The View From the North Bank of the Thames
After an excellent gluten-free sandwich and a coffee in the Starbucks by the Cutty Sark, I got onto the DLR again and travelled back to Island Gardens, where I walked along the North Bank of the Thames taking pictures.
Note you can just see the three masts of Cutty Sark in some of these pictures in front of HMS Ocean.
HMS Ocean Arrives At Greenwich
With a great deal of professionalism, the Navy’s largest ship, HMS Ocean, was positioned at Greenwich this morning.
She will act as a base for helicopters and Royal Marines during the Olympic Games.
The Cutty Sark Opens Again on Thursday
The Cutty Sark reopens on Thursday after a very expensive rebuild. They certainly seem to have done a good job.
I have some doubts about the amount of money spent, but hopefully, the money will be repaid in extra visitors to London and also if it has helped create a new generation of craftsmen.
The Cutty Sark is one of the few sights of London, I can remember visiting as a child, probably after a trip upriver on a boat. What sticks in my memory is the figurehead collection.
It is one of those sites that is worth a visit, even if you have no time to visit the museums. There is a Marks & Spencer and a couple of coffee places, including a small Starbucks to get a quick lunch and quite a few places to sit, so for me as a coeliac, if I’m close, I know I can get a quick lunch, in quiet times like today.
I do feel very strongly, that big projects should leave a legacy. And so, I think it is important, that this restoration should be used to train the next generation of craftsmen. I know there aren’t many Cutty Sarks, but I suspect that a lot of the skills are also applicable to other historic marine craft from Victory and Belfast downwards to the MTBs of the Second World War.
We are getting better at this sort of legacy and for an example look at CrossRail. Part of the deal to build the enormous tunnels under London, was to create a Tunneling and Underground Construction Academy at Ilford. It will initially provide trained personnel for CrossRail, but it also has a wider brief to train people for soft-ground tunnelling projects, wherever they arise.
It is an idea that should be followed.
The Anonymous Widower 