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London

Greenwich

Themes	Explorers and Adventurers	Nobel Prize Winners
Actors and Directors	Famous People	Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes	Historic Events	Prime Ministers
AONB (National Landscapes)	Inventors and Scientists	Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects	Monarchs	World Heritage Sites
Composers and Musicians	National Parks	Writers and Poets

Nature

London
Wildlife Trust

Books

THE SECRET AGENT
by
Joseph Conrad
(1907)

After two decades at sea Joseph Conrad settled in England in 1894 and began to write.

Despite English being his third language he would become one of its greatest novelists.

One of his best was The Secret Agent, the only story he set in London.

To discredit a mixed group of revolutionaries an agent of a foreign embassy is planning a series of bomb attacks in the capital. The first target: the Greenwich Observatory.

London | Greenwich

The County of London was formed in 1889 from parts of the ancient counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey, with the City of London remaining an independent body.

In 1965 Greater London was formed, taking in the rest of Middlesex (which no longer existed as a county) together with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire and further areas of Kent and Surrey.

Greater London is made up of 13 Inner and 19 Outer London boroughs together with the City of London.

Greenwich once lay in Kent and is today one of the 19 boroughs making up Outer London. It lies on the eastern edge of the capital bordering the River Thames to its north.

London Boroughs

Actors and Directors

The American comedian Bob Hope was born as Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham in 1903. At the age of four his family emigrated to the United States.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes

Anglo-Saxon Kings

Danish Kings

The borough once lay in Kent which was an independent kingdom, but was later to become part of Wessex. The kingdom of Kent reached north to the river Thames, across which lay the kingdom of the East Saxons (Essex) and south and west to the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex).

Famous People

The suffragette Emily Davison was born at Roxburgh House in Blackheath in 1872. She resorted to militant actions for which she was often imprisoned. In 1913 she died from injuries sustained when she was trampled after trying to stop the king's horse at the Epsom Derby.

Monarchs

Greenwich Palace

Henry VIII was born in 1491 at Greenwich Palace where, soon after becoming king in 1509, he married his first wife Catherine of Aragon.

Henry VIII

Monarchs buried at Windsor

Mary I was born at Greenwich Palace in 1516. She was Henry VIII's daughter by his first wife Catherine of Aragon and became the first English queen to be crowned (her predecessor Lady Jane Grey was never crowned). She reigned from 1553 until her death in 1558 when her half-sister Elizabeth I succeeded her.

Mary I

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

The the last Tudor monarch Elizabeth I was born at Greenwich Palace in 1533. She was Henry VIII's daughter by his second wife Anne Boleyn and was the third of his children to rule when she took over from her half-sister Mary I in 1558. She died in 1603.

Elizabeth I

Henry VIII's son and successor Edward VI died at Greenwich Palace in 1553. He was Henry's son by his third wife Jane Seymour. He ruled from 1547-53, the first of three of Henry's children to continue the Tudor rule of England. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Edward VI

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

Places of Interest

Notable Places

The Thames Barrier connects Greenwich with the London borough of Newham on the north bank of the River Thames. Opened in 1982 its 520 metres is made up of ten steel gates (each the height of a 5-storey building) which can be closed to prevent high water flooding London.

Stately Homes and Palaces

Eltham Palace was a popular residence of the monarchs during the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1461 Henry VI was put under house arrest at the Palace when he was deposed by Edward IV.

Prime Ministers

Prime Ministers

19th Century

Spencer Perceval, who became Prime Minister in 1809, was buried in 1812 at St Luke's in Charlton. He was the only Prime Minister to be assassinated when he was shot by a disgruntled businessman in the lobby of the House of Commons.

Spencer Perceval

World Heritage Sites

In 1997 Greenwich Maritime was designated a World Heritage Site. The site includes buildings designed by such architects as Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones.

Writers and Poets

The suspense writer Edgar Wallace was found abandoned at the age of nine days in Greenwich in 1875. He was named Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace.

The spy writer Eric Ambler was born as Eric Clifford Ambler in Charlton in 1909. His books had a wide influence on future writers in the genre. Two early books were later made into successful films: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939) and Journey into Fear (1940). The Light of Day (1962) is seen as his best and was made into the film Topkapi.

In 1972 Eric Ambler was awarded a Gold Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association for The Levanter and in 1986 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for his lifetime contribution to crime writing.

Eric Ambler (1962)

Eric Ambler (1977)

The writer Bernardine Evaristo was born as Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo in Woolwich in 1959, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an English mother. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other (2019) won the Booker Prize (the first Black woman to do so), co-winning the award with Margaret Atwood for The Testaments.

Bernardine Evaristo