title: The Lost Fleet

text: As the entire military force of the Syndicate Worlds continues to hunt the Alliance fleet, Geary is often forced to raid Syndic star systems for supplies and raw materials. During these raids, the fleet gradually uncovers evidence of a third party in this war. Geary believes they are an unknown alien civilization who may have tricked the Syndics into starting the war with the Alliance. These aliens may even have been responsible for humans "discovering" the hypernet and may have sinister reasons for giving humans this technology after Geary discovers that a hypernet gate can be used to destroy an entire star system. The hypothetical aliens also have a means of remote destruction of hypernet gates, which will allow them, given time, to extend the war between the humans indefinitely.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: The alien civilization, whatever their designs for humanity are, do not appear to want the Alliance fleet to reach their home space. When Geary leads the fleet to attack the Lakota star system, the aliens manipulate the Syndic hypernet to divert a Syndic fleet to the system.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Firstly, he is concerned by the declining state of the Alliance civilian government, which is losing control of its member worlds and the support of the military forces after a century of futile warfare.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Also, even though Geary is unswervingly loyal to the Alliance, he fears that the government may choose to imprison him as a threat to its own power.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: In addition, the Alliance Navy itself has allowed its standards to slip, frequently destroying entire planets and their civilian populations in retaliation for Syndic atrocities, murdering prisoners of war, and has ceased saluting and other traditions reaffirming the command structure. Geary therefore fears that the Alliance may not deserve any victory it might achieve.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Combined with these immediate concerns is his speculation that, if the increasingly non-hypothetical aliens are perpetuating the war within human-controlled space, what might their actions be if he can somehow end it?


title: The Lost Fleet

text: "The Lost Stars" deals with the collapse of the Syndicate Worlds, and specifically the efforts of Midway System's system CEO commander and ground force CEO commander to deal with the aftermath. The series expands the story to include the viewpoint of Syndicate Worlds citizens and how the leaders of the Midway star system react to the collapse of central authority, occurring at the same time as the events in the "Beyond the Frontier" series.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: A prequel to The Lost Fleet series, envisioned as a trilogy detailing the formation of the Alliance, focusing on a number of characters, some of which are ancestors to the protagonists of the main series.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Hemry acknowledged in an interview that "The Lost Fleet" was inspired by Xenophon's "Anabasis", detailing the return march of the Ten Thousand, and myths about kings returning to save their nation. In the same interview, Hemry, based on his own military experience, found Geary to be his ideal commanding officer.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Ancestor worship is a belief system fairly homogeneously embraced within Hemry's universe. This allows Hemry to explore a few aspects of the role of religion in military life without making comment on any current or modern religious group. Personnel in the Alliance fleet are mostly believers, and concerned with the morality of their actions in relation to their religious beliefs. In addition, they think a great deal about the afterlife, which makes sense considering that they constantly face death in the line of duty. Religious concerns, prayer, and terminology are infused throughout all aspects of the lives of the sailors and officers in the fleet, and are often included in official communications and events. Some comments from the narration indicate that there are those in the society who have more or less belief in the existence of their ancestors but no characters are openly identified as such.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: A primary theme of John Hemry's work as a whole, and the Lost Fleet series in particular, is the importance of the rule of law, particularly military and naval regulations and the laws of war. Specifically, he deals with the proper treatment of enemy combatants, prisoners, civilians, and saboteurs, as well as traitors within one's own organization. The separation of civilian and military authority is also important to the messages the series conveys. Hemry, through John Geary, continually reinforces the concept that military forces must be subordinate to civilian authority, and shows democratic systems of civilian government (the Alliance) to be superior to a commercial-military autocracy (the Syndics). At the same time, the military must follow established systems of rank and seniority, rather than a democratic system which is essential to civil society. The character of Co-President (and Alliance Senator) Victoria Rione gives advice and assistance to Geary when necessary, but does not and cannot give actual orders or dictate military policies.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: As with other works by Hemry, relationships are an important aspect of the plots of the novels and the proper expression of romantic interest between military personnel is explored and clearly defined as being strictly controlled by those regulations which concern fraternization. Geary's relationship earlier in the novels with Victoria Rione are legally safe, but politically dangerous. This is in contrast to his relationship later in the novels with Captain Tanya Desjani, an officer who is directly subordinate to Geary as the captain of his flagship, making any romantic situation legally impossible but politically safe within the culture of the fleet. The refusal of Geary and Desjani to act upon any feelings that are legally forbidden continues Hemry's message of the importance of the rule of law and military regulations.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Honor and duty are also strong themes. The double edged nature of honor is explored in the latter half of the series, showing how honor can be both a bulwark against attack, and a knife to one's own throat.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: "We Read Science Fiction" reviewed the series and gave it a good review, giving positive comments on the narrative and the detailed battle scenes. The only complaint directed at the series in the review was Hemry's tendency to repeat details from earlier books in later books. Hemry himself replied to the review thanking them for their comments and explaining that he repeats information for the readers who picked up later books but have not had the chance to read from the beginning of the series with "Dauntless".


title: The Lost Fleet

text: British company Titan Comics announced the release of an all-new comic series based on "The Lost Fleet" in October 2016, written by Jack Campbell, penciled by Andre Siregar, inked by Bambang Irawan and coloured by Sebastian Cheng. The first five-issue series, called "The Lost Fleet: Corsair", was published from June 2017 to January 2018.


title: The Lost Fleet

text: The series is set after the end of a century-old war between the Alliance and the Syndics, and centers on Captain Michael Geary, Black Jack Geary's grand-nephew, who has been MIA since the novel "Dauntless".


title: The Lost Fleet

text: Four "The Lost Fleet" short stories have been published in various science fiction anthologies. "Grendel" features the battle which saw Geary frozen in suspended animation. "Flèche" covers a battle which a young Desjani fought in. "Shore Patrol" features Geary as a young officer and reveals the origins of his nickname "Black Jack". "Ishigaki" is a standalone story set in the first decade of the Alliance-Syndicate war, following two members of Geary's former crew.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa (), officially the City of Lipa (), is a 1st class component city in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 372,931 people.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: It is the first city charter in the province and one of five cities in Batangas alongside Batangas City, Calaca, Santo Tomas, and Tanauan. It is located south of Manila and is the most populous city of Batangas.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) provide access to Batangas City and Metro Manila.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Batangueños from the early years had their settlement in Bombon Lake and began dispersing to other places when the volcano erupted. While a group of people was moving to another settlement area, the image of St. Sebastian was stolen from them and later on was found on a tree called "lipa." People believed that the patron saint wished to name that place "Lipa" .


