A full programme of talks and events for visitors to the National Maritime Museum (NMM) and Queen’s House (QH), Greenwich. For Royal Observatory, Greenwich and Peter Harrison Planetarium events please contact the Press Office on 020 8312 6790/6732. All events can be booked at www.nmm.ac.uk or call 020 8312 6608.

February highlights

Traders Unpacked Lates: Anna Chen presents Traders, 16 February

Join writer, performer and professional provocateur Anna Chen for a steampunk Opium Wars extravaganza featuring songs, poetry and music. Featuring legendary writer Charles Shaar Murray, The Plague's Marc ‘The Exorcist’ Jefferies, Deborah Evans-Stickland performing her Flying Lizards' mega–hit ‘Money (That's What I Want)’ and DJ Zoe Baxter AKA Lucky Cat from Resonance FM. Historical characters from the Opium Wars battle it out on stage led by UK slam poetry pioneers Farrago Poetry Slam and there’s the chance to write some verse of your own and take part in a very alternative tea ceremony

Chinese New Year, 18 February

The National Maritime Museum celebrates the Year of the Dragon with a host of family friendly fun including flag-making, live performance and a spectacular outdoor procession by River Cultures.

Staying Ashore, 24 February

A musical and visual journey that charts a course through our relationship with the sea with Alison Blunt and David Leahy. Join us in the Queen’s House for an evening of musical accompaniment to films and images taken from the National Maritime Museum’s archive.

Traders Unpacked closing event: The East India Company and Me, 25 February

Amitav Ghosh’s Man Booker-nominated novel Sea of Poppies, partly researched at the National Maritime Museum, sets the tone for our closing day. The man himself will be in conversation with the BBC’s Razia Iqbal, and experts from The National Archives, London Metropolitan Archives and National Maritime Museum will be on hand to help you to discover and share your own connections to the East India Company.

Full event schedule

Write Queer London at the National Maritime Museum

As part of the Museum of London's Write Queer London Festival, poet and artist Nancy Campbell leads a writing workshop looking at aspects of the history of gay seafarers and pirates. There will also be an opportunity to explore the galleries and new Sammy Ofer Wing.
Date: 2 February
Times: 14.00–16.30
Venue: NMM
Cost: Free, but advance booking required.

Traders Unpacked Behind the Scenes: Swords

Get up close and personal with some of the Museum’s most precious objects with curator John McAleer and the Museum’s metalwork conservators.
Date: 8 February
Times: 14.00–16.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: £12

Traders Unpacked Behind the Scenes: Chinese Ship Models

Get up close and personal with some of the Museum’s most precious objects with curator Simon Stevens and Zefeng You of the Institute of Ancient Chinese Ships.
Date: 15 February
Times: 14.00–16.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: £12

Traders Unpacked When China ruled the waves? The maritime cultures of Asia in context

Since the 2002 publication of 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies, fierce arguments have raged over his controversial theory that vast fleets of Chinese adventurers beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas and mapped the world centuries before the European explorers. In this discussion, a range of speakers, including Menzies himself, explore the different maritime cultures of Asia.
Date: 15 February
Times: 18.30–20.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: £8

Traders Unpacked Lates: Anna Chen presents Traders

Writer, performer and professional provocateur Anna Chen welcomes you to a spectacular evening of poetry, performance and tongue-in-cheek Chinoiserie. The Opium Wars of the 19th century take centre-stage in a satirical extravaganza of poetry, performance and off-kilter tea-ceremonies. Farrago Poetry Slam maestro, John-Paul ‘Lord Macartney’ O'Neill goes head to head with Hi ‘Governor General Lin Zexu’ Ching.
Date: 16 February
Times: 18.30–22.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: Free

Chinese New Year at the National Maritime Museum

A celebration of Chinese New Year with a range of activities for all the family, culminating in a spectacular outdoor procession by River Cultures.

The day includes: flag-making workshops celebrating the Year of the Dragon inspired by the Imperial Chinese flag on display in the Traders gallery; workshops on tea cups and tea-pots exploring Britain's obsession with tea; drop-in gallery performances by Chinese seaman James Robson with Yellow Earth Theatre; and a film screening of The Chinese Feast, a family comedy about a cooking contest.
Date: 18 February
Times: 11.00–18.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: Free

Chinese Tea Party in the Orangery

Over 150 million cups of tea are drunk in Britain every day. But what is the real story of this quintessentially British addiction and what do you think about when enjoying a cuppa? Join artist Sadia Ur-Rehman for a tea party experience with a twist in the beautiful surroundings of the Queen’s House. Part of Traders Unpacked.
Date: 19 February
Times: 14.30–16.00
Venue: Queen's House
Cost: Free, but advance booking is necessary.

Staying Ashore

A musical and visual journey that charts a course through our relationship with the sea. Alison Blunt and David Leahy perform a live accompaniment to films and images taken from the National Maritime Museum’s archive. From the fishmongers and the boat builders whose livelihoods closely depend on the sea, to the landlocked individual living and working miles inland, we all have a connection to the expanses of blue that surround us. Staying Ashore invites us to consider our relationship to the deep waters and provides an audio-visual ocean out of which our thoughts, feelings and memories can emerge.
Date: 24 February
Times: 19.30–22.20
Venue: Queen's House
Cost: £8 (£5 concession)

Traders Unpacked closing event: The East India Company and Me

Amitav Ghosh’s Man Booker-nominated novel Sea of Poppies, partly researched at the National Maritime Museum, sets the tone for our closing day. Set during the Opium Wars, it features a polyglot cast and crew: a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts – people only hinted at in official records. Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy attempts to fill in the blanks left by the archives.

Might you be descended from merchants, soldiers, seamen, indentured labourers? Does someone in your family have a connection to The Company? Discover and share your own connections to the East India Company with the help of experts from The National Archives, London Metropolitan Archives and National Maritime Museum. Hear from historians and genealogists who have successfully traced their own ancestors, from Anglo-Indians, to Chinese Caribbeans and British Yemenis.

The day will culminate in an interview with Amitav Ghosh by Razia Iqbal.
Date: 25 February
Times: 11.00–18.00
Venue: NMM
Cost: Free

General information

The National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory Greenwich are open:
10.00–17.00 daily. (Closed 24–26 December).

General admission to the National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House is free. Admission to the Astronomy Centre at the Royal Observatory Greenwich is free. Admission to the Royal Observatory’s historic Flamsteed House, Time Galleries, Meridian Line Courtyard and Meridian Building is £7 for adults (£5 concessions). Entry for children under 16 is free.

For advance bookings and further pricing information please call 020 8312 6608 or email bookings@nmm.ac.uk.

For updated information prior to visit please visit our web site: http://www.nmm.ac.uk or phone (020) 8858 4422.

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Issued February 2012 by the National Maritime Museum Press Office.

For further information or images please contact:
National Maritime Museum Press Office
Tel: 020 8312 6732 | 07903 547 268
Email: press@nmm.ac.uk