SEnine To crown it all?
Information reaching SPY suggests we might be well advised to start dusting off our tiaras in time for the borough’s Royal ennoblement next year.
Frantic preparations are being made to put together a possible list of venues HRH might visit in the borough to bestow the honour in person and SPY felt it was incumbent upon him, in consultation with a bookmaker acquaintance, to assist in the short- listing process.
Among the favourites, his bookie friend tells him, is a visit to one of the newly built secondary schools with Thomas Tallis a distinct possibility, just ahead of Crown Woods College. A distinguished musician, Tallis himself performed before successive
Tudor
monarchs, Henry VIII included, and the temptation for the council to show off its new Olympic legacy sports hall must be strong. Therefore, SPYbet is offering ‘Even Money’ on that one.
Also in the running, we understand, is a trip to the borough’s flagship park, Well Hall Pleasaunce, replete with royal connections. With seven primary schools within half a mile, a right Royal performance could be arranged, no problem. Plans to re-vamp its Moat Island could be completed well on time for an early Spring day trip from Buck House. SPYbet’s offering 3 – 1 on that.
Of course, any official visit to SE9 involving Greenwich Council usually involves the Eltham Centre, which SPY and most right-thinking locals would probably accept was created on one of the borough’s better days. The Centre and HRH have plenty in common. Both have suffered an annus horribilis at the hands of accidental fire. However, there’s nothing much new to open there. So SPYbet suggests odds of 10-1 are in order.
For kingly connections, Eltham Palace must take centre stage. After all, Henry VIII’s upbringing at Eltham must have been at the heart of the borough’s bid to gain the title ‘Royal’. But she’s been
Have your say, your opinion counts
there before, to visit the Army Education Institute when it was based at the Palace. And there’s a certain lack of community involvement, so it’s well down the pecking order. It’s an outsider at 50-1.
SPY has been thinking laterally on the subject as well. Although a distinct outsider, odds are offered of 1,000-1 against a royal visit to the public toilets opposite McDonalds. Although by no means a highlight of the borough’s civic services, if one is caught short when one is out on the road, it might be a case of any port in a storm. You read it here first.
However, having led his readers a merry dance, SPY is happy to reveal the current front-runner. The clever money is that HRH won’t make it over Shooters Hill at all. A quick visit to open the Cutty Sark, then on to see the new King’s Troop horse HQ, currently being created apace at the old Woolwich barracks, a glance at one’s Olympic shooting gallery on the Common, and then back to Windsor pdq. It’s 3-1 on, if you have a spare fiver.
Crestfallen?
SPY@senine.co.uk
In common with the previous item, however, it seems SE9 is set to be left out of the new royal crest, being devised for the ennoblement. SPY understands it’s likely to be packed with references to guns from the Arsenal, time from Greenwich and the river running through, but Eltham might have to content itself with general references to a Tudor past.
On the buses..
One thing linking Eltham to its neighbouring settlements to the north, apart from administrative accident, is the 132 bus service to the O2, aka The Efford Express, started after some vigorous lobbying from our local MP. Partly as a result of its popularity, some of its regular rush-hour passengers are now in turn lobbying for a more frequent service or possibly a double- decker at peak hours. SPY hesitates to suggest purloining one of the soon-to- be-redundant bendy buses, about to be despatched by Boris.
Time for a trim?
Speaking of our local MP, SPY feels the youngsters of the Gordon School had it right when he arrived to open the school’s new trim trail. Before ceremonially snipping the ribbon, the teenies chorused a jolly song about a hairy monster stalking their playground. Cometh the hour…
Equally frantic is work on a make-over to the borough’s livery. Already clear, it appears, is that the ‘green’ is to be taken out of Greenwich, replaced with a distinguished ‘claret’. Indeed SPY spotted a temporary version of the new logo flying above the council’s marquee at Well Hall Pleasaunce spring fayre. SPY is assured that the new colours will be ‘phased in’ over a number of years on vehicles, stationery etc, although he hears rumours of claret-coloured uniforms being designed and trialled at some expense, not least for our rebellious library staff, who would rather blend into the background in their ‘mufti’.
In the Medals….
SPY has noted that the first direct involvement of SE9 in the Olympic Games has been declared with the pristine playing fields of Eltham College being chosen to be a training venue for the 2012 football tournament. Soccer players, men and women, from all over the world will train on the College’s pitches in July and August next year in preparation for games in London and elsewhere, which indicates that hallowed turf must be truly world class.
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