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The primal composition in the southeastern region of Bombon Lake were elements of the dispersed colonial families founded by Datus Dumangsil and Balkasusa in Taal, Batangas, between the 10th and 13th century AD. These pioneer settlers under the leadership of the fleeing Datu Puti, chief of state of the then mighty Srivijaya Empire, purchased the lowlands from King Marikudo of the Mountain Province at his kingdom. The purchased lands consisted of Panay in the Visayas and the lowlands in Luzon including Batangas. The ten Bornean Datus divided among themselves the purchased lands, the Batangas Bay were apportioned among the Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clans.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: It is however subject to conjecture whether the pre-historic Negritos 12,000 to 15,000 years age or the much later waves of Austronesian seafarers from 5,000 to 300 B.C. were able to settle along the coasts of Batangas into the inner lake region of Taal which was accessible to navigation through the Pansipit River, thus, the possibility of miscegenetic marriages and cross culture among the aboriginal inhabitants, the old settlers and the latter Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clans. Or whether violent wars had been waged between old inhabitants and new colonizers is uncertain too, incontrovertible proofs being wanting.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Out of this Bornean Tribe of the Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clan was born the ancestry of Lipa and as later on their descendants spread out towards Laguna de Bay and Bicol Peninsula. The remains excavated from their ancient settlements in Butong, Taal, Calatagan Bay Area and Balayan attest to the fact of their presence in the said site at least in the latter part of the 12th century down to the coming of Goiti and Legaspi in Batangas in 1570. The flourishing trade relations between these early Batangueños with a number of Chinese merchants prior to the Spanish conquest explained the presence of hundreds of Chinese wares from potteries to stonewares and vases of Song dynasty period to the latter part of the 16th century, in the burial grounds at Calatagan sites of Pulung Bakaw, Kay Tomas, Pinagpatayan I and II at Butong, Taal Batangas.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: By origin the early Lipeños were Buddhist in religion and Indian in civilization. With its not infrequent contact with the Chinese traders, the Batangueños have absorbed and been influenced too by China. With the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the Salcedo conquest of Batangas in 1572, the Lipeños were forced to embrace Western Civilization.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: At the coming of the Spaniards to Batangas in 1570, the Malay settlements along the southern shores of Taal Lake at Tagbakin was inhabited by the warlike descendants of the two datus called the Tagalogs. In 1605, after Marshall Gabriel de Rivera received the encomienda of Bombon, the Augustinian Fathers made Tagbakin the first settlement of the Lipeños and a mission center with the name of San Sebastian, perhaps after the installed Patron Saint, which continued to the present. The settlement was made a regular municipality in 1702 and a regular parish in 1716 with Fray Diego de Alday as the first curate.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: With the eruption of Taal Volcano in 1724, the people moved to what is now "Lumang Lipa" and, again, in 1754, they moved to Balete where they settled for two years until 1756 when they moved inland to the present site obviously for more security from volcanic eruptions.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: When Don Galo de los Reyes was the governadorcillo of Lipa, he introduced the cultivation of coffee. The seeds of the Arabica species were said to be of two chupas brought in from Mexico by an Augustinian missionary. The coffee industry so flourished and made Lipa the richest municipality in the country with an annual income of P4,000,000.00 that on October 21, 1887, the Queen regent Maria Christina, acting for the young King Alfonso XIII, signed a decree elevating Lipa to a city known as "Villa de Lipa", and later authorized to use a coat of arms by the Royal Overseas Minister Don Víctor Balaguer.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: At the celebration of the elevation of Lipa to a city in January 1888, José Rizal was invited by Dr. Jose Lozada, Catalino Dimayuga and the brothers Celestino and Simeon Luz but Rizal responded only with his Hymno Al Trabajo which he dedicated to the zeal and industry of the Lipeños.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The raising of cacao was introduced in Lipa by an Augustinian priest, Father Ignacio de Mercado, and that was the beginning of its cultivation throughout the Philippines.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The Lipeños also engaged themselves in livestock raising and varied home crafts for men, and small industries, like weaving, embroidery and sewing for women. After World War II, citrus production prevailed until 1970 and, after its decline, about 1965, poultry and swine raising began to take roots and to thrive in no small degree until the present.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The first newspaper in Batangas, published in Spanish, was the "Lumubog-Lumutang", printed in Lipa in 1889, and established by the well-known writers Cipriano Kalaw, Gregorio Katigbak, Benito Reyes, Hugo Latorre and Pedro Laygo. Other pioneer Spanish writers were Bernardo Solis, Catalino Dimayuga and Manuel Luz. During the revolution, Gregorio Aguilera Solis edited a newspaper "Columnas Voluntas de la Federacion Malaya". This paper became the media for notable poems and literary works of Albino Dimayuga, Baldomero Roxas, Luis Lina Kison, Bernardo Solis, Benedicto Solis, Emiliano Manguiat and Petronio Katigbak. Roman Dimayuga wrote plays, while Pedro Laygo published articles on domestic and international politics and Tomas Umali on military affairs. Hispanistas during the American regime included national figures like Teodoro Kalaw, Fidel Reyes, Arsenio Luz, Max B. Solis, Enrique Laygo and Claro M. Recto. Lipeños also served in the Revolutionary Republic. These were Gregorio Aguilera who was delegate to the Malolos Congress; Ceferino Pantoja, also a member of that congress; Jose Lozada, as envoy to Washington, D.C. and Paris, and Cipriano Kalaw, the first vice-president and Treasurer of the Central Committee of Hong Kong.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: In the field of education, Father Valerio Malabanan was foremost among Lipeños who established schools. Others were Sebastian Virrey, Jacinto Silva, Candido Lantin and Gregorio Katigbak. In 1894, Brigido Morada established his own school at his house in Mataas na Lupa. Under Father Valerio Malabanan were such well-known figures as Apolinario Mabini, General Miguel Malvar and Sotero Laurel. Sebastian Virrey countered with such former students as the brothers Alfonso and Claro M. Recto; Fidel and Carmelo Reyes; Teodoro and Maximo Kalaw; Pacifico, Jose and Enrique Laygo; and Manuel Luz Roxas, Jose D. Dimayuga, Bernabe Africa, Pablo Borbon, Potenciano Malvar, Leoncio Aranda and Bishop Alfredo Obviar.. The later school, perhaps marked for permanence by the enthusiastic patronage of its high standard maintained through the years since its founding in 1922 until the present, is the Mabini Academy established by Dr. Jose Ma. Katigbak, Randall A. Rowley, Tarcila Malabanan-Katigbak and Emilia Malabanan.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The fact that Lipeños, even up to the present, are very religious, may be attributed to the fact that Fr. Benito Baras, who was Parish Priest of Lipa for almost three decades (1865–1894), has considered Villa de Lipa as his very own and had shown great paternal love for the Lipeños. He constructed the Parish Church (now Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Lipa) and a new and bigger cemetery with a chapel. Without aid from the State, he constructed the bridge at Sabang and the road that served as a national highway to Manila and Laguna. The Lipa Parish, established in 1716, became a diocesan center in 1910, included the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas (Quezon), Marinduque and Mindoro, with Msgr. Jose Petrelli as the first bishop. On August 15, 1972, the diocese was raised to an ecclesiastical province composed of Batangas province and the dioceses of Lucena, Infanta and Calapan, with Msgr Alejandro Olalia as the first Archbishop.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: On August 31, 1947, Lipa was inaugurated as a chartered City created under Republic Act No. 162 approved on June 20, 1947.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa covers an area of at an elevation of above sea level. Lipa's fishing area is located at barangay Halang, in the west of the city; it is actually a portion of Taal Lake, which is connected to other municipalities (Cuenca, Mataasnakahoy and Balete).


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa is bounded by the city of Santo Tomas in the northeast, the city of San Pablo of Laguna, and the municipalities of Tiaong and San Antonio, Quezon in the east, the municipalities of Padre Garcia and Rosario in the southeast, the municipalities of Ibaan and San Jose in the southwest, the municipalities of Cuenca and Mataasnakahoy and Taal Lake in the west and the municipalities of Balete and Malvar in the northwest.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The city's location, in a valley between the Malepunyo Mountain Range and Mount Macolod, makes it a low-risk area for natural disasters. These two mountains serve as a windbreak during typhoons. Mount Macolod, in the west, also served as shield during eruptions of the Taal Volcano.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa is politically subdivided into 72 barangays; San Jose was formerly known as Patay. In 1955, the sitios of Duhatan, Tagbakin, Initan, Malabong and Halang (then part of the Pinagtungolan barrio) became an independent barrio.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: In 1957, the sitios of Waniwani, Sayatin and Look were moved from the Balete barrio to the barrio of Look.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen system: "Am") under the Köppen climate classification, with a dry season between January and April, and rain for the rest of the year. The average yearly temperature is . The highest recorded temperature is , and the lowest recorded temperature is .


