Celebrate London’s beating heart, the River Thames with Royal Museums Greenwich this September for the annual Totally Thames Festival. The festival features a series of events, including performances, lectures, workshops and tours for the whole family to enjoy.

 

SPECIAL EVENTS

Flotsam Weaving

Scouring the British coastline for flotsam, artist-in-residence Jo Atherton collects fishing line, netting and other orphaned objects to make beautiful pieces of art. Join her in this arts and crafts workshop where she talks about her beachcombing activities and learn how discarded objects can be transformed into intricate prints and vibrant tapestries.

Dates:             2 and 3 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             11.30 – 13.30 | 14.00 – 16.00
Age:                4+
Admission:     Free with admission to the ship

 

Silk River storytelling aboard Cutty Sark

Silk River explores the unique relationship between London and Kolkata (Calcutta) through an artistic exchange project joining communities along the Thames Estuary with those by India’s Hooghly River. A week of performative walks will take place across the River Thames, with Greenwich hosting the walkers on 17 September. Come aboard the Cutty Sark as they pass the ship with their beautiful parade of banners and join the storyteller to find out how Greenwich and the ship inspired some of the artistic designs.

Dates:             17 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             10.30 to view the banners
11.30 | 12.30 | 13.30 for the storytelling
Age:                Suitable for all ages
Admission:     Free with admission to the ship

 

The ‘Old-Father River’: the poetry of the Thames from 1500 to the present day

Chart the long history of the Thames through poetry. From the idealised Elizabethan river of Edmund Spenser, via the hopeful and despairing responses of Romantics and Victorians, through the early twentieth-century vistas of T.S. Eliot and D.H Lawrence, right up to the remarkable sequence composed for the Millennium Bridge. The epilogue, perhaps inevitably, will be that most poignant tribute by a Londoner to his river, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by Ray Davies and the Kinks.

Dates:             30 September 2017
Venue:            National Maritime Museum, Seminar Room
Times:             10.30 – 15.30
Admission:     £30

 

THEATRE

Tales from the Thames

Come on board the Cutty Sark for an evening of storytelling with women sharing tales of their connection to the ocean. Hear from a wide range of women from London, who have worked with, lived by, travelled across or just love the ocean which is linked to London by the River Thames.

Dates:             1 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark, Michael Edwards Studio Theatre
Times:             20.00-21.30
Admission:     £20

 

In our Hands

Alf is a trawler fisherman at the top of his game. But times are changing and so is the industry, will Alf adapt in order to survive? Through award-winning Smoking Apples innovative puppetry, a striking set and an original score, follow a fish’s journey from sea to plate, watch a seagull’s ridiculous attempt to find food and witness a father and son reunite.

Dates:             15 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark, Michael Edwards Studio Theatre
Times:             19.00
Admission:     £15

 

TALKS AND TOURS

A voyage with Cutty Sark: archive tour and afternoon tea

Discover hidden histories of the last surviving tea clipper with Cutty Sark’s Curator and enjoy a luxurious afternoon tea under the ship’s gleaming hull. The tour will start at the National Maritime Museum’s Caird Library for an up-close look at letters, logbooks, photographs and objects that aren’t usually on display. Discover what it was like to work, live and sometimes die on board a ship that was to become world famous. After the tour, walk over to Cutty Sark for an hour of exploring the ship before enjoying a special afternoon tea. Because what better place to have a cuppa than underneath the very ship that brought tea to Britain?

Dates:             25 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             12.30 – 16.00
Admission:     £35*
*Tickets must be pre-booked rmg.co.uk/tickets or 020-8312-6608.

 

Cutty Sark tour in British Sign Language (BSL)

Join deaf historian John Wilson for a tour of Cutty Sark and her history in BSL. Explore the 1869 clipper, celebrated for her record-breaking passages around the globe and find out about life on board through to the story of this ship’s modern day restoration.

Dates:             16 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             11.00-12.00 | 14.30-15.30
Age:                Adult
Admission:     £17.00 adult | £13.50 concessions (includes visitors with disabilities, prices include admission to ship, carers enter free. Assistance dogs welcome)

 

Audio Described Tour

Explore the ship and its fascinating story on this audio described tour for blind and partially sighted visitors. Come on board and get hands on with history on the world’s last remaining tea clipper.

Dates:             19 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             14.30-15.30
Age:                Adult
Admission:     £17.00 adult | £13.50 concessions (includes visitors with disabilities, prices include admission to ship, carers enter free)

 

Totally Thames Tours

Maritime Greenwich has been home to clipper ship Cutty Sark for over 60 years, but the ship’s relationship with the River Thames has been an enduring feature of her whole life-story. From her maiden voyage in 1870, to delivering vast quantities of tea to Victorian London, to becoming a cadet training ship, it all happened on the River Thames. Join the curator for a talk developed especially for Totally Thames and find out more about this unique relationship.

Dates:             6, 13, 20, 27 September 2017
Venue:            Cutty Sark
Times:             11.00-12.00 | 14.30-15.30
Age:                Suitable for all ages
Admission:     Free with admission ticket to the ship.

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For more information on Royal Museum’s Greenwich’s Totally Thames Festival programme, visit http://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/totally-thames

Venue:                        Cutty Sark and National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Dates:                         1 – 30 September 2017
Opening times:          10.00 – 17.00
Visitor enquiries:      020 8858 4422
Website:                     http://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/totally-thames
Admission:                 Prices vary, please see www.rmg.co.uk for further details

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