Charlton House

Greenwich Dance moves to Charlton House

Neil Clasper

Charlton House

Local charity Greenwich Dance has announced its relocation to Charlton House. The organisation had been working from offices in Woolwich’s Royal Arsenal after moving out of  Greenwich Borough Hall, its home for 25 years, earlier this year.

“Greenwich Dance and Greenwich Heritage Trust announce a new affiliation which has resulted in a brand new home for Greenwich Dance within Charlton House, the historic Jacobean country house in Charlton, South East London.

The affiliation offers Greenwich Dance good office space in addition to access to beautiful spaces for class, projects and performance which include The Old Library and The Charlton Assembly Rooms as well as the grounds and gardens. Greenwich Dance and Greenwich Heritage Trust plan to develop the affiliation further to create more opportunities for dance to animate Charlton House and for joint approaches to outreach. It will enable Greenwich Dance to re-launch its popular morning classes for professional dancers as well as bringing its over 60’s performance company Dancing To The Music of Time to Charlton which had previously been accommodated by Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre at the Tramshed in Woolwich.

The move marks the beginning of a new way of working for Greenwich Dance where classes, courses, projects and performance making will be sited across the borough and the proximity of other like-minded organisations based at Charlton House offers potential for exciting new collaborations and partnerships.

Speaking about the collaboration, Chief Executive Officer, Melanie Precious said: “We are thrilled to have a new home at Charlton House. It’s a beautiful setting in which to base an organisation such as Greenwich Dance which has creativity and the community at its heart. Charlton House is well positioned for our new operational model, we feel as is if forgotten areas of the borough are now within easy reach. We are also hugely excited at the possibility of bringing both the community and professional dancers to Charlton House to enjoy dance within its beautiful rooms and glorious gardens.

We very much look forward to working with the Greenwich Heritage Trust and other residents here to create brand new programmes to keep Greenwich dancing.”

Find out more about Greenwich Dance at their website, on Twitter, and Facebook.

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Community Fun Day and Dog Show at Charlton House this Sunday

Neil Clasper

Charlton Park Community Fun Day July 2018

Charlton Park Dog Show July 2018

Global Fusion Music And Arts and Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust are running a Community Fun Day and Dog Show this Sunday, July 22nd, in the grounds of Charlton House. Themed ‘A focus on youth‘, the event takes place 12-5pm with the dog show at 2pm. Admission is free.

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Greenwich ward budgets are set to return – how much was spent in Charlton last time?

Neil Clasper3 Comments
Charlton House front lawn from above
Ward budget funds were allocated to Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust for a laser survey of Charlton House’s grounds

Greenwich Council Ward Budget scheme is all set to return, leader Danny Thorpe announced last week. So we thought we’d take an overdue look at what was funded in Charlton ward during the last round.

Tweet from Danny Thorpe

The announcement came during last week’s full council meeting – watch it here.

Each ward in the borough was allocated a £30,000 budget to be spent on schemes proposed by the community and selected for funding by local councillors.

When we checked in on the schemes in July last year, only 22% of the £30,000 budget had been allocated.

So how does it look a year later?

PROJECT AMOUNT APPROVED (£) RECIPIENT HOW THE PROJECT WILL IMPROVE THE WELLBEING OF THE AREA AND BENEFIT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY DATE APPROVED
The Big Red Bus Club              950.00 The Big Red Bus Club To provide specialist play equipment for the Big Red Bus Club, Stay and Play service for disabled children in Charlton. 21/07/2016
Thorntree Community Garden                      500.00 Thorntree Primary School To provide gardening equipment, plants and shrubs to renovate a piece of land next to Thorntree Primary school as a community garden for the school children to plant and maintain. 21/07/2016
Valley Hill Hub – Air Pollution Monitors                      120.00 Valley Hill Hub To fund 10 air pollution monitors to install around the Valley Hill Hub area to monitor to measure air quality in the area and examine what affect the local topography may have on possibly trapping pollution. 11/4/2017
Charlton Hope Sale                   1,500.00 Charlton Hope Sale The funding will be used to promote the work of the outreach project and provide practical help sessions for children and families in need along with a summer celebration for the community. 28/04/2017
Guide Camps 2,940.50 7th Charlton Guides To support the cost of an annual residential trip for the 7th Charlton Guides and 1st Charlton Rangers. 6/7/2017
Cold Calling Campaign 740.00 Central Charlton Residents Association To support by the Central Charlton Neighbourhood to run a cold calling campaign targeting cold callers in the Charlton area. 31/08/2017
Charlton Society Events Programme 1,620.00 The Charlton Society To support an events programme on matters of local interest for the Charlton Community 31/08/2017
Cherry Orchard School – Sensory Garden Project  2,000.00 Cherry Orchard School To provide a timber framed canopy for the nursery outdoor play area to complete the works to the sensory space. 29/11/2017
Large and Legging It – Big Red Bus Club 2,425.00 Big Red Bus Club To support a health and fitness campaign in Charlton run by the Big Red Bus Club focussed at women struggling with weight issues. 29/11/2017
Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival 1,981.30 Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival To support a local volunteer film festival bringing communities together to enjoy films in various locations across SE7 and SE18. 22/01/2018
Thorntree Music Project  854.96 Thorntree School To purchase musical instruments for Thorntree Primary school both to expand the potential to learn new instruments and to support the provision of public performances to engage with the local community. 26/01/2018
Valley Hill Hub – Air Pollution Monitors  120.00 Valley Hill Hub To undertake a second air quality survey in the Charlton area during October 2018. 14/02/2018
Laser Survey on Charlton House Grounds 6,985.00 Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust To carry out a digital survey of the grounds within Charlton House to identify the historic features of the landscape which may be undiscovered during its changing development through its 400 year history 3/3/2018
Big Red Bus – ESOL Equipment and Resources  2,630.00 Big Red Bus Club To support the Big Red Bus Club in providing English language support to a diverse range of service users whose first language is not English. 2/2/2018
Greenwich Foodbank Van (£6k split between 14 Wards)  428.00 Greenwich Foodbank To support the purchase of van to facilitate the efficient transport of food collections around the borough. 6/5/2016
TOTAL   25,794.76

By our calculations that’s over 85% of the budget allocated by the time the funding round closed.