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Tagalog is the most widely spoken language in the city. English is the medium of instruction in schools and is widely understood and spoken especially in the business community and for official documents.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Majority of the city's population are Roman Catholics, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lipa today comprises the civil province of Batangas. Formed as the Diocese of Lipa on April 10, 1910, the archdiocese once covered other provinces such as Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Marinduque and Mindoro, with Most Reverend Joseph Petrelli, D.D. as the first bishop. Currently, the archdiocese is divided into 6 vicariates, each headed by a vicar forane. There are 49 parishes in all, served by 143 priests (122 of which are diocesan), 13 religious brothers, and 197 religious sisters. There are also 23 existing Catholic schools, two high school seminaries, three college seminaries, and two pastoral centers.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The Church and Monastery of Lipa is the location of a 1940s apparition of the Virgin Mary which was seen by sister Teresing Castillo and numerous accounts of rose petal showers from the 1940s to the 1960s. Some of the rose petals, which had the silhouette of the Virgin Mary when flashed with light, have been preserved by the Diocese of Lipa and various townfolks who have witnessed the petal showers. An investigation conducted by researchers of the University of the Philippines proved that the figures on the petals were natural and not stamped by man-made means. A few years after the apparition of the Virgin Mary, the Vatican released a document stating that the apparition in Lipa was false. Despite this, the rose petal showers continued until the last apparition of Mary appeared, saying three things, of which the most important was to 'pray for China', which at the time was among the poorest regions in the world. Due to the decline of the Vatican regarding the apparition, the Diocese of Lipa ordered the destruction of Mary's statue in the church which depicted the apparition. However, the founding nuns of the church hid it instead. Decades afterwards in the 21st century, before the death of a founding nun, she wished for the statue of the apparition to be viewed by the public once more. Thousands of devotees went back to the church and since then, the statue has been in public view. During a certain event, the priest ordered a mass outside the church to bless the municipality of Lipa, where the apparition statue was brought outside as well. During that time, sun beatings from heaven, which was viewed by thousands of people during a mass outside the church, occurred. Devotees flocked Lipa afterwards, where cures for blindness and terminal sickness were cured through the usage of prayers with the preserved petals from the petal showers of the 1940s to the 1960s. In 2014, it was later found out that most of the bishops who signed in favor of declaring the apparitions of the 1940s as a lie were forced to sign such documents. This sparked the current Lipa Church to gather as much evidence to back the existence and miracles of the apparitions.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: There are other Christian groups such as various Protestant denominations including Evangelicals, Born Again, Iglesia ni Cristo, Members Church of God International (MCGI), Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventist, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa's proximity to the country's capital, Manila, having an approximate distance of 86 kilometers or an hour and half drive via the Southern Luzon Expressway enhances its strategic access to development trends. It is fast emerging as a key city in the province, becoming a major institutional/administrative center, medical center, commercial center, financial center, agro-industrial center and residential center.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: It is identified as an ideal hub and center of the Calabarzon Agro-Industrial Region in the Regional Physical Framework Plan of Region IV-A. In the recent past, Lipa is being transformed from an agrarian to an urbanized area. A significant portion of the agricultural land area of the city has been converted to residential subdivisions, industrial area with the establishment of Lima Technology Center utilizing lands in the city and Malvar Municipality. Recently, the influx of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms such as call centers have contributed much to the growth of the local economy. BPO sites are scattered throughout the city. It ranked 6th out of 10 in the Top 10 next wave cities of 2010 by the Commission of Information and Communication Technology (ICCT). Teletech Inc. pioneered the BPO company in Lipa City in 2006. Alorica followed after few years. The most recent BPO company is The Results.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Likewise, due to a very strategic location, the Lipa City Market is comparatively busy than other neighboring towns. Thus it boasts a large quantity of market business. As a result, it attracts more customers from neighboring towns like Padre Garcia, Rosario, Ibaan, San Juan, Malvar, Mataas na Kahoy, Balete, Cuenca, and Lemery and from the cities of Batangas and Tanauan. An S&R Membership Shopping outlet is located besides it.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: It is also noticeable that Lipa City is being home to new settlers from different regions. Muslims from Mindanao for example have settled in Lipa City, primarily due to growing economy. There are also settlers from Mindoro, Bicol, Quezon and other places. Likewise, there are many Koreans who established their business in Lipa. Furthermore, it is evident that Indian Nationals are also an everyday sight.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa is the home of "lomi". According to history, this is primarily due to the influence of early Chinese settlers.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lomi is cooked using raw noodles, cassava mixed with water, beaten egg, salt and pepper, meat, liver and other ingredients that make it tasty. Eventually, there are countless of variations of Lomi these days. The lomi house is a very common place found in every barangay. However, there are a few recognized by the Lipenos, like Renfel, Kids Lomihouse, LBN, Beegees, Liam's to mention a few.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: "Goto" is also a popular recipe. It is usually composed of internal organs of cows. This is a bowl of hot soup with beef, tripe, entrails, and blood, added with fish sauce and "calamansi" juice with chili.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: However, due to influx of culture from nearby provinces, Lipeños also enjoy new recipes like "sisig" of Pampanga, and "Bicol Express" of Bicol.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa has few technologically advanced infrastructure. PKI is one of the advanced factories that pioneered the productions in Lipa City. Since it was established in Barangay Inosluban, Lipa City was known to be an employment-friendly zone. This was followed by the establishment of LIMA Industrial Park, which houses multiple production lines. It houses various companies that employ hundreds of production workers. Not only from the city proper, it hires employees from its nearby cities like Tanauan, Rosario, Batangas, San Jose, Malvar etc.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Museo de Lipa, inaugurated in November 2007, is a project of the Lipa City Tourism Council envisioned by its Past President, Lucila R. Resurreccion. On display are antique mementos such as: the Coffee Corner – an exhibit of the different tools used in coffee production; Las trajes de mestizas and ternos – gowns worn by women during the pre-war days and during festive occasions; the Satsuma Vase – a gift given by the Luna brothers to the unparalleled hospitality shown by the aristocratic couple Doña Germana Solis and Dr. Jose Lozada; and the office tables of Don Claro Mayo Recto and Mayor Carlos Solis, the 24-hour Mayor.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Other artifacts exhibited are certain collections of furniture and objects of art loaned and donated by different antique collectors and by some of the landed gentry of Lipa: antique cabinets, tables, mirrors, antique silverware chinaware, tea sets, religious images and articles, jars, and brass artifacts.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The ground floor serves as a function area and features works of several contemporary Lipeño visual artists.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: In 1605, Don Diego de Salcedo discovered a community of farmers living in fairly good economic conditions at Lake Bombon, now Tagbakin, Lipa City. The Augustinians among them started a religious mission called “Convent of San Sebastian in Comintang”.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: However, the residents noticed that the land area- residential and agricultural-was getting smaller due to the rising waters of Taal Lake, they transferred to Balete. But the site was submerged by the lake in 1754 after the eruption of Taal Volcano. To avoid a similar occurrence, the townsfolk decided to transfer the town to a place far from the lake and the volcano. Legend has it that they agreed to pray the rosary while walking and whenever they may be at the end of the 24th mystery, there the town would be relocated. And they walked upland, away from the lake and the volcano, and at the end of the 24th mystery, they reached what is now called Mataas na Lupa. The temporary poblacion and the church were thus resettled there.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The location benefited everybody since it was along the main road that led to the coastal towns, the ground was high enough and the east winds were hedged in by high mountains. But after some time, the settlers had to seek another location due to the problem of water supply. The “better site” is the present site of the cathedral. The Augustinians administered the parish until the end of the 19th century.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The first church building was made of light materials. The building of “serious architecture, proven solidity and great proportions” was begun in 1779 and finally completed in 1865, on the first year of Fr. Benito Varas who administered the town until 1894.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The church was made of hewn stone and tiled roof, in accordance with the usual pattern of churches. It was a rectangular structure with artistically painted wooden panelings in lieu of an arch to which were attached support and strong beams which crisscrossed the walls to protect the building from earthquakes, attractive and had plain and simple altar ornaments without the extravagant carvings that were characteristic of the past century.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: During the 19th century, keen competition among Tanauan, Lipa, Batangas, Bauan and Taal for the choice of the seat of new diocese in the Southern Tagalog Region, with Batangas Province at the center, motivated the people to build extraordinary, big churches. On April 10, 1910, the historic creation of the new diocese took place and the first bishop, Most Rev. Joseph Petrelli, D.D. selected Lipa as the See because of its cool climate. In later years, there were moves to transfer the See to San Pablo City but the late Bishop Alfredo Verzosa turned it down due to poor religious environment of San Pablo during that time.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The church suffered heavily in 1944. Msgr. Alejandro Olalia repaired the façade, the dome, the transept, the roof, the main altar, and the belfry. The interior painting was retouched. Two side aisles were added. The church was awarded the title CATHEDRAL of the Archdiocese incorporating Batangas Province during the administration of the late Rufino Cardinal Santos.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Fr. Pedro G. Galende, OSA wrote that “the emphasis (of the edifice) is placed on the mass, which appeals much more to the senses due to its harmonic organization. The three buildings – church, convent and bell tower are so closely associated with each other that they well exemplify the typical mission complex.”


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: At present, the 220-year old Cathedral and convent is undergoing restoration and repairs. Through the efforts of the Parish Priest, Msgr. Alfredo A. Madlangbayan, and the San Sebastian Millenium Restoration Committee, the church façade and the belfry have been repainted, the pews are newly varnished, the ceiling and the roof of the dome have been repaired, the old and leaking roof of the church and convent are replaced with long span GI sheets, and there is a new altar at the vigil room. On account of the multitude of faithful gathering at the church during liturgical activities, especially for Archdiocesan affairs, the sound system was also upgraded.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: In the previous years, Lipa City had the Coffee Festival as its official city festival being coffee granary of the Philippines. The Coffee Festival was then celebrated from December 11 to 16.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Then Lipa also had the Walistik Festival celebrated on the second week of January where walis (broom) was used in costumes and props. Walis symbolizes unity and this was what the Lipeños had in mind every time they celebrate Walistik Festival.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Now, Lipa City is celebrating Lomi Festival. Lomi, being one of the most popular dishes in this side of the province, Lipa City has quite a number of lomi houses which never cease to entice people.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Traditionally, however, Lipa City is celebrating Lipa City Town Fiesta annually every January 20. This is a date to celebrate the feast of their patron saint, Saint Sebastian. During the celebration, the main road of CM Recto is flocked with market-stalls selling affordable items. Also peoples visit the Lipa City Cathedral to attend mass. Houses prepare and serve food to visitors.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa has an extensive road network. The city is a transportation hub for Batangas and nearby provinces.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa is served by a network of national highways and an expressway. The Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR Tollway) connects the city with Batangas City, Tanauan and Santo Tomas, with a connection to South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), thereby linking the city with Calamba and Metro Manila. Jose P. Laurel Highway, or Ayala Highway (Route 4) on one portion, connects Lipa with the municipalities and cities of Malvar, Tanauan, Santo Tomas, and Calamba in the north and San Jose and Batangas City to the south. P. Torres Street or Lipa-Padre Garcia Road (Route 431), links the city with Padre Garcia and also serves as a route to the municipalities Rosario and San Juan. Another highway, the Alaminos-Lipa City Road, serves the northern barangays of the city, runs northeast to Alaminos and serves as a route to the city with San Pablo in Laguna. Governor Feliciano P. Leviste Highway or Lipa-Balete Road links Lipa with Balete.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Claro M. Recto Avenue, General Luna Avenue, and B. Morada Avenue serve the city center or "poblacion". On the rural areas within the city boundary, arterial roads, like Lodlod Avenue, Santo Tomas-Lipa Road and Lipa-Ibaan Road, serve the barangays and also connect with nearby municipalities, like San Jose-Batangas, Santo Tomas and Ibaan-Batangas respectively. An arterial road running beside Fernando Air Base serves the municipality of Mataasnakahoy.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Buses, vans, jeepneys, tricycles, and multicabs common means of transportation in the city. Large numbers of jeepneys ply their trade around the city, and are becoming the primary mode of transportation. A grand terminal built beside SM City Lipa mall now serves as the city's central transport terminal.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Like other cities in the Philippines, Lipa is governed by a mayor and vice mayor who are elected to three-year terms. The mayor is the executive head who leads the city's departments in the execution of city ordinances and in the delivery of public services. The vice mayor heads a legislative council that is composed of 13 members: twelve elected councilors and one "ex officio" office held by the Association of Barangay Chairmen President as the barangay sector representative. The council is in charge of creating the city's policies in the form of ordinances and resolutions.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Pursuant to Chapter II, Title II, Book III of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, the city government is to be composed of a mayor ("alkalde"), a vice mayor ("bise alkalde") and members ("kagawad") of the legislative branch Sangguniang Panlungsod alongside a secretary to the said legislature, all of which are elected to a three-year term and are eligible to run for three consecutive terms.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: As with every Philippine city, Lipa's chief executive is the city mayor. Elected to a term of three years and limited to three consecutive terms, the mayor appoints the directors of each city department, which include the office of administration, engineering office, information office, legal office, and treasury office. The incumbent mayor is Eric Africa, from the Nacionalista Party, who first served as city councilor from 1998 to 2007, from 2010 to 2013 and city Vice Mayor from 2013 to 2019. He was first elected as mayor of Lipa in 2019 defeating Bernadette Sabili, wife of then-incumbent Mayor Meynardo Sabili.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The city's vice mayor performs duties as acting governor in the absence of the mayor. The vice mayor also automatically succeeds as mayor upon the death of the incumbent. The vice mayor also convenes the Sangguniang Panlungsod, the city's legislative body. The incumbent vice mayor of Lipa is Camille Angeline Lopez from the Partido para sa Demokratikong Reporma. She first assumed office on June 30, 2019. She's the first female city vice mayor.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: The city, which is a lone congressional district, is represented in the Philippine House of Representatives by congressman Ralph Recto from the Nacionalista Party. He first assumed office as representative of the 4th legislative district of Batangas when Lipa was still part of it in 1992. He was elected to the Philippine Senate in 2001 and was able to return in 2010. Within the city, the City Board or Sangguniang Panlungsod crafts all city ordinances, performs appropriation of city funds, issues franchises and permits, impose fees on city services, and exercise other duties and powers as stipulated by the Local Government Code of 1991. Being a first-class city in terms of income, Lipa is entitled to a City Board composed of 12 members.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa hosts a number of public and private universities such as the Batangas State University Claro M. Recto Campus, Kolehiyo ng Lungsod ng Lipa, The Mabini Academy, De La Salle Lipa, Lipa City Colleges, Canossa Academy Lipa, AMA Computer College, Philippine State College of Aeronautics, University of Batangas. ICT-ED Institute of Science and Technology, STI College, New Era University, and the National University also hosts a campus in the city.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa has two local radio stations, Magik 88.7 (DZUN), an adult contemporary-oriented station, and Citybeat 102.3 (DWKV), a music and talk radio station. Stations based in Batangas City and Metro Manila are mostly clearly received, except for some stations whose signals are affected by the local topography.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: ABS-CBN Southern Tagalog, ABS-CBN's regional television station, hosts its studios in Lipa. GMA Network and GMA News TV serve Lipa through relay stations at Bicol Region.


