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A hot topic, of course, with the building of the Millennium Dome, but Clive Aslet's portrait of this fascinating town-within-a-town is very much more than a cobbled-together bit of opportunism. He has a brilliant eye for the telling detail, and a great talent for imaginatively re-creating the past. From the earliest days, when the place was a wilderness of mudflats and reedbeds, right up to the present, Greenwich has been many things: a naval centre with the old Seaman's Hospital and later the Royal Naval College, a place of magnificent architecture, with contributions by Inigo Jones, Wren, Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh, and also an intellectual centre with the foundation of the Royal Observatory there in the 1670s, which established Greenwich Mean Time and made Greenwich itself, quite literally, the first place in the world.
Aslet also sprinkles his text with a good quota of amusing anecdotes- -particularly his account of George IV's estranged wife, Princess Caroline, whose antics are irresistibly reminiscent of a more recent Royal ex! During her residence at Montague House, she would hold parties where she would show off a curious little Chinese figurine on her mantelpiece that performed obscene movements, and then she would dance about like an opera girl, "gartered below the knee." As Lady Hester Stanhope wrote, "she was so low, so vulgar!" --Christopher Hart
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From Kirkus Reviews
In a lavishly illustrated treatment, Aslet, the editor of Country Life, magnificently brings to life the rich history of Greenwich, England. Americans know the city as the site of the Royal Observatory, which sets time for the world. Aslet reveals it as much more. First the site of a mysterious Roman shrine or temple on the Thames, the settlement that became Greenwich was thereafter occupied by Anglo-Saxons for whom it may have functioned as a port or market. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the town was sacked by Vikings, who killed the local archbishop. Greenwich later developed into the site of a great estate and manor house, and a maritime port of considerable prominence, linked to the sea by the Thames. Starting with Henry VII, who built the palace of Placentia there in 150004, Greenwich became a home away from London for Britain's kings and queens, a refuge from the intrigues at court and the plague, which frequently infested the capital, a place of magnificent buildings and opulent living, and most importantly, a center of maritime activity. Though Aslet's story is largely one of buildings, he weaves into the narrative the story of the people who have lived in them through the centuries: from Chaucer to Samuel Pepys, as well as celebrated mathematician Sir Jonas Moore and Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed. In the late 17th century, the Royal Observatory was built at Greenwich in order to escape the smoky skies around London, and the magnificent Seamen's Hospital, designed by Christopher Wren, was erected. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the building of more estates and parks and the establishment of Greenwich's role as the site of the timeball to which the world sets its watch. The 20th has seen the creation of the Millennium Dome, built to celebrate the year 2000, and the declaration by UNESCO of Greenwich as a World Heritage Site. A congenial, absorbing tour through time of an immensely interesting old town. --
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