Charlton House

Greenwich Dance to leave Charlton House for Thamesmead

Darryl Chamberlain
NRG Dance by Greenwich Dance
Greenwich Dance will still run projects at Charlton House

Greenwich Dance is leaving Charlton House after being offered a home in a new community centre in Thamesmead.

The charity will move into the Nest Community Building and Library next month, four years after it moved into Charlton from Greenwich Borough Halls, its home since the 1990s.

The switch means Greenwich Dance will now be based over the border in Bexley, but it says it will continue to work in all areas of the borough, including at Charlton House, as well across south London.

Melanie Precious, the chief executive of Greenwich Dance, said: “I am so proud of what we have achieved over the last few years. Under some of the most challenging of circumstances we have continued to be here to provide opportunities for our local residents and support for our dance artists and I’d like to thank Charlton House for supporting us through that period.

“The move to Thamesmead will see us upsize the potential reach of our work, continuing to animate community centres in Greenwich and beyond with dance while also creating even more opportunities for people to make, watch and take part in dance.”

Its neighbours at the Nest, which is next to Southmere Lake, will include a new Bexley Council library and Taco!, an arts group.

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Find out about the Charlton House ‘secret garden’ this Saturday

The Charlton Champion
Old Pond Garden
Volunteers have been restoring the Old Pond Garden at Charlton House in recent years

Ever wanted to find out more about the Charlton House gardens and the work to restore them? The Charlton Society is hosting a talk about them on Saturday with Kathy Aitken of Charlton & Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society.

Kathy is a keen amateur gardener, developing her own garden over the last 30 years. She joined the local Horticultural Society in 2014, finding it a very friendly group with a wide range of gardening knowledge. Her working life was in accountancy, and she discovered the considerable health benefits of gardening very early on. She is now Vice Chair of the Society and runs the admin side of the volunteer scheme at the walled gardens.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was published in 1911 and became such a popular book it has never been out of print. The walled gardens attached to Charlton House are 400-year-old gems that have been under-used and neglected in recent years, becoming a truly ‘Secret Garden’ on our doorstep!

The talk will tell you about the history of the gardens and how the local Horticultural Society and the Charlton community are helping the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust to make them beautiful again.

The talk will be followed by refreshments. We will be charging our usual entrance fee which helps towards room hire. This is £2 for members and £3 for visitors and we should be able to accept cash, cheque or contactless payments.

The talk is this Saturday, March 19 at the Charlton Assembly Rooms. It starts at 2.30pm.

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Can you help protect Charlton’s Assembly Rooms?

The Charlton Champion

Charlton Assembly Rooms

A few weeks back we mentioned this Sunday’s concert to raise money for roof repairs at Charlton House. The concert is actually being backed by a charity set up to save the nearby Charlton Assembly Rooms – GWEN ZAMMIT, the organiser, explains all, and outlines how you can get involved.

The concert is being organised with the backing of the Save Charlton Assembly Rooms Project (SCARP) to raise money for the roof repairs at Charlton House, which will benefit the whole community. SCARP was started in 1972 by Gwen and George Zammit and Laurie Cole, all members of St Luke’s Players. Laurie was their musician as well as played for St Mary’s, the daughter church of St Luke’s.

The Assembly Rooms had been St Luke’s church hall for decades but, in the end, the upkeep of the building became too much to handle and it was decided to return it to Lord Gough – a direct descendant of the Maryon-Wilson family – who had loaned it to the church for a peppercorn rent. Lord Gough then sold the rooms to Greenwich Council, who earmarked it for demolition to make way for a car park.

Up until then, the Assembly Rooms had been the HQ for St Luke’s Players, so that is why it was decided, with the backing of the whole community and the Charlton Society, to take it over. This was eventually allowed by Greenwich Council. To cut a long story short, the Assembly Rooms now comes under the umbrella of Charlton House, hence the support of SCARP, which is a registered charity.

SCARP is looking for new trustees, most of whom have been members of St Luke’s congregation. Gwen Zammit is the Chairman and only founder member left, however, she is still supported by Pat Wardale and Kitty Baden-Powell. If you are interested in joining the charity, you will not have much to do – really – but a charity needs Trustees to function, albeit not very often!

If you would like to be involved please contact Gwen on 020 8856 7373.

You can also buy tickets for the Music for an Autumnal Evening concert on the same number. Tickets are £15, and the concert is at the Old Library in Charlton House from 7pm this Sunday.

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Charlton’s Horn Fair returns with pandemic photography competition

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

Blackheath Newbridge club - keep washing your hands, stay safe signs
The Blackheath Newbridge club on Charlton Road last April
The Horn Fair will return to Charlton House next month after a year away – with its organisers promising that it “will celebrate life across Greenwich after a considerable time apart”.

Residents are being asked to submit photos of life during the pandemic to the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust so that a selection can be displayed at the fair. “Whether it’s a photo of a family at home, a street scene clapping carers, or a local market standing empty, the primary requirement is that photos represent the pandemic as it was from the perspective of the photographer, amateur or professional,” the trust says.

