Greenwich is one of the host boroughs of the London 2012 Games. It was the birth place of many of the Royal House of Tudor including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The borough is also known worldwide as the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Greenwich has a long Maritime history with Sir Christopher Wren opening the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors at the site of the Royal Palace (the Palace of Placentia).
Greenwich also became the home for the Cutty Sark, a clipper ship (the ship was badly burned in 2004, but restoration has began and it will be reopened in 2010) and the Gypsy Moth IV, the boat that Sir Frances Chichester used to travel around the world. He broke many records one being that his journey was the fastest voyage around the world by any small vessel.
Greenwich history goes even further back then Henry VIII as far back as the Bronze Age and the Romans, a roman villa was excavated in the vicinity. It is also mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
Millennium Dome now known as the O2 was built on a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula. The dome will be used to stage some of the events of the 2012 Olympics Games as well as the Paralympics.
Greenwich Market is open from Thursday to Sunday; its cobbled stones are packed with stalls selling arts, crafts, antiques and collectables plus a food court at weekends. Two other weekend markets have stalls and shops with furniture, fashion, food, bric-a-brac, clothes and plants. Greenwich market, as well as the other two markets creates a major attraction for visitors and locals, plus giving the streets and alleyways of Greenwich an extra buzz at weekends.
Greenwich maybe on the south east side of London, but it is not far to the centre of the city, by the Docklands Light Railway, which would take you about 40 minutes to either
Covent Garden or Holborn.
