So yesterday the London Borough of Greenwich, where I live, officially became the Royal Borough of Greenwich, only the fourth borough in England to be granted this pre-fix apparently.
What was
lovely is that the celebrations went ahead despite the snow and there was actually a really good turn out all things considered. There was a parade through the town centre with a wonderfully random set of characters including a pea
rly king and Queen, Queen Victoria, Henry VIII and one of his wives and of course, being Greenwich, lots of ship models. This culminated in a firework display on the Thames in front of the Naval College accompanied by music of such patriotism and fervour (Rule Britannia, I vow to thee my country, Land of Hope and Glory and all three verses of the National Anthem etc, etc...) that I was surprised that afterwards the crowd didn’t descend, on mass, on a small African country and try and re-establish the empire...
In among the celebrations though I was asked by one of my friends “Do you think it will make a difference it being a royal borough?” ....
sadly my ans
wer was probably not. Nice as it was to see such a public display of civic pride I doubt it will last long, I suspect it won’t attract anymore tourists, and they only go to Greenwich town centre itself anyway – (tourism in the less salubrious parts of the borough has yet to take off, so they don’t benefit) all the Council staff have new uniforms with the new crest and royal branding on which must have cost a fortune. I would grumble about that but as I don’t pay Council Tax that would be disingenuous....
I couldn’t help but smile though as I saw the new branding going up around the place. A lovely sparking new Royal Borough sign appeared by my house on Saturday – which proved once and for all nothing has really changed – the level of council incompetence remains reassuringly high!
What was
lovely is that the celebrations went ahead despite the snow and there was actually a really good turn out all things considered. There was a parade through the town centre with a wonderfully random set of characters including a pea
rly king and Queen, Queen Victoria, Henry VIII and one of his wives and of course, being Greenwich, lots of ship models. This culminated in a firework display on the Thames in front of the Naval College accompanied by music of such patriotism and fervour (Rule Britannia, I vow to thee my country, Land of Hope and Glory and all three verses of the National Anthem etc, etc...) that I was surprised that afterwards the crowd didn’t descend, on mass, on a small African country and try and re-establish the empire...In among the celebrations though I was asked by one of my friends “Do you think it will make a difference it being a royal borough?” ....
sadly my ans
wer was probably not. Nice as it was to see such a public display of civic pride I doubt it will last long, I suspect it won’t attract anymore tourists, and they only go to Greenwich town centre itself anyway – (tourism in the less salubrious parts of the borough has yet to take off, so they don’t benefit) all the Council staff have new uniforms with the new crest and royal branding on which must have cost a fortune. I would grumble about that but as I don’t pay Council Tax that would be disingenuous....I couldn’t help but smile though as I saw the new branding going up around the place. A lovely sparking new Royal Borough sign appeared by my house on Saturday – which proved once and for all nothing has really changed – the level of council incompetence remains reassuringly high!
(for those who don’t know where I live, and therefore may be wondering what’s strange about the above sign, I should point out that I live on the very western fringes of Greenwich – in fact so far west that a 100 yards further on it becomes Lewisham....)
1 comment:
Ah, that explains the fireworks... I kind of knew about it, but it has mostly passed me by. As the most westerly resident in the whole borough of Greenwich I think I get a bit ignored! I can't believe the sign, how wrong can you be?
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