Photos can be submitted by anyone, whether or not they live in the area, but must have been taken in the borough of Greenwich from March 2020 to the present day. The deadline for submissions is this Sunday at 11.59pm. Images may also be added to the borough archive, entrants can also win an afternoon tea for two.

The Green Goddess pop-up pub will also be open, while the Collectors dance trio will also be performing their Picture Me There show inspired by life in Charlton. There will also be “musicians and artisan creators from across the borough”,

The free event will run from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 17 October. For more information and to enter the photography competition, visit the trust’s website.

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Picture Me There: Charlton-inspired dance performance comes to Severndroog Castle

The Charlton Champion

Picture Me There rehearsal shot

A couple of months ago, a dance trio, THE COLLECTORS, appealed for readers’ help in creating a Charlton-themed dance piece, Picture Me There. Now it’s about it get its first two performances. They tell us…

This site specific work is devised and shaped from pictures and photos of people in Charlton both historic and present. With references to the lido, Charlton House and the football club, expect a quirky and playful montage.

Performance days and times:

Sunday 26th September
11am, 12 pm & 1pm (roughly 20 mins)
Severndroog Castle, SE18 3RT
Suitable for all ages
Reserve free tickets <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-collectors-dance-performance-in-castle-courtyard-tickets-169508052147&quot; rel="noopener" target="_blank">at Eventbrite

Sunday 17th October
From 2pm (roughly 20 mins)
Horn Fair, Charlton House & Gardens, SE7 8RE
Suitable for all ages

You can follow The Collectors as they rehearse and perform on Instagram: @thecollectorsprojects

This event has been made possible through funding from Greenwich Council.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

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Music for an Autumnal Evening: Charlton House roof fundraiser planned for October

The Charlton Champion1 Comment
Charlton House
Up on the roof: Charlton House needs £1.2m for roof repairs

A month ago, we reported that Charlton House urgently needs £1.2 million of repairs to its roof – and local fundraising is well under way. GWEN ZAMMIT is putting on a concert in October – over to her to explain more…

I am putting on a concert in aid of Charlton House, in the Old Library at 7pm on Sunday 10 October (profits for repairs to the roof of the House). The tickets are £15, to include a glass of wine or fruit juice.

The programme consists of instrumental and vocal music performed by professional and amateur musicians. It contains music to suit all tastes from classical, jazz and musical comedy, etc.

It will be a “relaxed, enjoy yourself” evening.

Tickets can be obtained by telephoning 020 8856 7373 and payments can be made by bank transfer or cheque – details given when booking.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

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Charlton House needs £1.2m to fix leaking roof – but local groups asked for summer house ideas

Darryl Chamberlain3 Comments
Charlton House
More than 20,000 people have had Covid-19 jabs at Charlton House

Charlton House needs £1.2 million to fix its leaking roof, the chief executive of the trust that runs the Jacobean mansion has told Greenwich councillors.

Tracy Stringfellow, the chief executive of the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, said that she would soon be launching a fundraising appeal to mend the roof, and that the issue had delayed wider plans for a £25 million refurbishment of the house.

She also told councillors that local groups would be able to use its summer house after the end of the current phase of refurbishment works.

While over 20,000 people have visited the house for coronavirus vaccines since the start of the year, some have spotted the damage caused by water getting into its old library, she said.

Councillors on the regeneration scrutiny panel were told last night that Historic England had funded a detailed survey of the roof to examine the damage.

“The assessment of complete and replacement works has come back at about £1.2 million,” Stringfellow said.

“We will be carrying out some work over the next few months to identify how we will raise the funds, and we will be launching an appeal with the Big Give campaign, giving local people the opportunity to support the roof works as well.

“There was some significant water ingress during the lockdown period which runs the risk of damaging some of the most significant spaces on the second floor.”

Charlton House summer house
Charlton House’s summer house is being restored

Asked by Woolwich Common councillor David Gardner about the broader future of Charlton House, Stringfellow said that a plan had been produced in 2018 that envisaged a £25m million refurbishment of the Grade I-listed building.

Stringfellow said that the plan had been to approach the National Lottery Heritage Fund for money to begin work, beginning with the ground floor, but the pandemic had forced a rethink, as the fund had changed its priorities.

“We will be looking at that strategy again,” she said. “We now need to prioritise the roof repairs and the rooms on the second floor as urgent. Those of you who have had your jabs in the old library might have noticed damage to the ceiling because of the water ingress – I’ve had lots of emails from people asking about the hole in the roof.”

The second phase of works to restore the summer house was coming to an end, Stringfellow added, with some of the original panelling being restored, ahead of a final phase where the ceiling would be restored.

Stringellow said that the trust would be interested in community groups using the summer house for exhibitions or other uses before the final phase of works started.

“If there are any local organisations who might want to come and have a look at that – a commercial hire might be at a later stage but for exhibitions or programming, we would be open to approaches from the local community,” she said.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

We tell the SE7 stories you won’t read elsewhere. And we’ll do the others better than anyone else. We can’t do it without your help.
– Please tell us about your news and events
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