege.  It is named after Alfege who was kidnapped from his church in Canterbury by VIKINGS!  Dad and walked through it.  The outside is all stone, but the inside is all wood.  Dad said a bomb landed on the church in the war, but they did a good job of putting it back together.

We walked back over to a kind of park, with big walls and huge, beautiful, old buildings.  Dad said that it was a music university, but it used to be a naval college and before that, a hospital for sailors.  It was built by Christopher Wren, the same guy who built everything after London burned down, but Greenwich didn’t burn.  There used to be an old palace here (remember, Henry the 8th’s cottage?).  After they tore it down, the queen in those days wanted to build a sailor’s hospital.  Only thing was, she already had a house here and she didn’t want anything to block her view of the Thames.  So Christopher Wren built the hospital in two halves so the Queen could see down the middle.  Now the Queen’s House is a part of the Maritime Museum.

(Sir Christopher's Painted Hall (R), Chapel (L), the Queen's House behind and on the hill the Greenwich Observatory)

On one side of what was the old hospital, Christopher Wren built a big hall, where they sometimes have parties.  It is all painted with the most beautiful painting you ever saw.  It is called the Painted Hall. 

(Me inside the Painted Hall)

(Dad in the Painted Hall - I took this one)

Across from it is an identical building but inside is a chapel.  It is pretty beautiful, too.

Dad pointed out the Royal Observatory on the hill above Greenwich.  That is the exact spot that marks the earth’s east and west halves.  It is called the Greenwich Meridian.  Dad said that every spot in the world is measured from this place and by knowing a place’s distance from here you know where to find it on a map.  It is called longitude.  Dad said it is sort of like mile or kilometer markers on a highway.  For the whole world, Greenwich is mile zero.  There is also a ball on the top of a spike on the observatory’s roof that falls every day at exactly one o’clock so that sailors on the Thames can set their clocks.  Nowadays, every clock in the world is set by comparing its time to the time in Greenwich.  They call that Greenwich Mean Time.  I asked Dad how time could be mean.  He says I will know when I’m older.  

Dad wanted to show me the observatory up close, but it is in the middle of a park and it was getting too late.  I am only six and my legs get tired.  And we didn’t even have time to see the Maritime Museum, so Dad said we would come back another day and bring Poppy.  We walked along the Thames to the wharf to catch the ferry home. 

By the time the ferry got us back to Embankment it was almost dark.   I was tired but I didn’t mind the long ferry ride.  Going to a place like Greenwich getting there really is half of the fun.

Talk to you next week.  Wilfred