At Greenwich Hospital in 1902

An occasional series featuring the postcards of Tuck & Sons and images of Greenwich at the very beginning of the 20th century.

Now I have rather neglected Greenwich and yet it was and is one of my favourite places.

I worked for a while at a camping shop on the road into Greenwich and spent three summer vacations working at a food factory on the river just minutes away from the Cutty Sark Park, which in turn was a place I remember fondly.

And of these it will be those warm summer evenings sat on the low wall opposite the pub drinking and chatting with friends and listening to the sound the barges made as they banged together in the wake of a passing ship.

This is the Hospital from a card dated 1902

And it is the detail that draws you in.

So for me as much as I am impressed by the buildings it is the humble working barges that I find fascinating.

Not of course that I am going to to romanticise working on the river.  It was hard dangerous and at times very unpleasant.

Anyone who has been caught in a chill wind blowing off the river in the depths of winter will know what I mean.

Picture; Greenwich Hospital,in the series, London, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/