title: Lipa, Batangas

text: Lipa has no locally published newspapers, but major newspapers marketed in Metro Manila reach the city through local distributors.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: Goodbye My Princess or Eastern Palace () is a 2019 Chinese television series based on the novel "Eastern Palace" by Fei Wo Si Cun; starring Chen Xingxu, Peng Xiaoran and Shawn Wei. It aired on Youku starting February 14, 2019.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: Qu Xiaofeng (Peng Xiaoran), the beloved princess of the Western Liang Kingdom, is promised to the Crown Prince of Li Dynasty in a political marriage between the two countries.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: Under the deliberate arrangement by Gu Jian (Shawn Wei), fifth prince Li Chengyin (Chen Xingxu) disguises himself as an ordinary tea merchant by the name Gu Xiaowu, and meets Qu Xiaofeng. They fell in love with each other as Li Chengyin tried to gain her trust to infiltrate Dan Chi, the kingdom ruled by Xiaofeng's grandfather, in order to gain war merits to become the new Crown Prince. After discovering the truth behind Li Chengyin's intentions, she jumps down the River of Forgetfulness to forget the painful memories. Li Chengyin, shocked at Xiaofeng's decision, follows suit.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: Several months later, Xiaofeng is now married to Li Chengyin, who is now the crown prince of Li Kingdom.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: Although the Crown Prince is the second most powerful person in the kingdom, the Eastern Palace, where he lives, is one of the most dangerous places. Due to all the schemes and betrayals in the Eastern Palace, Xiaofeng and Chengyin's lives begin to intersect and somewhere buried within are hidden memories yet to resurface. Will Xiaofeng find true love during her journey and will she be able to face the cruel world of politics?


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: The drama was filmed from August 2017 to February 2018. Filming also took place in Beijing, Bashang Grassland, Dunhuang and Hengdian World Studios.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: The drama has earned positive reviews since its premiere, due to the outstanding performance of the cast, beautiful costumes and fitting props; as well as high-quality cinematography.


title: Goodbye My Princess

text: The writing of the adaptation was also praised for staying true to the classic scenes within the novel, while adding in additional scenes that fleshed out the details of the novel and allowing the plot to unfold steadily.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (, ; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian concert pianist and composer. He became a British citizen in 2002 and an Israeli citizen in 2013. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has a wide repertoire and is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic era, particularly those of Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ludwig van Beethoven. He is commonly viewed as a great successor of the Russian piano school because of the depth, lyricism and poetic quality of his interpretations.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Kissin was born in Moscow to Jewish parents. Recognized as a child prodigy at age six, he began piano studies at the Gnessin Music School in Moscow. At the school he became a student of Anna Kantor, who remained his only piano teacher.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: At the age of ten he made his debut performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra. The year after that, he gave his first recital in Moscow. His talents were revealed to the international scene in 1984, at the age of twelve, when he played and recorded both of Chopin's piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Kissin's first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: In 1987, at age sixteen, he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival as well as his United Kingdom debut, alongside conductor Valery Gergiev and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In September 1990, he made his North American debut playing Chopin's two piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the first piano recital in Carnegie Hall's centennial season.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Kissin made regular recital tours of Europe, America and Asia. He has performed with nearly all the leading orchestras of the world, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, Dmitri Kitaenko, Jan Latham-Koenig, Emmanuel Krivine, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Georg Solti, Vladimir Spivakov, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Yuri Temirkanov. He has also performed chamber music with Martha Argerich, Mikhail Pletnev, Gidon Kremer, James Levine, Mischa Maisky, Thomas Quasthoff, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Karita Mattila, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Joshua Bell, Leonidas Kavakos, Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Vladimir Spivakov, the Emerson String Quartet and others.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: In addition to classical music, Kissin has given recitations of Russian and Yiddish poetry. Three CDs of Kissin's recitals from the classical and contemporary Yiddish poetry have been issued by the Forward Association.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: In 2018 Kissin's autobiography was published under the title of "Memoirs and Reflections". In 2019, his book of poems, short stories and translations in Yiddish was published under the title “A Yiddisher Sheygets”. In 2021, his book of short stories and diaries in Yiddish was published under the title “Bloyz etlekhe minut gang” (“Only a few minutes by foot)”.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Kissin has composed numerous musical works which have been published by Henle Verlag. His String Quartet (2016) was recorded by the Kopelman Quartet on Nimbus Records and received its UK premiere on 26 February 2019 performed by the Endellion Quartet.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Kissin has also been an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Kissin and other Russian artists signed a letter against the invasion. The piano trio he composed in response to the invasion was premiered in Amsterdam on 14 October 2022.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: Many musical awards and tributes from around the world have been bestowed upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year in 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Sienna, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America's youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia's culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic, and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert.


title: Evgeny Kissin

text: In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia's highest musical honors. In June 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In March 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Hong Kong.


title: London Palladium

text: The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" was held at the venue, which was produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by The Beatles on 13 October 1963. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the increasingly hysterical interest in the band.


title: London Palladium

text: While the theatre has a resident show, it is also able to host one-off performances, such as concerts, TV specials and Christmas pantomimes. It has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times, most recently in 2019. In March 2020, the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the theatre industry, but reopened over four months later on 1 August 2020.


title: London Palladium

text: Walter Gibbons, an early moving-pictures manager, built the Palladium in 1910 to compete with Sir Edward Moss's London Hippodrome and Sir Oswald Stoll's London Coliseum. The facade (on the site of Argyll House, demolished in the 1860s, from which the pub opposite took the name "The Argyll Arms"), dates back to the 19th century. Formerly it was a temporary wooden building called "Corinthian Bazaar", which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar (now the site of Marks & Spencers) in Oxford Street. The theatre was rebuilt a year later by Fredrick Hengler, the son of a tightrope walker, as a circus arena for entertainments that included promenade concerts, pantomimes and an aquatic display in a flooded ring. It then became the "National Skating Palace" – a skating rink with real ice. However, the rink failed and the Palladium was redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the Coliseum, on the site that had previously housed Hengler's Circus.


title: London Palladium

text: The theatre retains many of its original features and was Grade II* listed in September 1960. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade and Frankie Vaughan.


title: London Palladium

text: The Palladium had its own telephone system so the occupants of boxes could call one another. It also had a revolving stage.


title: London Palladium

text: The theatre started out as "The Palladium", a premier venue for variety performances. Pantomimes were also featured there. In 1926, the pantomime starred Lennie Dean as Cinderella, footage of which remains to this day. The theatre is especially linked to the Royal Variety Performances, where many were, and still are, held. In 1928, for three months the Palladium also ran as a cinema. Following this 'Cine-Variety' episode the theatre fell dark for a short period in the autumn of 1928.


title: London Palladium

text: From 3 September 1928, the Palladium reopened under the directorship of the impresario/producer George Black as part of the General Theatre Corporation (GTC). When Black took control the theatre was close to bankruptcy. He revived its fortunes by returning to the original ethos of the Palladium by staging large variety shows, with a capital 'V' – and as well as headlining Britain's homegrown acts he brought over big American stars such as Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (on 12 June 1933, his first ever concert hall performance), Adelaide Hall, Louis Armstrong and Ethel Waters for two-week engagements. Before too long, under Black's management the Palladium was soon gaining praise again as 'The World's Leading Variety Theatre'. In 1935, Black initiated the Crazy Gang revues at the Palladium (for which he is chiefly remembered) with "Life Begins at Oxford Circus". The revues continued at the Palladium as an annual event until they transferred to the Victoria Palace theatre in 1940. Black managed the Palladium until his death in 1945.


title: London Palladium

text: The theatre was hit by an unexploded German parachute mine on 11 May 1941. The device had fallen through the roof, becoming lodged over the stage. A Royal Navy bomb disposal team was sent to deal with it. After the mine was located, the fuse locking ring had to be turned to allow access to the fuse itself. Rather disconcertingly, the fuse began ticking as soon as it was touched. This caused a rapid evacuation of the immediate area, but the mine did not detonate. The two team members cautiously returned, extracted the fuse and removed other hazardous components, rendering the mine 'safe'. It was then lowered to the stage and disposed of. The George Medal for gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty was given to Sub Lieutenant Graham Maurice Wright for his action in the Palladium on that night. He was later killed, on 19 August 1941, while en route for Gibraltar on board the torpedoed troopship .


