27th January - Neil Rhind will talk about The Soames Family in Greenwich and Blackheath. The Soames family were wealthy merchants who were to live in Blackheath from the 1840s to the 1930s. One member was James Soames, an industrialist and owner of the famous Thames Steam Soap and Candle Mills; his brother was the Rev William Aldwyn Soames, Vicar of Greenwich. Among their many mansions were the Red House, next to Vanbrugh Castle, Maze Hill House, and No 27 Vanbrugh Park.

Hanoverian neglect of Greenwich Park gave rise to a wide range of ideas for its exploitation. Prostitutes eyed its seclusion, park keepers and water boards its natural resources, sculptors and railway companies its position; Greenwich Hospital hoped to build houses in it and Queen Caroline demanded a large corner for her private use. This is the period in which the public began to take the park to their hearts however and many hopefuls were eventually seen off by force of public opinion. The ball of protest was set rolling by an abused under-keeper called Cawthorne.

Anthony Cross of Warwick Leadlay Gallery, Greenwich, using the visual means of his archive, will seek to re-discover aspects of everyday Greenwich which have otherwise been lost to the present-day observer.