Things to do this weekend
Free entry to the Royal Artillery Museum (Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, SE18 6ST) – Saturday 14 September 2013 – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Meet the stunning horses of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery as they practice their exciting troop exercises in front of Firepower as part of their Community Day events. The Horses will be on site from 10:00 am to 10:30 am.
Fighting Talk – Enjoy a fascinating new audiovisual display, showcasing the project’s interviews with Royal Artillery veterans of major conflicts in the Falklands, Northern Ireland, the Gulf, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Try on genuine camouflage dress and handle full-sized replica campaign medals of each of these conflicts from the project’s special Memory Boxes. More info on www.firepower.org.uk.
The Mayor’s Thames Festival – 1513: A Ships Opera – Saturday, 14 September 2013 Starts at 6:45 pm
An armada of historic vessels from the age of sail, steam and diesel will perform a live, moving, operatic concerto of ships’ steam whistles, bells, horns, hooters, sirens and cannon as the centrepiece of the 2013 Thames Festival. The first act of this symphonic maritime performance begins at sea, at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. A lone steam tug, the historic Barking, will make her way into the tideway to Central London, all the while broadcasting her swag of steam whistles.
At 6.25pm, around Trinity Buoy Wharf (home of London’s last lighthouse and where Trinity House manufactured the buoys that have, and continue today, to guide the world’s mariners), Barking will muster her fellow opera performers: the Trinity Light ship (LV95) pulled by two handsome red diesel tugs, historic Clyde puffer steam ships VIC 56 and VIC 96, the diesel tug Kent, and twin-masted 19th century sailing klipper De Walvisch – all bedecked with a range of steam whistles, horns and bells – the collected vocal cords of a ship of provenance, now long dead… lost voices calling again. Here an audience will experience the second act of the opera, the magnificent fleet calling to the shore, waters and airwaves against the backdrop of The O2.
At Tower Bridge, at 7.45pm as the bascules rise, the curtain opens and the company of ships enters the theatre of the Pool of London. The main act of the performance begins, the ships joined now by the cruiser HMS Belfast in an acknowledgement of our historic naval might.
500 years after the foundation of the great Corporation of Trinity House and 500 metres from Trinity House itself, as the bascules close, Trinity Light Vessel LV 95 swings her lifesaving beam of light illuminating architecture old and new from the Shard to the Tower of London. More info on thamesfestival.org
The Mayor’s Thames Festival – Barge Driving Races – Sunday 15 September 2013
The barge-driving races re-enact the way that watermen manoeuvred their barges on the Thames in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cheer on modern-day watermen and lightermen as they battle it out in the Steve Faldo Memorial Barge Drive, while friends, family and newcomers compete in the Dave Pope Challenge.
The Dave Pope Challenge – Waterloo Bridge to Tower Bridge, 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
The Steve Faldo Memorial Barge Drive – Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge, 2:00pm – 3:00 pm
St. Katharine’s Dock Classic Boat Festival – Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 September 2013 – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
If you love classic vessels, St Katharine Docks is the place to be as boats including Gloriana — the Queen’s rowbarge, the Massey Shaw and a selection of Dunkirk Little Ships are open for guided tours. There’s also gourmet food from the St Katharine Docks Good Food Market, Sea Cadet displays and more.
and another boat event
Scadbury Open Weekend (St Paul’s Wood Hill, Chislehurst, BR5 2DQ) – Saturday, 14 and Sunday 15 September 2013 – 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm.
Come along to Scadbury Moated Manor for a self-guided tours of excavations. See the ruined remains of the medieval manor house, and the newly restored shepherd’s hut. There will also be a bookstall and refreshments. The tours start at the point where the estate circular footpath in Scadbury Nature Reserve passes the moated site.
Giant Polar Bear to march past Parliament – Sunday 15 September 2013 – 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm.
A double-decker-bus-size polar bear marionette is going to be among the highlights of a street parade which will stream through central London on 15 September calling for the Arctic to be protected. The event organised by Greenpeace will see hundreds of people in polar bear and other Arctic-themed costumes walk and cycle over Westminster Bridge and past the London Eye on their way to the Shell Centre, in protest against Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic.
The parade’s starting point will be Victoria Tower Gardens, the green space at the southern end of the Houses of Parliament. From there, the parade will head to Parliament Square and cross Westminster Bridge to then turn left towards Jubilee Garden, where it will stop right in front of Shell’s HQ on the South bank. The parade will start at about 12 pm and is expected to reach the Shell Centre any time between 3:00 and 3:30 pm.
Good Picture – 2013 – an RPS Symposium
Please see details of the above symposium which comes highly recommended
PAGB E-News No. 98
Please click on this link to read e-news no. 98