London Design Festival in Deptford

The London Design Festival is an annual event which both celebrates and promotes London as the "design capital of the world". It starts tomorrow 13th September and runs till the 21st. Check out events all over the city at the LDF website.

Three local events include:

The Living Installation in Giffin Square
Sat 13th September, 9am-4pm
Local designer Linda Florence will create a 60s living room in the square and fill it with stuff she's sourced in Deptford Market and the high street. More info at deptfordhighstreet.com and thelivinginstallationdeptford.tumblr.com

The Intertidal Cinema at Deptford Creek
Sat 13th 9.30-10.15pm, Sun 14th 9.40-10.40pm, Mon 15th 10.15-11pm
Hannah Fasching shows two films she has made about Deptford which overlay local peoples' narratives onto scenes of its architecture and landscape. Both can be viewed from the Ha'Penny Hatch footpath – one film is screened in an arch and another is cleverly projected onto the river bed.

Contemporary Craft & Art Weekend at Greenwich Market
Sat & Sun 13th & 14th September, 10am-5.30pm
Designers and makers will be demonstrating their crafts, including rag rug making, ironmongery, furniture making. For more info see Meet the Makers. Plus up to 80 designer makers in the market and exhibitions at the surrounding galleries.

Totally Thames festival throughout September

Usually known as the Thames Festival, Totally Thames is organised by the Thames Festival Trust and is a month long celebration of the river. Go to the events page to find out what's on.

There are a lot of free events and activities in and around Potters Fields Park this weekend (Tower Bridge) with a music stage at the Blue Ribbon Village and the Kids' Choir at the Scoop. Watermen and lightermen battle it out in the Barge Driving Races on Sunday 14th, and the Great River Race takes place on 27th September.

There are also Archaeological Walks on the banks of the Thames, and tickets are still available for one on Monday 15th (12pm-2pm) in Deptford, which will examine the history of shipbuilding at the Royal Dockyard, with a muddy walk along the foreshore below Convoys Wharf.

Party in the Park : Saturday 13th September 1-9pm

Party in the Park is a free festival organised by local community groups in New Cross, Deptford and the surrounding areas. With its roots in the legendary Deptford Urban Free Festival, today’s incarnation is a community event for all ages with family events, food stalls as well as the best local musical acts.

Fordham Park plays host to a diverse and talented line up of bands and artists including: Ras Keith, North 37 & Jazzman John, Rhiannon The Nightmare, Parshmaune, Rags Rudi, Blurt, Magic City Trio, The Ongoing Project plus many more – including one of the originals back from the Urban Free days Back To The Planet!
Plus performances from: Wala Wubeeba African Drum & Dance and Januka Quadrille
Also: Village green games & fairground sideshows with Madcap Coalition Urban Village Fete, Dr Burnheart Gloss, as well as stalls from local businesses.

Loads more info at www.pitpnxd.co.uk
Twitter @pitpnxd

Another Kent Wharf consultation

The proposed new development at Kent Wharf – next to the Laban on Creekside – has undergone some changes since their last presentation in July, and you can view an exhibition of these updates at the Laban on Monday 8th September between 4pm-8pm. Presumably this is still prior to Bellway Homes submitting its planning application, which they intended to do in September.

This should be of particular interest to residents of Finch and Congers House on Crossfields who will be most affected by the development. You can view the information which was presented in July here.

Update 8th September: 

BAD NEWS! Another 4 storeys added to the tower! Now it's 16 storeys...
The new changes are now available to view on their website.

Soon another 135 homes can enjoy the all night banging and HGV movements of Jones Catering – they won't be leaving until 2020. When they do – and Bellway Homes takes over the site – Finch, Congers and Farrer House residents can look forward to yet more construction works!

Tall Ships Festival at Greenwich

The largest number of 'tall' ships to visit Greenwich in 25 years will be moored until Tuesday 9th September along the river between Greenwich and Woolwich. Most of the 50 ships gathering here will have sailed from Falmouth during the past week as part of the Falmouth-Greenwich Regatta.

The festival launch on Friday evening features Catalan street theatre group Sarruga who present "a stunning underwater spectacle" in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, followed by fireworks. Check out all the other festival events and activities (free and ticketed) here.

You can also board one or two of the ships at the various locations in Greenwich itself, at Enderby Wharf on the Greenwich Peninsula, at Royal Arsenal Woolwich, and at Wood Wharf, Canary Wharf. At Greenwich, you can visit the largest ship, Dar Mlodziezy (a Polish/Russian ship, pictured above) between 2pm and 6pm on Friday 5th and 10am – 6pm from Saturday to Monday. More info on Ship Visits here.

Many of these beautiful sailing ships are replicas of older ships and are crewed by novice young sailors "learning the ropes". The Tenacious (moored at Woolwich) is said to be the largest wooden tall ship of her kind in the world, and boasts full disabled access for wheelchair users, a speaking compass for its blind and partially sighted crew members, plus an induction loop and vibrator alarms for the hard-of-hearing.

Also at Woolwich, the Shtandart is a modern replica of a Russian navy flagship built for Peter the Great in 1703. It is a much smaller version of the sort of 17th century British naval ship that Deptford's own Lenox Project hopes to build at Convoys Wharf.

See also 853 blog's take on the festival.