Many thanks to the Positive Plumstead Project for passing on the cross-borough list of approved applications. We hope that the next round will be easier to follow: we suggest a page per ward on Greenwich Council’s website would allow residents to keep up with what’s been approved through the year.

We hope to bring more information on the next scheme following July’s Cabinet meeting.

PS. if anyone would like to go through the numbers for the wards adjacent to Charlton (Woolwich Riverside, Peninsula, Kidbrooke with Hornfair), we’d love to add them – get in touch!

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Charlton House Tea Rooms now open for business on Saturdays

Neil Clasper
Charlton House
Charlton House

Charlton Champion reader LARA RUFFLE COLES has been in touch with news from Charlton House:

I’ve lived in Charlton for nearly four years and I’ve always been perplexed about the opening hours of the tea rooms at Charlton House. Why are they only open during the week? What about the weekend when most people are home from work, and are able to pootle on down for a cup of tea and a piece of cake?

Given how few places there are for a tea or coffee in Charlton – The Old Cottage Coffee Shop is my usual spot, you might have thought that filling the tea rooms on a weekend would have been an easy win for the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust who run the building. Alas however, the tea rooms shut up shop on Friday.

But, good news is here!

Charlton House manager Edward Schofield has confirmed that after a successful trial run earlier this year, the tea rooms will now be open on Saturdays from 11am-3pm.

No word on Sunday opening hours so far, but as the Saturday change is permanent, perhaps opening on a Sunday is the next step?

At last, somewhere else to go at the weekend!

The Charlton House site has now been updated to state the new opening times, and an updated banner will be displayed outside Charlton House in the next week or so.

If you would like to give feedback on the new opening hours, their office is based at Charlton House, or you can email the trust on office@rght.org.uk, or find them on social media.

The Charlton Champion provides news and information about issues and events in London SE7. Got a story, or heard some local news? Get in touch!.

Outdoor cinema: The Greatest Showman and Moana come to Charlton House in July

Neil Clasper

Outdoor Cinema Charlton House

The Extraordinary Travelling Film Show are bringing their pop-up cinema to Charlton and screening two popular films outdoors in Charlton House’s walled garden this July:

The walled garden at Charlton House

In other local film news, the 3rd annual Charlton & Woolwich Free Film Festival will take place September 7th-15th, in venues around the area; we’ve heard rumours that Charlton House and the White Swan pub will be involved again this year and are looking forward to hearing the full line-up. You can keep up to date with film announcements – and get involved with the festival – via their Twitter account.

The Charlton Champion provides news and information about issues and events in London SE7. Help us by telling us your stories – or buy the author a coffee.

Charlton’s Horn Fair returns to Charlton House on Sunday

Neil Clasper

Horn Fair at Charlton House

Charlton House hosts its Horn Fair on Sunday 15 October from 10am to 4pm.

It might not be the riotous, drunken event of Horn Fairs past, but it does promise a range of family-friendly activities, cream teas, market stalls, children’s music lessons, and “Hogarth’s 1751 pub selling gin and beer” – plus live music and balloon entertainment.

There’s a Facebook event for the Horn Fair here, and you can follow Charlton House on Twitter here.

Help discover the history of the UK’s street murals at Charlton House

Darryl Chamberlain
Floyd Road mural
The Floyd Road mural was completed in 1976

You’re probably familiar with the work of Greenwich Mural Workshop – even if you’ve never heard of it before. It’s responsible for murals and mosaics across London, including the giant mural on Floyd Road, by The Valley, completed in 1976.

Now it is running a year-long National Lottery-backed project, For Walls With Tongues, to record the history of the artists who created the UK’s mural movement from the 1960s. As part of this, it’s looking for people to interview artists as part of an oral history project. These interviews will be archived by the British Library and on a dedicated website.

Project leader Carol Kenna says: “Our project aims to develop an art history to intrigue people who have not encountered mural painting before and provide a resource for students, researchers, critics, historians and the general public. For Walls With Tongues will ensure that the mural movement will be recognised as an important aspect of 20th century art history.”

If you want to develop your interview skills, For Walls With Tongues is hosting a one-day professional interviewing course at Charlton House on Friday 20 October. It’ll be led by Rib Davis, a specialist oral history tutor and author and is aimed at anyone interested in developing interview skills to a standard required by the British Library.

Participants can then become volunteer interviewers on the For Walls With Tongues project if they want to, although the course is open to all who want to sharpen their interview skills.

There’ll also be a seminar at Whitechapel Art Gallery on Wednesday 1 November where artists will discuss their work.

Places are limited, so if you want to take part in the interviewing course or attend the seminar, get in touch with Carol Kenna via Greenwich Mural Workshop.