Saturday 17th June 2023
Greenwich’s Fan Museum and Royal Park played host to a glorious day out for some of the Guild’s Georgian costumers. Sampling the delights of the museum, we saw a variety of fans from centuries old to freshly-minted and met the owner, who told us the stories of some of the most fascinating fans on display! Afterwards, they very kindly let us stage a photoshoot in the museum’s Orangery.
At the Fan Museum: Chintz and hats abound!
Proceeding to lunch, we spent a delightful afternoon promenading and picnicking in Greenwich Park in our 18th century costumes, and posing for many photos with passersby. Many of us had chosen to dress in the last two decades of the 18th century, from the 1780s when block-printed chintz and enormous false rumps abounded, before being replaced by the simpler, cleaner lines of 1790s and Regency neoclassicism.
Greenwich offers lots of photo opportunities.
Greenwich Park has a long history, containing the Royal Maritime Gallery, the Queen’s House, and the Royal Observatory, which makes it a lovely place for a historical costume outing! On such a warm summer day, it was also a relief to find some shade underneath the park’s many trees.
Enjoying our sandwiches and sundries in the shade.
Finally, the day culminated in dinner at the historic Cutty Sark pub, and a walk along the Greenwich riverfront, before we all caught the tube back to our modern-day lives.
Dinner time at the historically appropriate Cutty Sark Inn.