Every year I give our parents a calendar of my photos at Christmas. It’s usually a selection of my favourite photos taken during that year, often including pictures of our children (their grandchildren) and various holiday moments. 

But in late 2022 I decided to try a different idea. We all live in Greenwich and visit Greenwich Park on a regular basis. What if I made a calendar of the same view with images throughout the year, month by month, showing the passing of the seasons? But always from the same place. I sometimes run and often walk through the park, giving me plenty of opportunities to take the photos. 

So that was what I ended up doing. During 2023 I took a series of pictures from just outside the Royal Greenwich Observatory (the home of Greenwich Mean Time, where the prime meridian marks zero degrees longitude), looking north towards the Queen’s House, and across the Thames towards the towers Canary Wharf and combined them with previous pictures I had taken of the same view. It’s one of the best views of London. I particularly liked being able to see the leaves appear on the trees in the spring, and the grass changing colour in the summer.

I’m so glad I documented this view, as the park is undergoing some exciting new changes: the hill leading to the Queen’s House, called the Grand Ascent, is being landscaped to return it to the way it was in the 1660s, with a series of turf steps leading down the hill. While that work is going on, access to this view is blocked off for a few months.

I’m looking forward to documenting the new view when they’ve finished with the project. And in the meantime (as it were) I have these pictures to remind me of how lucky we are to live in Greenwich. 

Kirstin