title: London Palladium

text: Val Parnell took over as managing director after George Black's death in 1945. He adopted a controversial, but very successful, policy of presenting high-priced, big-name American acts at the top of the bill. Among many, the list included Carmen Miranda, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Channing Pollock, the Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his orchestra, Bob Hope, Liza Minnelli, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray, freezing out many British stars of the day, who were relegated to second-billing.


title: London Palladium

text: From 1955 to 1967, the theatre was the setting for the top-rated ITV Network variety show "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" hosted first by Tommy Trinder, followed by Bruce Forsyth, Norman Vaughan, and Jimmy Tarbuck. The programme was broadcast live every week by ATV, which was owned by the famous theatrical impresario Lew Grade. Production was by Val Parnell. Six programmes aired as special episodes in the United States between May and August 1966 on NBC. British stars on the show included Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Petula Clark, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles' publicist Tony Barrow said that after the band's first appearance on the show on 13 October 1963, Beatlemania took off in the UK. Their performance was watched by 15 million viewers. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the phenomenal and increasingly hysterical interest in the Beatles – and it stuck.


title: London Palladium

text: Parnell became associated with a property development company and began to sell Moss Empires' theatres for redevelopment. When it became known in 1966 that this fate awaited the London Palladium, The Victoria Palace and even the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Prince Littler organised a take-over to save the theatres and Val Parnell retired to live in France. The new managing director of Stoll-Moss was Louis Benjamin, who took on the role while continuing as MD of Pye Records within the ATV Group.


title: London Palladium

text: By 1965, the Wine Society was operating out of a cellar under the Palladium. Additionally, it was also using one at Joiner Street under London Bridge Station and one at St James's Bond in Rotherhithe (which flooded at high tide). In 1968, Sammy Davis Jr. starred in "Golden Boy", the first book musical to be produced in the venue. A Johnny Cash album was recorded there in 1968, but Columbia Records never released it. Bootlegs of the performance are in circulation. Jose Feliciano also recorded a hit USA gold status double LP for RCA records called "Alive Alive O!" in April 1969


title: London Palladium

text: On 6 December 1970 Dorothy Squires gave a concert at the Palladium, recorded for an LP release the following year.


title: London Palladium

text: In January 1973, glam rock band Slade played a gig in the theatre which resulted in the venue's balcony nearly collapsing.


title: London Palladium

text: In July 1974, singer Cass Elliott performed for two weeks. 48 hours after her final performance she died in her sleep in her rented flat in Mayfair. Also in 1974, Josephine Baker performed in the Royal Variety Performance. The 1991 film "The Josephine Baker Story" implied that, like Cass Elliott, she died after a show there, but this is not true. She actually died in Paris four days after a show there.


title: London Palladium

text: Bing Crosby performed for two weeks at the Palladium starting on 21 June 1976. The resulting live album Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium reached No. 9 in the UK album charts in November 1977.<br>


title: London Palladium

text: In October 1976, Marvin Gaye recorded a live concert at the venue. The performance documented on the resulting double LP, entitled "Live at the London Palladium" and released in 1977.


title: London Palladium

text: In 1981, the cellars of the Palladium housed a waxworks museum, aptly called "The Palladium Cellars", headlined by a Yul Bryner live projection automaton, as the cowboy Gunslinger from "Westworld".


title: London Palladium

text: In the late 1980s, the Palladium was once again the setting for the popular ITV1 variety show, "Live From the Palladium", compered by Jimmy Tarbuck. During this time, the theatre was under the ownership of the Stoll Moss Theatres Group, and the management of Margaret and David Locke, who were both major shareholders of Stoll Moss at the time.


title: London Palladium

text: In 1988, the Edinburgh Gang Show appeared as part of the British Musical Hall Society's Silver Jubilee.


title: London Palladium

text: In 1991, a new production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" opened starring Jason Donovan in the title role with Linzi Hateley as the Narrator. Phillip Schofield later replaced Donovan in the title role.


title: London Palladium

text: In 1994, Cameron Mackintosh produced a new revival of Lionel Bart's musical "Oliver!", directed by Sam Mendes. It starred Jonathan Pryce as Fagin and Sally Dexter as Nancy.


title: London Palladium

text: In 1998, Arlene Phillips directed and choreographed a stage musical adaptation of "Saturday Night Fever" starring Adam Garcia and Ben Richards.


title: London Palladium

text: In 2000, ownership of the theatre changed once again when Stoll Moss was acquired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. From 3 May 2000 to 5 January 2002, the Palladium played "The King and I" starring Elaine Paige and Jason Scott Lee. This production was a West End transfer of the hugely successful 1996 Broadway production. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. This version of the show was a lavish affair, with new dialogue and music added, while the original material was updated. During the run, Josie Lawrence played the role of Anna and Paul Nakauchi and Keo Woolford played the role of the King, respectively. After the production closed, the famous (but outdated) revolving stage was removed to make way for more modern technology.


title: London Palladium

text: From April 2002 to 4 September 2005, the Palladium played host to a theatrical version of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" with songscore by the Sherman Brothers as a successor to "The King & I". Throughout its three and a half year run at the venue, the production starred many celebrities (see below). This show proved to be the most successful in the theatre's long history and reunited, 50 years later, the show's choreographer Gillian Lynne, with the theatre in which she had appeared as the Palladium's Star Dancer during the early 50s. On 1 November 2004 and 22 November singer-songwriter Jackson Browne performed two concerts during his solo acoustic tour. For Christmas 2005–06, the venue staged Bill Kenwright's production of "Scrooge – The Musical" which closed on 14 January 2006. The show starred Tommy Steele, making a return to the Palladium. From February 2006, the theatre played host to a new musical production entitled "Sinatra At The London Palladium", which featured a live band, large screen projections and dancers performing Frank Sinatra's greatest hits.


title: London Palladium

text: Lloyd Webber and David Ian's production of "The Sound of Music" opened at the Palladium in November 2006. The production ran for just over two years, before closing on 21 February 2009. It starred Connie Fisher and Summer Strallen as Maria, Simon Shepherd, Alexander Hanson and Simon MacCorkindale as Captain Von Trapp and Lesley Garrett and Margaret Preece as the Mother Abbess. A production of "Sister Act the Musical" opened on 2 June 2009, starring Patina Miller as Deloris, Sheila Hancock as Mother Superior, Ian Lavender as Monsignor Howard, Chris Jarman as Shank, Ako Mitchell as Eddie, Katie Rowley Jones as Sister Mary Robert, Claire Greenway as Sister Mary Patrick and Julia Sutton as Sister Mary Lazarus.


title: London Palladium

text: Rufus Wainwright held two sold out Judy Garland tribute concerts at the theatre on 18 and 25 February 2007. On 20 May 2007 the London Palladium hosted the 2007 BAFTA awards, which were broadcast on BBC television, and in 2010 the BAFTA Television Awards returned to the Palladium. While the Theatre has a resident show, it is still able to have one-off performances; this is enabled by the scenery of the resident show being designed to be easily removed. For example, the set of "Sister Act" was able to be hoisted completely above the stage out of view in an area called the Fly Loft.


title: London Palladium

text: The London Palladium turned 100 years old on Boxing Day 2010, and a one-hour television special entitled '100 Years of the Palladium' aired on BBC Two on 31 December 2010. Sir Elton John performed at the venue in September 2013 in a special show where he was presented with the Brit Awards Icon, subsequently broadcast on ITV1. Robbie Williams promoted his new album "Swings Both Ways", the UK's 1000th No. 1 album, with a one-night performance on 8 November 2013 that was filmed for television broadcast (BBC One). He was joined by members of the cast of "The Muppet Show" (Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Statler and Waldorf), Lily Allen, Rufus Wainwright, his father, a children's choir and a 30-piece orchestra. Invited guests included Adele and One Direction.


title: London Palladium

text: From 2011 to 2012, the Palladium became home to Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of "The Wizard of Oz" which featured new songs by Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and starred Michael Crawford, Danielle Hope, Hannah Waddingham, Russell Grant, Sophie Evans and Des O'Connor. This was followed by a return season of "" starring Tommy Steele. In 2013 it became home to a revival of "A Chorus Line" starring John Partridge, Scarlett Strallen and Leigh Zimmerman.


title: London Palladium

text: Since 2013, excluding 2014, 2015 and 2016, "Britain's Got Talent" have held Judges' auditions at the Palladium as one part of their audition tour which usually lasts from mid-January to late-February.


title: London Palladium

text: In 2014, Really Useful Group split in two, and the entity owning the theatre became the Really Useful Theatres Group.


title: London Palladium

text: In 2018, Sir Bruce Forsyth's ashes were laid to rest under the Palladium's stage, with a blue plaque commemorating him on a nearby wall, featuring the description "Without question the UK's greatest entertainer, he rests in peace within the sound of music, laughter and dancing… exactly where he would want to be."


title: London Palladium

text: Between 26 June and 8 September 2019, the Palladium staged the 50th Anniversary production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's and Tim Rice’ "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". It was a whole new production with Sheridan Smith starring as the Narrator and Jason Donovan as the Pharaoh and introducing Jac Yarrow in the title role. In 2022, the Palladium served as the venue for the limited West End revival of "Beauty and the Beast".


title: London Palladium

text: A new production of "The Wizard of Oz" will be revived at the Palladium for a limited season from 23 June to 3 September 2023.


title: London Palladium

text: In December 2016, pantomime returned to the Palladium for the first time in nearly three decades with "Cinderella" produced by Qdos Entertainment and directed by Michael Harrison. It starred Julian Clary, Paul O'Grady, Amanda Holden, Paul Zerdin, Nigel Havers, Lee Mead, Count Arthur Strong and Natasha Barnes.


