A Visit to Blackheath and Greenwich

In Blackheath, a town in Southeast London, we went into a coffee shop (Costa – our favourite coffee place in England).  We were enjoying our mochas and completing the August 1, 2010 Sunday LA Times crossword (we brought a stack of US crosswords with us and we continue to work our way through them).   Seated next to us was Marion Candido (not Candido anymore, but she didn’t tell us her new last name).  Marion is a pensioner (UK for “retired”) living in Blackheath after having spent 38 years living in Connecticut.  A very interesting woman full of information about the Blackheath area and also very in tune with Americans.  According to Marion, the walkway at the top of the hill in Blackheath is called Shooters Walk because that’s where the hunters used to walk along to shoot foxes and such; and it first appeared in literature in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. And there it was right out the window! 

We also now know where the term “hanger-on” comes from – it is from Blackheath.  On the main knoll at the top of the hill in Blackheath, they frequently executed criminals in the 1300s and 1400s.  These were usually by hanging (as Marion said, “At least for the lucky ones…” – who knows what the unlucky ones endured?).  When a criminal of slighter stature was hung, he typically didn’t weigh enough to die immediately after the hanging began.  To accommodate this, the lightweight criminals would hire townsfolk to hang on (grab the criminal’s ankles just before the hanging and then hang on) to make sure there was enough weight on the rope so they would die quickly.  The folks they hired were called hangers-on because they literally hung on from the criminal’s ankles.

Just over the hill from Blackheath is the town of Greenwich.  We went to Greenwich, prepared to synchronize our watches, and found that it was a very interesting place to visit.  We decided to come back on another day when it is not raining.  When we do, we will take the Thames Express – a ferry boat that runs up the Thames to Central London, dropping you at the pier in Westminster.  Going via the ferry, you see many sites from a vantage point you can get only from the middle of the river.  Should be an interesting ride.

Also in Greenwich, we saw a shop called “The First Shop in The World”, named as such because it sits at Longitude 0 degrees 0 minutes 0.4 seconds and is the closest to exact 0 Longitude.  Definitely makes it the first shop to open every day, if not the first shop in the world.

Greenwich market was full of stalls from local artisans selling their wares.  A very bohemian atmosphere and full of very interesting knick knacks, handmade clothing, art, and sculpture.  It also has a food section with fresh made meals from all around the world.  We did not avail ourselves of the food as we had just eaten at…wait for it…a MEXICAN Restaurant! Officially, it was Tex-Mex, but it was a close as we could get and it was quite good.  Often in England, Mexican food offerings have a bit of an Indian flare to them (we assume because of the spices that are more readily available), but this place tasted much more authentic.  Next trip to Greenwich, we can go straight to the food vendors, especially for the home-made Brazilian Churos filled with dolce de leche – yum!