Greenwich Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Greenwich Book

Greenwich was initially thought a poor choice for the millennium celebrations. Beyond the picturesque park, Observatory and Naval College, it is a sprawl of run-down estates. The transport links were ineffectual and the Dome site was a ghastly industrial wasteland, in a state of what Jennings calls "poisonous decay" thanks to chemical plants and gas works. Many considered Birmingham a better choice. What swung the decision was the weight of history. What could be a more appropriate place to mark the millenium than the very place where time itself is measured? Charles Jennings' Greenwich explores the history that culminated in the Dome--a story as curious and eclectic as the place itself. Somehow this obscure fishing village beyond city boundaries grew to become the centre of Britain's Navy, the birthplace of classical architecture and a Royal home. Greenwich Mean Time was declared in an 1880 Act of Parliament, having come into common use through railway timetable synchronisation. Before that, longitude, latitude and the positions of the stars were already been calculated at the Observatory. Jennings' previous portraits of Britain--the upper classes caricatured in People Like Us and Northern life explored in Up North--demonstrated his wry humour. But Greenwichis a very different, meandering history, which doesn't always capture the place and its people. The most fascinating material in the book is the working-class history and lurid folk law--wild beast shows, "tumbling" and intoxication at the Greenwich Fair; the highwaymen of Blackheath; notorious murderers--which could have filled an entire book in itself.--Sarah ChampionRead More

from£N/A | RRP: £8.99
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £N/A
  • Foyles

    There is probably not a London suburb with more intense historical connections, more diversity and more astonishing buildings and artefacts than Greenwich. There are sections on MARITIME GREENWICH - home of the Maritime museum and the CUTTY SARK; ROYAL GREENWICH - Greenwich Park was Henry VIII's favourite residence and where he met Anne Boelyn; SCIENTIFIC GREENWICH - home of the Royal Observatory and GMT and of course The Dome itself...What's it going to be like compared to similar vast jamborees - the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Festival Britain of 1951, what is that strange fabric stretched over those yellow spikes and WHO is going to settle in the 1400-home Millennium Village, to be opened in 2000, with the remains of the old gasworks lying a couple of feet below?

  • Blackwell

    This humorous, informative, and user-friendly guide to Greenwich looks at the maritime, royal, and scientific history of the area. It also explores the preparations and plans for the Millennium as compared to the 1851 Great Exhibition and the 1951...

  • ASDA

    A humorous but informative user-friendly guide to Greenwich.

  • 0349112304
  • 9780349112305
  • Charles Jennings
  • 4 January 2001
  • Abacus
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 242
  • New edition
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.