title: London Palladium

text: For the Christmas 2017 season, the pantomime returned with "Dick Whittington" starring Clary, Zerdin and Havers returning, joined by Elaine Paige, Gary Wilmot, Ashley Banjo & Diversity and Charlie Stemp. The production won the 2018 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and Family.


title: London Palladium

text: For Christmas 2018, the pantomime returned with "Snow White" with Clary, Zerdin, Havers, Wilmot and Stemp returning joined by Dawn French, Danielle Hope and Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace.


title: London Palladium

text: For Christmas 2019, the pantomime returned with "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", with Clary, Zerdin, Havers and Wilmot returning, joined by Paul O'Grady, Matt Baker, Janine Duvitski, Sophie Isaacs and Lauren Stroud.


title: London Palladium

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2020 the pantomime returned with "Pantoland at the Palladium" to a socially distanced audience. Clary, Zerdin, Havers and Wilmot returned and joined by Elaine Paige, Beverley Knight, Charlie Stemp, Jac Yarrow and Ashley Banjo & Diversity. The production opened 12 December, however due to the Government's tier 3 restrictions, the production closed on 15 December 2020.


title: London Palladium

text: The pantomime returned for Christmas 2021 to a full capacity with "Pantoland at the Palladium" with Clary, Zerdin, Havers, Wilmot and Yarrow returning alongside Donny Osmond and Sophie Isaacs.


title: London Palladium

text: In February 2022, it was announced that Dawn French along with Clary, Havers, Wilmot and Zerdin, would headline the newest Palladium Pantomime, "Jack and the Beanstalk", with tickets on sale from March 2022. On 27 April 2022, it was announced that West End icon Alexandra Burke would join the cast. On 27 September 2022, the lineup was completed with West End stars Natalie McQueen, Rob Madge and Louis Gaunt. The show will run for six weeks, from 10 December to 15 January.


title: Woolwich

text: The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throughout the 16th to 20th centuries. After several decades of economic hardship and social deprivation, the area now has several large-scale urban renewal projects.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich is situated from Charing Cross. It has a long frontage to the south bank of the Thames river. From the riverside it rises up quickly along the northern slopes of Shooter's Hill towards the common, at and the ancient London–Dover Road, at . The ancient parish of Woolwich, more or less the present-day wards Woolwich Riverside and Woolwich Common, comprises . This included North Woolwich, which is now part of the London Borough of Newham. The ancient parishes of Plumstead and Eltham became part of the civil parish of Woolwich in 1930. Parts of the wards Glyndon and Shooter's Hill are often referred to as Woolwich, although this definition is not accepted by all. The nearest areas are Abbey Wood, Bexleyheath, Blackheath, Charlton, Eltham, Greenwich, Kidbrooke, Lewisham, North Woolwich, Plumstead, Shooter's Hill, Thamesmead, Welling and Well Hall.


title: Woolwich

text: Census data is collected by borough and ward so identifying the population of Woolwich is not straightforward. If the area is taken to approximate to the Woolwich Common, Woolwich Riverside and Glyndon Wards, then the population was 54,790 at the time of the 2011 census.


title: Woolwich

text: If it is also taken to include the Plumstead and Shooters Hill Wards then it rises to 84,959 at the 2011 census.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age. Remains of a probably Celtic oppidum, established sometime between the 3rd and 1st century BCE, in the late Roman period re-used as a fort, were found at the current Waterfront development site between Beresford Street and the Thames. According to the Survey of London (Volume 48: Woolwich), "this defensive earthwork encircled the landward sides of a riverside settlement, the only one of its kind so far located in the London area, that may have been a significant port, anterior to London". A path connected the riverside settlement with Watling Street (Shooter's Hill), perhaps also of Iron Age origin. Sandy Hill Road may be a remnant of this early path.


title: Woolwich

text: It is generally believed that the name Woolwich derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "trading place for wool". It is not clear whether Woolwich was a proper "-wich town", since there are no traces of extensive artisanal activity from the Early Middle Ages. However, in 2015 Oxford Archaeology discovered a Saxon burial site near the riverside with 76 skeletons from the late 7th or early 8th century. The absence of grave deposits indicates that this was an early Christian settlement. The first church, which stood to the north of the present parish church, was almost certainly pre-Norman and dedicated to Saint Lawrence. It was probably rebuilt in stone around 1100.


title: Woolwich

text: From the 10th till the mid-12th century Woolwich was controlled by the abbots of St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent. This may have been a result of a gift of 918 from Ælfthryth, daughter of King Alfred and Countess of Flanders, in that case the first recorded grant of English lands to a foreign ecclesiastic institution. As a result of this tenure Woolwich is not mentioned in the Domesday Book; it is thought that the 63 acres listed as "Hulviz" refer to North Woolwich, which was then uninhabited. Some of the Ghent lands passed to the royal manors of Dartford and Eltham as early as 1100; the larger part of the parish, referred to as the manor of Woolwich but in effect not a full manor, became an Eltham dependency in the 14th century. Not included were a riverside quay held by Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, a wharf held by St Mary's Priory, Southwark, and land around Plumstead owned by Bartholomew de Burghersh, 2nd Baron Burghersh, later referred to as the Burrage Estate.


title: Woolwich

text: Medieval Woolwich was susceptible to flooding. In 1236 many were killed by a flood. Woolwich Ferry was first mentioned in 1308 but may be older. Around Bell Water Gate some private shipbuilding or repair may have existed in the 15th century. A windmill was mentioned around 1450. Several pottery kilns have been discovered north of Woolwich High Street and Beresford Street, testifying of a perhaps unbroken tradition of pottery production from at least the 14th century until the 17th century.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich remained a relatively small Kentish settlement until the beginning of the 16th century, when it began to develop into a maritime, military and industrial centre. In 1512 it became home to Woolwich Dockyard, originally known as "The King's Yard", founded by Henry VIII to build his flagship "Henry Grace à Dieu" ("The Great Harry"). Many great ships were built here, such as the "Prince Royal", the "Sovereign of the Seas", the "Royal Charles", the "Dolphin" and the "Beagle". East of the dockyard a gun yard was established in the 1540s (for storage and maintenance of ships' canons and armaments) and a ropeyard followed in the 1570s. The dockyard went through many ups and downs but survived for three and a half centuries, closing down in 1869.


title: Woolwich

text: Following the establishment of the dockyard, Martin Bowes who had gathered a fortune at the Royal Mint, bought riverside holdings in Woolwich and Plumstead in the 1530s, some of it former church land that had become available after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His mansion was Tower Place, for some time the largest dwelling in Woolwich. In the 1650s the Board of Ordnance was given permission to prove guns in the grounds of the mansion (an area known as the Warren) and twenty years later they purchased Tower Place itself. The Warren then developed from a place of storage into a collection of armament factories, military stores and research establishments, which were collectively named the Royal Arsenal by George III in 1805. The complex played a central role in Britain's military and industrial expansion: in wartime, tens of thousands of workers found employment here; between wars, unemployment loomed.


title: Woolwich

text: The Board of Ordnance maintained its own establishment of military personnel, many of whom were based in the Warren. In 1716 it had (by a royal warrant of George I) formed the Royal Regiment of Artillery, which had its headquarters and barracks in the Warren, and in 1741 it established the Royal Military Academy there to train its future officers. In 1776 the Artillery moved out of the Warren into a new Royal Artillery Barracks on the edge of Woolwich Common. The Royal Military Academy followed, moving into its new premises at the other end of the common in 1806. By that time various other units and services had begun to establish themselves in the vicinity, forming what became known as Woolwich Garrison. In the 19th and 20th century several large barracks were built, as well as military schools and hospitals. To this day, the town retains an army base (known as Woolwich Station) centred on the Royal Artillery Barracks and Napier Lines Barracks.


title: Woolwich

text: Throughout the 18th century the navy yard remained the town's main employer with between 500 and 1,400 men working in the docks. Due to the malarial marshlands, it was not a popular place to work and for that reason Woolwich dockyard workers were paid as much as a third more than in other naval towns. These were mostly skilled artisans who were generally literate, Nonconformist and well-organized. The number of artillery men grew from around 200 in 1716 to around 1,500 in 1801. Soldiers were generally held in contempt, earning about a quarter of dockyard labourers' wages. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, there were more soldiers (3,000) than dockyard and ropeyard workers (2,000), while the arsenal employed as many as 5,000. After the end of the wars, thousands were discharged, causing great distress. In the 1840s, a steam factory gave a new lease of life to the dockyard and the 1850s saw a huge expansion of the arsenal during and after the Crimean War.


title: Woolwich

text: The presence of the dockyard, the arsenal and other military institutions stimulated economic growth in other areas, notably in commercial activities and entertainment. The ropeyard was established around 1570 and survived until 1832. Throughout the 17th century two glass factories were active near Glass Yard, owned by Sir Robert Mansell from Greenwich, who also managed the dockyard and the ropeyard. Some of the masters here were Huguenots from Lorraine. Kilns producing Bellarmine stoneware may also have been controlled by continental potters. Other kilns produced earthenware and clay pipes. Kilns were also active on the hillside south of the town, where clay was readily available. Near Plumstead and Charlton were sandpits; the sand was shipped from a wharf near Tower Place. In 1863, the German firm Siemens & Halske established a submarine-cable factory in the Dockyard area, which expanded rapidly.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich market received its charter in 1618 but is certainly older. The market, which had long been established in the High Street in Old Woolwich (at a location called Market Hill), had gradually drifted towards the Royal Arsenal's main gatehouse, more or less at its present location. This was not approved by the authorities and a new market was set up in the Bathway Quarter around 1810. This proved to be a failure and is remembered only in the name of Market Street. Until 1879, the market at Beresford Square remained illegal and was regularly cleared by the police. After it was legalized, it had room for 136 stalls. Italo Svevo described it as "very lively" in 1903. In 1936, a covered market opened in Plumstead Road but never formed a threat to the main market. Beresford Square had the largest public houses (of which Woolwich had many). Powis Street and Hare Street, laid out in the early 19th century, became the main shopping streets. A number of Victorian shop facades, many designed by local architect Henry Hudson Church, have survived.


