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 – 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”.
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:
And a ‘Horn Fair’ in Hornfair Park on Sunday August 3rd:
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:
@CharltonCSE7 We’ll look into this and get back in touch asap. Sorry for the confusion.
— Royal Greenwich (@Royal_Greenwich) June 5, 2014
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:
@CharltonCSE7 Hi again – sorry for mix up – GT IS correct – Parksfest Family Fun is 3 Aug in Hornfair Park & Horn Fayre is on 27 July
— Royal Greenwich (@Royal_Greenwich) June 5, 2014
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
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!
Local photographic club Aperture have an exhibition at Charlton House opening tomorrow, running through to July 31st. The show presents some of the group’s best work, and is open Monday to Friday 9am-4pm. Additionally, it’ll be open on Sunday 28th of July for the Charlton Horn Fayre, where Aperture club members will also be out and about taking photos. If you’re interested in what else they’re up to, you can follow Aperture on Twitter: @aperturewps.
Update: We’re told the exhibition will be open on Saturdays, 10am-5pm.
In related news, Charlton House still have pitches available for the Horn Fayre. Hopefully they’ll have some more publicity for the Horn Fayre shortly (and not just on Facebook).
The Charlton Champion 