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WWF style stadium announcer introduced a
sem-eye
final. It was marvellous that massive collective tut
and it was followed by a massive collective giggle
that turned into the Mexican waves of laughter and
joy that later that evening would follow Mo Farah on
each of his twelve laps to victory and a second gold
medal. Happy and glorious games indeed.
Greenwich Park has some Bronze Age barrows
thought to have been reused for burials by the Saxons
in the 6
th
century which are quite impressive and
some Roman ruins which are a bit underwhelming,
more of a trip hazard really hence the railings that
surround them. All square yard of them. Once, as a
rookie tour guide, I learned everything there was to
know about Greenwich Park for a series of public
walking tours on the first of which someone asked me
for the gestation period of the squirrel. It’s six weeks.
You won’t catch me out twice!
The official history has it that King Charles II
established the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park
to solve the problem of accurate maritime navigation
that was holding back the spread of the pink bits on
the map. I tend to think Charles founded the
Observatory because the French King had one. Each
to his own. The building that perches at the top of the
hill and which we all think of as the observatory is in
fact the house of the first Astronomer Royal, the
Reverend Flamsteed. A cash-strapped Wren had to
make do and mend with the rubble from Tilbury Fort,
scene of Queen Elizabeth’s famous
I know I have the
body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have
the heart and stomach of a king
speech, the proceeds
from selling some second hand gunpowder (!) and
some wood painted to look like expensive Portland
Across the road from Wren’s buildings the Queen’s
House of Inigo Jones’ design, embraced by the wings
and colonnades of the National Maritime Museum
draws the eye into the park itself which sweeps up
a great hill with the Old Royal Observatory perched
atop. It is said that when Charles II returned from
exile all Frenchified in his ways and engaged the
Parisian landscape architect Le Notre to recreate at
Greenwich the grounds of the Palace of Versaille
he didn’t know about this gert great hill. If so it was
a happy accident as now Le Notre’s grand avenue
(the starting point for the annual London Marathon)
sweeps from Blackheath to the cusp of the hill and
soars off into the greatest view in London.
Greenwich Park is bookended by two hilly streets
that lead down from Blackheath - named for the dark
soil colour or its once bleak aspect, and nothing to do
with the Black Death. On the Kent side is Maze Hill
and on the London side is elegant Crooms Hill. The
name comes from the Celtic word for crooked and
this is probably the oldest inhabited street in London.
It is lined with gorgeous, mostly Georgian, houses
several of which became team houses for national
Olympic equestrian teams: their colours displayed in
the windows. I took a slow cycle down the hill one
night after dark during the Games and peeked though
the park railings at beautiful, almost spectral, horses
being gently walked and whispered to by their
grooms. From the marquee team stables came bursts
of different languages and that universal human
tongue - laughter. It was quite magical and it will
remain one of my favourite London 2012 memories
up there with 60,000 Brits tutting in glorious unison
when the disappointingly and annoyingly American