title: Woolwich

text: In 1868 the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society was established, which developed into one of the biggest consumer cooperatives in the country with two department stores in Powis Street, shops around South East London, manufacturing and food production plants, a building society, a funeral service and many other areas of entrepreneurship.


title: Woolwich

text: Around 1500, at the beginning of the military and naval expansion, Woolwich had only a few hundred inhabitants. In 1665, when Samuel Pepys stayed here to escape the Great Plague, the population was estimated at 1,200 or more, of which about 300 worked in the dockyard. Around 1720, the town's population had risen to 6,500, reaching almost 10,000 in 1801. During the booming wartime decade that followed, population reached a peak of 17,000. After a period of stagnation, building activity picked up in the 1830s. Woolwich' built-up area expanded southward with workers' houses mostly close to the river and officers' houses around Woolwich Common and further up the hill. In 1841 Woolwich had a population of 27,785; in 1861 this had risen to 41,695. At this point there were 4,596 houses in the parish, with little space left for building; further development took place in Plumstead, Charlton and North Woolwich, later also in Eltham. After a dip in the late 19th century, in 1901 the population of the parish of Woolwich stood at the same level as 40 years earlier: 41,625. Victorian Woolwich was a rich social mix with skilled engineers along with unskilled labourers (including women and children) working at the Arsenal and other factories, large numbers of soldiers (making up 10–15% of the population) and a small bourgeoisie consisting of military officers and the commercial and professional elite. Some areas of the town were notoriously overcrowded; the so-called near the river was considered one of London's worst slums.


title: Woolwich

text: Until the arrival of the railways, the Thames was the principal artery connecting Woolwich to London. In 1834 the Woolwich Steam Packet Company greatly improved river traffic and in 1889 the Woolwich Free Ferry made it easier to live in North Woolwich and work in the Arsenal, or to live in Woolwich and work in the Docklands. The North Kent Line from London via Greenwich and Woolwich to Gillingham opened in 1849. The station building was rebuilt in 1906 and again in 1992–93. Woolwich was also on the route of two London trams of the first generation (1881–1952).


title: Woolwich

text: The post-war period brought massive changes to the town's fabric and infrastructure. Roads were widened and entire neighbourhoods pulled down to make room for modern housing, some of it in tower blocks. The widening of Woolwich High Street and Beresford Street left little of the old town. Woolwich was home to the experimental Auto Stacker car park. Built on the site of the Empire Theatre, it was officially opened in May 1961 by Princess Margaret. It never actually worked and was demolished in 1962. A multi-storey car park was built along Monk Street in 1971.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich Polytechnic was founded in 1891. As well as providing a higher education facility, it also provided secondary school facilities, including the still-extant (but now relocated) Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys. In the 20th century the Polytechnic grew steadily, taking up almost an entire block in the Bathway Quarter and later spreading to other areas. In 1970 it merged with other local colleges and became Thames Polytechnic. In 1992 it was granted university status and a year later was renamed the University of Greenwich. In 2001, the university relocated to the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, leaving only a small administrative presence in Woolwich.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich was the location of the first free kindergarten in the UK. The Woolwich Mission Kindergarten opened in 1900, and began in a room provided by a Christian socialist vicar of Holy Trinity church in New Charlton, the Rev. Walter Wragge. It was founded by his sister, Adelaide Wragge, the Fröbel-influenced principal of Blackheath Kindergarten Training College.


title: Woolwich

text: In the 18th century, Woolwich Cricket Club, later Royal Artillery Cricket Club, were well-known cricket clubs. Cricket and other sports were mainly played by military officers and students at the Royal Military Academy. Arsenal F.C. was founded in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal. Initially known as "Dial Square", then "Royal Arsenal" and then "Woolwich Arsenal", they soon drew large crowds to their ground in Plumstead. In 1913 they moved to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London. Royal Ordnance Factories F.C. was founded in response to Woolwich Arsenal joining the League but only lasted a few years.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich had several theatres and cinemas. The Theatre Royal in Beresford Street, later renamed Empire Theatre or Woolwich Empire, was the biggest. Dating from the 1830s, it was enlarged in the 1880s and 1890s, seating about 2,000. It both served as a variety theater and cinema, ending up as a strip-joint. It was demolished in 1960. Shortly after 1900, three new theaters opened with a combined capacity of 4,430. The Century cinema, which faced Beresford Square, was previously known as Premier Cinema and Royal Arsenal Cinema. It was built in 1913 with 669 seats, closed in 1961 and demolished for redevelopment in the late 1960s. The Grand Theatre in Wellington Street opened in 1900 as a variety theatre with a capacity of 1,680. It became the Woolwich Hippodrome in 1908 and a full-time cinema in 1923. Rebuilt in 1955 as the Regal Cinema, it closed in 1982, was then used as a nightclub and demolished in 2015. The Granada cinema and the Odeon, later Coronet, both seating around 2,500, are imposing buildings from the 1930s that have both been converted into Pentecostal churches.


title: Woolwich

text: The civil parish of Woolwich, roughly the area of the present-day wards Woolwich Riverside and Woolwich Common, was formerly known as Woolwich Saint Mary. Until 1842, when the Old Town Hall was built, the vestry met in a room in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene. Woolwich became part of the London metropolitan area in the mid-19th century, although was officially still in Kent at the time. In 1889, with the formation of London County Council, Woolwich became officially part of London. In 1900 the parishes of Woolwich, Eltham and Plumstead formed the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. In 1906 the new Woolwich Town Hall was inaugurated. In April 1965, following implementation of the London Government Act 1963, Woolwich was merged into the London Borough of Greenwich, since 2012 the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The administrative buildings of the borough are in Woolwich, at the former Woolwich Town Hall.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich declined as a town in the late 20th century, starting with the closure of the Royal Ordnance Factory in 1967 and the Siemens factory in 1968 and continuing as the Royal Arsenal scaled back operations and finally closed in 1994. Other employers like the Woolwich Building Society ("The Woolwich") and Morgan Grampian Publishers were taken over by other companies and moved away from the town. Without major employers, the local economy was affected and unemployment soared. At the same time the town's demographics changed, with initially mainly Sikhs settling down in the area, later followed by black Africans, many from Nigeria. Despite immigration, the population of the parish reached a low of 17,000 in 1971. In general, Woolwich had lost its previous vigour. In the town's shopping district, department stores and chain stores closed. By the early 1990s, the town centre had the typical appearance of a town in decline with discount retailers and charity shops using the empty stores and Greenwich Council occupying the empty office buildings. In 1974, the United Kingdom's first branch of McDonald's opened in Powis Street. Amidst the decline, Woolwich was still considered to be a representative English town at the time.


title: Woolwich

text: In 1974 the Provisional IRA bombed the Kings Arms pub in the town, killing two. During the 2011 England riots, Woolwich was one of the areas affected. Several buildings were attacked, with a few being destroyed. "The Great Harry" Wetherspoons' Pub was set on fire, though it was subsequently remodeled and reopened. On 22 May 2013 the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich caused upheaval. Drummer Lee Rigby, a British soldier based at the Royal Artillery Barracks, was murdered close to the barracks by two Islamic extremists.


title: Woolwich

text: The 16th Regiment Royal Artillery left Woolwich in 2007, but the Woolwich barracks still house the Royal Artillery Band and more recently the Second Battalion Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, although the relocation of these has been announced for 2028.


title: Woolwich

text: Recent and anticipated regeneration in the area means that it's expected that the district, identified in the London Plan as "opportunity area", is expected to evolve from "major centre" to "metropolitan centre" within Greater London in the next few decades.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich started to enjoy the beginning of a renaissance with the residential redevelopment of the former Royal Arsenal. Most historic buildings on the site have been renovated and converted into apartments. Several thousands of homes have been built or are under construction and thousands more are planned, mainly luxury apartments in tower blocks near the river. Additionally, a riverside walk, several parks, a museum, a range of shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants, and a farmers' market have made the Arsenal a desirable place to live. In 2017 it was announced that the borough has acquired five historic buildings around No 1 Street to create a £31 million creative district. It will feature a 1,200-seat auditorium for concerts and events, a performance courtyard that seats up to 600, a 450-seat black box theatre and a riverside restaurant. The Greenwich Heritage Centre will move to new premises. The site will further include offices, studios and rehearsal spaces for resident companies such as Academy Performing Arts, Dash Arts, Chickenshed Theatre, Protein Dance, Greenwich Dance and Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. The creative district opened as Woolwich Works in September 2021.


