Snowy Blackheath

TOMATO SNOW MAN. YUM.

No expense spared for Blackheath snowmen (eyes made of 2p pieces)

People braving the heath

Looking down into the village, from the Conservatoire

Grit everywhere!

Lovely snowy trees overlooking the railway

Blackheath shops all open for business in the snow

More snowy village shots

The church on the heath in the snow

Snowy heath

Shops and church in the snow

More snow

Guess what? Even more snow on the heath

The church. It’s either very cold in there, or they have excellent roof insulation.

Snow. Heath. Etc.

Snowy shops.

It’s extremely snowy in Blackheath! But something is very wrong. All the trains appear to be running on time, and there is grit on several pavement corners. I have no idea why or how this has happened, but this oversight should not go unpunished.

Every year I dream of building a massive network of igloos across the heath, strung together with little ice tunnels. It never happens, but last year I managed to build an igloo (not in Blackeath). It’s not as hard as it looks, so long as you have lots of help, and some big plastic crates from a Pound Shop to compact the snow bricks. Try it and let me know where your Blackheath Igloo is!

Amazingly beautiful photo of Blackheath

By Flickr user KhE 龙. (Click this link to enlarge). Used by kind permission.

Flying the friendly skies of Blackheath

Another amazing example of aerial photography over Blackheath. If the previous one didn’t make you feel sick, this one definitely will.

Check it out on their youtube page to watch in HD.

Blackheath from above

Great photo of Blackheath Village from a model aircraft, taken by James Good on August 6th

He runs a site called virtualaerodrome.com – I’ve featured images by him before!

Amazing old photos

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Someone at Lewisham council has just uploaded a tonne of really brilliant old photos of the area. Most are of Deptford, Lewisham and New Cross, but there are a few Blackheath ones too. The whole set are highly recommended. There are very few details about each photo though, so if you have any info about them, it’s worth adding the comments to their photo gallery. They’re all creative commons licensed too, which is great, as it means that you can remix them into weird little videos showing Blackheath through a timewarp, for example.

It would be great if Blackheath Society did the same thing with their photos.  They’ve got loads of old photos too, but very few are on the website.

Does anyone know if the Sainsbury’s photo is from Blackheath? I have a feeling that Shepherd’s used to be a Sainsbury’s years ago?

UPDATE: According to Blackheath Village and Environs, 1790-1970: The Village and Blackheath Vale v. 1 (p54) Sainsbury’s occupied the travel agents building. One of only 100 opened between 1892 and 1914. It closed in February 1959.

Here are all the links:
Education in Lewisham
Leisure and Recreation
Lewisham’s Industrial past
Inns, Taverns and Pubs – public houses in Lewisham
Lewisham’s Libraries
Shops and Shopping
Lewisham Cinemas and Theatres
Lewisham’s Railways

Lovely things

The Christmas lights are back. Last year it was December the 5th, so not sure why so early. But they make Blackheath look amazing. Give them money.
And look at this. Stunning.

By Andy Williams, spotted by Adam Bienkov.

Proper photos from the Blackheath Bike and Kite Festival

Here are some photos from the first day of the Bike & Kite festival taken by someone with an eye for a photo, rather than me.

More Blackheath in the snow

More photos of the snow in Blackheath and Greenwich! I think we need a Blackheath igloo! This page says it is easy…. And this one says it isn’t.

Greenwich Observatory Road Closed

Greenwich Observatory in the snow

Greenwich Observatory in the snow

Greenwich Observatory in the snow

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

View from from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Tobogganing down from Greenwich Observatory

Greenwich park telescope

Greenwich park snowman

Greenwich park snowman

Stop! Fixed!

UPDATE: They’ve amended the page, so no harm done… Think my headline was a little premature.

Kake wrote to me to point out that this site was using a copy of the photo above that I took on their site.  The problem has quickly been fixed, and they have referenced the photo back to this site.

Actually their site looks good too – in fact it’s well worth a look.

Which reminds me-  I found another London Blog, called http://www.tiredoflondontiredoflife.com/ full of nice ideas about things to do in London.

There’s a great explanation of what Creative Commons is by Larry Lessig, who came up with the idea. Basically, you can use my work anywhere, for free, but you must link back to it from your site…. And if you choose to modify my work, you have to use the same type of license for your work too – which spottedbylocals.com is doing, which is good!

There’s another brilliant talk about why this is a good idea by Cory Doctorow ( video or transcript ).

It looks like a pint of Guinness settling over Blackheath

An awesome pair of Blackheath photos to see in the new year!  The photo above was taken by Flickr user Andy Linden. Both of these must have been taken at around the same time, I think – they both have a lovely colour to them.

This photo is by Flickr user Baskill. The full set of photos are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/baskill/3141239924/in/set-72157609123838652/