Horn Fair

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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How was 2018’s Horn Fair at Charlton House?

Lara Ruffle Coles

Charlton House Horn Fair 2018

The Charlton Champion is grateful to LARA RUFFLE COLES for sending us her photos, videos and observations from Sunday’s Horn Fair event at Charlton House:

Even though the grey and rainy weather may have stopped some from venturing outside, this year’s Horn Fair at Charlton House was lively and entertaining – if not as bustling as 2017.

My favourite element of the day was the live music from the Royal Air Force Cadets, The Friends’ Musick and the Horn Fair Players. The music generated a very warm and inviting atmosphere, and it was wonderful to hear the music floating around the house as you moved from room to room.

The range of stalls was more arts and crafts than food, this was a bit disappointing as last year there were more food stalls including a really good quality smoked salmon stall selling sandwiches. Only chocolate, honey, coffee and Caribbean food was on offer, and The Giggly Pig Company had already packed up when I arrived at peak eating time just before 2pm. We couldn’t find Wandercrust Pizza, unfortunately; the tea rooms were open, but I would have liked to scoff down a few slices of pizza!

If you ventured outside, visitors were able to have a good nosy round the newly reopened Summer House. The main room and undercroft (also a WWII air raid shelter) could be viewed, and panels were on display detailing the recent refurbishment.

This year’s theme was the hundred year anniversary of Charlton House opening as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospital – which felt a little odd given the Horn Fair’s previous reputation as a bawdy and debauched affair! It might have better to focus on the upcoming Armistice centenary as a whole, and the VAD theme didn’t feel very present as you moved from room to room. The theme also seemed at odds with the commercial aspects of the event.

However, balancing the commercial and educational parts of any charitable organisation is always tricky, and is something that the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust – only established four years ago – is still working on.

More importantly, we should all be supporting events like the Horn Fair as they allow charities to keep beautiful and historically vital buildings like Charlton House open for all of us to enjoy. Roll on 2019!

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Horn Fair 2018: Charlton House needs you

Neil Clasper

Charlton House

Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust is looking for people to get involved with this year’s Horn Fair – taking place on Sunday 14th October, which will be themed around the 100-year anniversary of Charlton House opening as a World War I voluntary aid detachment hospital in 1918.

You can get in touch with the trust by email at office[@]rght.org.uk or by telephone on 020 8856 3951.

 
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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.

Charlton’s Horn Fair returns this Sunday 

Neil Clasper2 Comments

Charlton’s Horn Fair – banned for an excess of drunken behaviour in 1874 – is back for a second year in its new guise as a family-friendly, heritage-themed event run by Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust.

Taking place at Charlton House on Sunday October 16th from 10am-4pm, the event promises: “…a day for all ages. With activities from Stone Masonry by the Building Crafts College, plaster workshops from Philip Gaches, and our very own WWI Nurse Ivy and Devoted Frank. Amongst all the music and revelry of the day come along and enjoy our range of short talks, food and drink treats, and lots of children’s activities that are on offer”.

Are you going to the Horn Fayre? Or the Horn Fair? Or both?

Neil Clasper5 Comments

There’s not much confirmed online yet, but it looks like Charlton could be enjoying two Horn Fairs this year.

A ‘Horn Fayre’ in Charlton Park on Sunday July 27th:

The Horn Fayre - Charlton Park

And a ‘Horn Fair’ in Hornfair Park on Sunday August 3rd:

The Horn Fair - Hornfair Park

Neither are listed on the council’s events page yet, though the latter event is included on the Parksfest 2014 website (and seems to be supported by GLL, suggesting that there’s a link with the various leisure activities that they run in Hornfair Park). We’ve asked the council to clarify the situation via Twitter, and they’ve promised to get back to us:

If both are going ahead, it seems a little strange to be running similar events in adjacent parks on consecutive weekends, but perhaps this finally resolves the issue of how you spell ‘Horn Fair’: a different spelling for each park…We look forward to finding out more as information becomes available (on which subject, the organisers could learn a lot from the – volunteer – team behind this coming weekend’s Plumstead’s Make Merry). If you’ve got more information about either event, please get in touch!

UPDATE: After some confusion, the council Twitter feed has confirmed that both events are going ahead:

UPDATE 17th JUNE: Charlton House’s website has a bit more info on the Horn Fayre now: http://charlton-house.org/whats-on/event/42/horn-fayre

Charlton Horn Fayre – Sunday July 28th

Neil Clasper4 Comments
Charlton Horn Fayre banner
Charlton Horn Fayre photo by Nikki Coates

The Horn Fayre takes  place at Charlton House this Sunday, 11am – 4pm, and promises “traditional children’s rides and races, dog show, beer tent, music, food and much more”.

It is a shame that this year’s event has seen so little publicity, but we’re told that it was nearly cancelled (due to a clash with the Armed Forces Day event), so perhaps should be grateful that it’s taking place at all. It is to be hoped that the plans to include Charlton House in a new borough-wide Heritage Trust will give future Horn Fayre events a boost

Speaking of Charlton House, it appears that their website has been refreshed. It looks like a work in progress at the moment,  but given that there was practically no information about the Horn Fayre online until the last couple of days – and the old website hadn’t been updated this year – this looks like a positive development.

Enjoy the Horn Fayre if you’re going, and tell us what you thought of it in the comments below!