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich Arsenal DLR station, the terminus of the Docklands Light Railway's London City Airport branch, opened on 10 January 2009. The 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics included Woolwich as a venue for shooting events, held in temporary facilities constructed on the grounds of the Royal Artillery Barracks and on Woolwich Common.


title: Woolwich

text: A large-scale redevelopment of the area west of General Gordon Square started in 2011. The square was re-landscaped, including a new water feature. The so-called Love Lane project involved demolition of several buildings including the Post Office, the Crown Building, the "Director General" public house, Peggy Middleton House and Thomas Spencer Halls of Residence. New buildings in the first phases of the Woolwich Central redevelopment included: the Woolwich Centre along Wellington Street (public library and council offices, completed in 2011), and a 259-home housing development with an Tesco hypermarket, completed in 2014. In the same year, the latter development was named Britain's worst new building, being awarded the 'Carbuncle Cup' for a design judges described as "oppressive, defensive, arrogant and inept". The same development was later (2022) also the subject of a potential £44m claim against its supply chain by developer Willmott Dixon for cladding replacement. Applications for development of the southwestern section of the site (along the South Circular Road) were made in late 2021.


title: Woolwich

text: On the other side of General Gordon Square the 1930s Woolwich Equitable building was refurbished. Next to Woolwich Town Hall on Wellington Street, the 1950s Woolwich Grand Theatre (formerly the ABC Regal Cinema, then Flamingo's Nightclub) briefly reopened as an arts centre with a cafe but in 2015 the building was demolished to make room for apartments.


title: Woolwich

text: Redevelopment around the "Woolwich Triangle" at the west end of Powis Street is partly underway. It originally envisaged demolition of the art deco RACS department store, one of two imposing Co-op buildings in this part of town. In September 2012 Greenwich Council approved a plan to convert the building into apartments and retail. Across the road, the late Victorian former RACS Central Stores building was renovated and re-opened as a hotel. Further regeneration is centred on Hare Street and the Riverside. By relocating the Waterfront Leisure Centre, it is hoped that this part of Woolwich will attract new development. Other areas for redevelopment include Trinity Walk (former Connaught Estate, part of the One Woolwich masterplan for three housing estates), several sites along Wellington Street (including the Ogilby site and the so-called Island site), the Spray Street Quarter (between the existing station and the new Crossrail station), and the Callis Yard site (former council stables). Redevelopment plans for the Spray Street Quarter in 2018 included a proposal to demolish the 1936 market hall.


title: Woolwich

text: For centuries the area between the Thames and the present-day A206 road has been dominated by docks, warehouses and factories, starting with the Royal Dockyard early in the 16th century, later eclipsed by the Royal Arsenal in scale and grandeur. In the 18th century the Royal Regiment of Artillery and the Corps of Royal Engineers were established in Woolwich, followed by the Royal Military Academy. Other military institutions completed the picture of the garrison town that Woolwich had become in the early 19th century. The town has a distinctive housing history and in the Bathway Quarter it has an equally distinctive civic centre. Although repeatedly rebuilt, its architectural heritage reflects its unusual and important history.


title: Woolwich

text: The older parts of the Royal Arsenal constitute a conservation area. Most buildings of historic interest have been restored and given new uses. The Royal Brass Foundry (1717) is a grade I listed building, while the Dial Arch (1717–20), the Old Royal Military Academy (1720) and the Grand Store (1806–13) are Grade II* listed. Other listed buildings include the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse, Middle Gatehouse, the Main Guard House, two small guardhouses near the Thames, the Shell Foundry Gatehouse, Verbruggen House and two twin pavilions in Laboratory Square, the oldest structures on the site (1696).


title: Woolwich

text: At Woolwich Dockyard relatively little of historic interest remains. The main monumental building complex comprises a small cluster of 18th-century buildings: the entrance gate, the guardhouse and the so-called Clock House (Dockyard offices). A pair of 19th-century docks remain on the site of their 16th-century predecessors. The later development of the Dockyard in the Victorian period is represented by the Steam Factory and the Dockyard chimney, a prominent landmark, and further west by a group of buildings at the site of the Siemens Brothers factory.


title: Woolwich

text: Between the Arsenal and the Dockyard lies an area that was once Old Woolwich, a part of the town where little of historical interest remains and that, once again, is facing redevelopment. The round entrance building of the Woolwich foot tunnel dates from 1912. Further west, the Thames Barrier is an interesting example of modern architecture and technical achievement. The Thames Path is a National Trail that connects these sites.


title: Woolwich

text: Elsewhere, monumental buildings testify of Woolwich's rich military history. Woolwich Common with its surrounding buildings has been designated a conservation area. The Neoclassical façade of the Royal Artillery Barracks (James Wyatt, 1776–1802) is the longest façade in London, stretching along the north end of the common. Across the road, Government House (1781), was the quarters of the Garrison Commandant from 1855 to 1995. Of the nearby Garrison Church of St George only the shell remains after it was bombed during the Second World War. Its Neo-Romanesque architecture and remnants of mosaics are still impressive. John Nash's Rotunda, a round brick building with a leaded tent roof, until 2001 housed the Royal Artillery Museum and now serves as a boxing ring for the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery in nearby Napier Lines Barracks.


title: Woolwich

text: The Royal Military Academy at the south end of Woolwich Common was also designed by James Wyatt and has an almost equally long façade in Mock Tudor style. Other military buildings that survive include Connaught Barracks (built as the Royal Artillery Hospital in 1780), Green Hill Military School and Royal Herbert Hospital on Shooters Hill. The Royal Engineers' HQ was moved to Chatham in 1856, but a small detachment remained in Woolwich, quartered in what is now Engineer House on Mill Hill, just off the Common. Several listed buildings were demolished in the 1970s, including James Wyatt's Engineers Barracks (built for the Royal Military Artificers in 1803), Lewis Wyatt's Grand Depot Barracks (begun in 1805-6 for the Field Train department), Cambridge Barracks (1842, of which the gatehouse still stands) and Red Barracks (1858, only the boundary wall and entrance gate remain). The latter two, on Frances Street, were originally built as the Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich for the Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines, and each was considered an innovative and influential design. The Marines departed with the closure of the Dockyard, whereupon the buildings were converted into barracks accommodation for various military corps. Rushgrove House (1806) housed the Colonel Commandant of the Marine Barracks (later Cambridge Barracks) from 1855.


title: Woolwich

text: Virtually nothing is left of the old town of Woolwich which was near the ferry and the parish church along the Thames. In the early 19th century the commercial and administrative centre moved south to its present location around Powis Street, Beresford Square and the Bathway Quarter. Although 20th-century economic decline and infrastructural works have had their effects, there are still some interesting buildings in Woolwich town centre. The best preserved area is perhaps the Bathway Quarter with the former Public Baths, the Old and New Town Hall, the former Magistrates Court and Police Station, the Old Public Library and several historic buildings of Woolwich Polytechnic.


title: Woolwich

text: In nearby Powis Street and Hare Street some late Victorian shop façades have been preserved, notably by local architect Henry Hudson Church. The western end of Powis Street is dominated by two former Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) department stores, one late Victorian, the other one in Art Deco style. Nearer to the river are two large cinemas, both built in 1937 and both in use as Pentecostal church halls. The former Odeon Cinema (now occupied by the New Wine Church) is a fine example of an Art Deco theatre; the former Granada Cinema has lavish interior decorations.


title: Woolwich

text: Of the grand houses that once stretched along Woolwich Common and dotted the northern slopes of Shooter's Hill, little remains. Rushgrove House, Shrewsbury House and Woodhill Court survive but have lost their spacious gardens. Woolwich parish church, St Mary Magdalen is a plain brick 1730s building with a spireless tower. Other religious buildings of interest include the Roman Catholic St Peter's Church (by Pugin), and two Sikh gurdwaras, one a former Methodist church, the other a former Masonic hall.


title: Woolwich

text: Parks in central Woolwich are generally small. St Mary's Gardens has been laid out as a park in Romantic style on the grounds of the former churchyard of the parish church of St Mary Magdalen. Some historic grave markers have been placed against the peripheral wall. Tom Cribb's memorial, a lion rests its paw on an urn, stands near the northeast entrance. The park features a belvedere which offers views of the river Thames. At the Royal Arsenal, several new parks and gardens have been landscaped but some can only be accessed by residents.


title: Woolwich

text: Shrewsbury Park, Plumstead Common, Woolwich Common and Oxleas Wood are situated higher up the hill and are all part of the South East London Green Chain. Repository Woods is a forested part of Woolwich Common. The area around the lake is a military training ground that is not open to the public. The same applies to Mulgrave Pond and Shooters Hill golf course.


title: Woolwich

text: Arsenal F.C. is originally from Woolwich; Charlton Athletic's stadium, The Valley, is approximately 2 km west of Woolwich. The area also has two Non-League football clubs: Bridon Ropes F.C. and Meridian F.C., who both play at Meridian Sports & Social Club.


title: Woolwich

text: Barrack Field at the Royal Artillery Barracks was a famous cricket ground in the 18th century but is now merely used for recreational sports. Royal Arsenal Rugby Club plays rugby here.


title: Woolwich

text: Greenwich Council has plans to demolish the 1980s Waterfront Leisure Centre next to the Woolwich Ferry and build a new leisure centre in Wilmount Street. There is an indoor climbing wall in the Docklands area.


title: Woolwich

text: The University of Greenwich's dramatic arts department is based in the historic Bathway Quarter in the centre of Woolwich. The old Grand Theatre, which briefly reopened in the 2010s, closed in 2015. The Tramshed, until 1953 an electricity sub-station for the borough's tramways, is a music and entertainment venue run by the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Woolwich currently has no movie theatres. Cinemas are included in the plans for Spray Street quarter and the Island site. The town was used as a location for the 2006 film "Children of Men".


title: Woolwich

text: Woolwich has one museum, the Greenwich Heritage Centre at the Royal Arsenal (Firepower – The Royal Artillery Museum closed in 2016 after having been based in Woolwich for almost two centuries). Second Floor Studios in the Woolwich Dockyard area is one of London's largest concentrations of artists' studios. The town has a number of public sculptures: one of Roman origin, several statues and reliefs from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and a number of modern sculptures. One of the Woolwich Arsenal DLR station entrances features a large mural in tiles by Michael Craig-Martin.


title: Woolwich

text: The nearest stations are Woolwich Arsenal and Woolwich Dockyard for Southeastern services towards Barnehurst, Dartford, Gravesend, London Cannon Street and London Charing Cross.