Gang Fight

I'm becoming more are of gangs in my local area. There's been a few comments on this blog that have mentioned them but I've never really thought about it much.

Today I read about a gang fight that took place at the top of the hill between a Charlton and a Woolwich gang. The story can be read here. It happened in the week and that was the first that I'd heard of it.

So now I'm thinking how much a gang "problem" is there really in this area? I'm determined not to panic but I will be keeping my eyes open.

Winns Common Great Get Together

With it's usual attention to providing advance notice of events Greenwich Council has sent out an email about the "Great Get Together" at Winns Common in Plumstead tomorrow (Saturday the 30th of June).

There seems to be a fair amount of things happening to amuse families and there's also a chance to talk to local Councillors.

Once again I've got to ask how much notice do the Council think families need to plan a day out?

Anyway the full details are available on the Council's web site here.

Click here to see a map of where the Common is.

Details about what a "Great Get Together" is and dates for ones past and forthcoming can be found here.

I'm tempted to go along and see what the Council has to say for itself, however I do have plans for tomorrow so we'll see if I can get the time to get over there or not.

PS: If you're interested in seeing the Council use the power of this interweb thing to keep you incredibly up to date with what's happening in Greenwich then have a look here

Recyling Batteries

You can now recycle batteries at the recycling centres around the borough, well in theory anyway.

There's meant to be a new type of bin at the centres into which you can pop batteries including old mobile phone ones.

The closest centres to Charlton are at ASDA and up the hill at the car park of the Assembly Rooms.

At the moment a bit more can be read about this on the Council's Web Site here.

See, sometimes I can say nice things about the Council :)

Vue Cinema at the O2

There's an advert on the back of the latest issue of the Greenwich Time "newspaper" from the Council for the Vue cinema, it says that it opens on the 29th of June.

I was there last night and it looks pretty open already, people were buying pop corn and heading on in. Vue's web site also seems to be giving film times.

So if you fancy a pop down there before it's official opening at the weekend then go for it.

However a word of caution... Last night was "special" as there was a gig on, if you do plan on going I'd call (08712 240 240) before doing so.

Who were the first band to play the O2 Arena?

Well many people might think that it was Bon Jovi on the 24th of June, that's wrong.

The Sun "reveals" that it was Kaiser Chiefs, Tom Jones and Peter Kay on the 23rd of June at a party for the O2 workers. Wrong.

Greenwich Council Leader Chris Roberts says in the latest edition of Greenwich Times that it was the Councils "big ambition" that "the first people who ever performed on this stage were [those] Children from Greenwich Primary Schools" who sang their on the 20th of June. It's a shame that ambition didn't come true, in fact it clearly hadn't come true when those words came out of his mouth. So that's wrong too.

So who was it?

Well it was this lot......

They were playing while many people were still coming into the arena while the lights were still on and the first song they played was a cover of Dakota by the Stereophonics. Who were they? Well I haven't a clue. Can anyone out there help me out? There's a lot of disinformation going around about this semi-famous event and other bands taking the credit when this lot really deserve it.

So if anyone out there knows who they are please let me know.

Edited to Add
After checking through my photos and looking at the time they were taken the running order for the evening looks something like.
7.00pm: Allowed in the Arena
7.15pm: The first mystery band were playing
7.45pm: The choir of primary school children were singing
?.??pm: Lucky Soul Played
20.45pm: Mystery James Blunt-a-like man was playing
21.00pm: Rietta Austin was playing

Well it looks like Rietta Austin was the first to "headline" the O2 Arena, This Is London seem to agree.

However The Greenwich Phantom has mentioned a party for a bank and has had a reply saying that there was a party on Sunday the 17th. So did a band play that night? Was it in the Arena?

Stephen Marley at the O2

Tonight Stephen Marley played a free gig at the O2 on a stage they had set up in what they call the "London Piazza". His brothers Julian and Damian also put in appearances at various points.

It was actually rather good. Reggae's not really my biscuit and I was thinking I'd probably slope off after about half of the gig. However there was quite a good atmosphere, the sound was good and they were putting on a good show so I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would and sticking there until the end.

So what did I think of the O2 on my second visit, well I'm still quite keen on it. About half the restaurants along Entertainment Avenue are open now. Well I say half the restaurants, half the restaurants you can walk past. There's still about a third of the Avenue that you couldn't get down, so let's say that I reckon about a third of the restaurants that will be there are open now.

One thing I notice more this time was how much of it all is just a facade. The Avenue looks quite nice but it really is just a nice facing build onto the units of the restaurants themselves. Still, as said, it does look nice.

The staff were very noticeable once again but they seemed less intrusive, still a heavy presence which is nice to see. If I did need to ask about something there would have been someone not too far away to approach.

After the show, which was pretty well attended, I skipped the bus and walked home along the river. I took a slow meander past the Millennium Village and got back to Charlton in just over half an hour, not bad at all.

Let's have some photos anyway.....

The blobby thing I'd seen on my last visit is in the London Piazza, looking at a map it seems to be the "O2 Chill". Kids were running about in there with a few adults sitting around the edges. Maybe I should have had a peep.....







A quick snap on my way home.

Charlton Safer Neighbourhood Team

A comment by Audrey to a post below has made me aware that there is a Safer Neighbourhood Team for Charlton. I wasn't totally sure what one of those was so I went and looked it up.

A page on the Met Police's web site defines them as:

The officers on your Safer Neighbourhoods team spend most of their time out on patrol in your neighbourhood, meeting the community and identifying and dealing with those crimes and issues you have told us cause you most concern. Therefore, your team adjusts its shift pattern to address these priority issues.

Your Safer Neighbourhoods team wants to hear from you. If your call is not answered, please do leave a message on the answerphone or send them an email. A member of the team will get back to you.

The details for the Charlton Team are:

Members
Sgt Adrian Musgrave
PC Jason Roy
PC Phillip Crowther
PCSO rachael Clark
PCSO Marian Nicol
PCSO Malcolm Gillespie
PCSO Sean Harvey

Address
Charlton Team
3 Mar House, Springfield Grove, London
SE7

Contact
Phone: 020 8721 2736
Mobile: 07768 083607
Email: Charlton.snt@met.police.uk

I'm now wondering if I should contact them and find out what's going on with the house that was attacked. The police did attend both incidents so I presume that they've been dealt with but I must admit to being a bit worried about it happening again.

My eyes are definitely open for the future though, nice to know that there is somewhere you can go with concerns that aren't directly related to a particular incident that you might call 999 for.

Thanks to Audrey for making me aware of the team.