Retellings – interlinked Celebratory Walks for BH365

Retellings – interlinked Celebratory Walks for BH365 on Saturday 12 July 2025

InspiralLondons Songlines for Greenwich creates a day of polyphonic shared exploration for BH365 celebrations – on 5 interlinked walks along the InspiralLondon Trail. Starting from Mottingham, passing through Eltham, reaching up to Severndroog House and descending across Woolwich Common towards the River Thames. This walking event links up different parts of the Borough, exploring Black Lives – unique reclaimed stories and hidden histories – located in Greenwich’s diverse landscape. On this walking tour you will experience and celebrate unexplored Black History hidden in Greenwich’s historic building, its ghost traces, and found buried in our National Monuments.

Join us in this day of interlinked walks that celebrate Black history and cultures within Greenwich as we traverse the Borough from Motterham to Woolwich. We will stop on the way for performances, talks and celebratory retellings – with partners including Severndroog Castle, Eltham Church, Friends of Oxleas Woods, Clockhouse Community Centre.

You can join 1 or more walks – or for full Retellings experience book for the day – Booking for all 5 walks from June 2025.

First walk of Retellings starts at Motterham Station at 10.am (10.30am-1pm) – We pass along King John’s Way to arrive at the end of this first walk near to Eltham Palace. We take time to admire the views and for a picnic lunch with refreshments at 1pm.

Second walk (1.30pm-3.30pm) – A Walk from Eltham Station through Tudortime Eltham, to St John the Baptist Church where one of the first indigenous Australians to visit Europe was  buried in 1794. Through Eltham, time travelling past Eltham Palace, to walk up to the edge of Oxleas Wood, to reach Severndroog Castle around 3.30pm.

Third Walk Severndroog Explorations (3.30pm-6pm) – Join us on this short exploratory walk with musical interludes in the woods around Severndroog Castle. We meet and congregate at Severndroog Castle from 3.30pm. The short walk led by Frances Calliste, will make a wooded circuit around the towers of the castle – exploring some of the contested or hidden stories behind the construction of the Castle, and its complex history. Through song, music and story-telling we explore together other histories that mirror post-colonial retellings of the past. Refreshments available.

Fourth Walk (6pm-7.30pm) – Leaving the Castle at 6pm for a descent towards the River Thames, crossing Eltham Common and Shooters Hill we enter the wilderness of Woolwich Common, to finally arrive near to Woolwich Station (Elisabeth Line) at 8pm.

From 7.30pm, there will be a final gentle perambulation down to the Thames and along the Thames pathway – for a final celebratory event – led by local artist Bonita Charles.

Note for full updated details of all walks and event please visit ticket BOOKING (from May 2025)

A Black History 365 celebration project funded by The Royal Borough of Greenwich, that seeks to uncover, then retell hidden, buried or untold stories from the Black British diaspora, through a festival of unique public walk events and performances.

also supported by soundcamp, Clockhouse Community centre, inspirallondon associate artists, The Art of the Magic Lantern, counterproductions & walking volunteers.