Carolling at Severndroog Castle, led by the SE18 Choir, with Christmas crafts for kids and you'll meet Santa too. Plus, see spectacular views of London and feast on festive food and drink. Come and join us at Severndroog Castle to start your celebrations for Christmas with carols and a festive sing-along with the SE18 Choir. You will be invited to join in and sing with the choir, or just sit back and enjoy the singing with a glass of mulled wine in hand.    In addition to this, we will be holding children’s craft activities, making decorations to adorn your Christmas trees, and they’ll be treated to a gift from Father Christmas too! Mulled wine and other festive fare will be available for purchase from our partner, the Terrace Tearoom, and there will be time to visit the viewing platform to take in the wonderful panoramic views of London. Early pre-booking is advised as space is limited for the two sessions on offer: morning or afternoon.    Make the most of this time of year with a Christmas family day out at Severndroog Castle. We'll be host to the SE18 Choir performing Christmas classics at 12.45pm for the morning session and 2pm for the afternoon one. Those attending in the afternoon will also benefit from the early sunset when atop Severndroog Castle.   CLICK TO BOOK YOUR TICKET    EVENT INFORMATION: Pre-booking is required. All tickets include access to the Castle and its Viewing Platform. The following ticket options are available for the two booking sessions,the morning slot (11.00 - 13.15) and the afternoon slot (13.30 - 15.15): Adult Tickets - £7Child Tickets - £5Family Tickets - £20; for 2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children Ticket does not include food or drinks; available for purchase on site. Getting here:Please note that due to the large number of spiral steps in the Castle, access for those with mobility issues will be difficult. Buggie parking will be available and all children must be accompanied by an adult, of course. There is limited free parking at the public car park, so we advise travelling by public transport. ​

Art Installation exploring the lives of some of the casualties of the East India Company. We invite you to join us at the historic Severndroog Castle, which stands amidst ancient woodland, to enjoy uninterrupted views of London and its surrounding counties and experience this emotive, historical digital art installation. From Sunday 6th October, Severndroog Castle will be host to the 'As The Crow Flies' installation every Sunday until the 1st December 2019, which will be free to access with the usual Admission Ticket to Severndroog Castle.  About the Exhibition  As the Crow Files a digital art exhibition following the stories of real and imagined historical people and their experiences of the East India Company in the 19th Century. There are 3 films on display and each explore a different story; the first is the tale of Emily Jane, an imagined character who represents the experiences of hundreds of young women who sailed to India to find suitable husbands among the employees of the East India Company, many of whom later died. The second is Lakshmi Bai, a heroin who fought against the East India Company during the Indian Uprising. Lastly, the story of two brothers Edward and William Connor from a Ragged School apprenticed to the East India Company.  All the lives explored in the installation are in someway casualties of the East India Company, lives cut short by its policies and actions. The Films were created out of archival research and are an artist’s interpretation of real past experiences. The films are a mixture of images, film, text, quotes and sound.  The films are projected onto a screen and reflected through glass onto hanging silk. This type of projection is used to signify that history can be interpreted in many different ways.    The Boys The Marine Society also selected poor boys from Ragged Schools to be apprenticed to the Company and this part is based around the handwritten letters from 2 brothers, Edward and William Connor, which were found in the archives of the Ware Family of Tilford. The fragments of text are overlaid on film shot on location in Bombay/Mumbai and the short sea journey to Elephanta Island. The writings give an indication of what life was like for the apprentices who suffered from prickly heat, were engaged in skirmishes in ‘outlandish’ places at a time when many boys deserted for merchant ships. This was also a key historical moment when the old Indian Navy was about to be abolished as the rule of the East India Company was replaced by the Raj. While the brothers sailed on different ships they finally met on the ship where Edward Wortley was serving and William died in his brother’s arms of the ‘brain fever’.   Lakshmi Bai During the Indian Uprising of 1857/8 the British sought to annexe Jhansi as they refused to recognise the adoptive son of Lakshmi Bai as a legitimate heir. She led an army against them and became a heroine of resistance before her death. This piece uses short sequences from the 1953 film, Jhansi ki Rani by Sohrab Modi, located in the film archive in Pune. This is overlaid on material shot on location in the Lukshmi Vilas palace in Vadodara, Gujarat and in Mumbai and Mahabaleshwar. The aim is not to create historical authenticity but to explore some elements of myth making. The processional wedding music recorded on location in Mumbai adds a slightly disjunctive element tothe recreated filmic scenes of uprising.   Emily Jane This piece depicts the haunting nature of overlapping cultural landscapes during the time of the East India Company and later the Raj. It uses a fictional figure derived from a19th century painting in the art gallery in Chhatrapati Shivaju Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai to reflect the young 18th and 19th English women who are memorialised on tombstones outside the cathedral in Bombay/Mumbai. The woman drifts ghost-like through the museum and the 19th century Baroda Museum and Art Gallery, based on a European model full of vitrines and classical statues. She appears in the ancient temple in Mahabaleshwar and the English Church, which co-exists there. During the 19th century she might also represent one of the “Fishing Fleet’, young women who sailed speculatively to India to find suitable husbands among the employees of the East India Company and later Raj.    ABOUT THE ARTIST Jini Rawlings is a mixed media and video installation artist. She uses projections and materials including glass and silk to suggest the multi layering of memory and meaning, creating poetic responses to stories found in original archives.  She traces journeys of migration and exploration and films on locations found through initial research. She has exhibited widely and was the first artist in residence in the archives of the National Maritime Museum in 2005-6, her installations Mariners and Migrant ; in Search of Home were exhibited as part of the travelling exhibition Life at Sea. She was selected for a solo show, Land/Seascapes of Memory, at Duff House, National Gallery of Scotland in 2009 and a solo summer show, WAVE/ING, at the Aberdeen Maritime Museum in 2012. She was the selected British artist for the cross-border residency Ici et La in 2013, making new installations in Hastings and Dunkerque and was commissioned for Unravelling the National Trust in 2014, creating site specific work for Uppark House. In 2018 she completed her Phd by Published work, Dis-Locations and Broken Narratives, which situated her work in relation to her experiences as a late discovered adoptee. Her installation Dear Child, inspired by the familial letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, was shown in Hy-phen, an Exposition between Art and Research at Ambika P3 Gallery in June 2019.    MORE INFORMATION:Art Installation held inside Severndroog Castle, Castle Wood, Shooters Hill, London SE18 3RT Entry available every Sunday from 6th October 2019 until 1st December 2019 Opening hours are:6th to 20th October, 10.30am - 4.30pm27th October to 1st December, 10.30am - 3.30pm Free access to this Exhibition is granted with our usual Admission Ticket to Severndroog Castle.Click here to see admission ticket prices.  Access:Information on how to find us is below.Free parking facilities available at The Castle Wood Car Park.​

​FAMILY CRAFT ACTIVITY - MAKE & DECORATE Christmas Decorations SUNDAY 24TH November 2019 AT 9.30AM-10.30AM   On the Sunday morning of November 24th, we are hosting a Family Craft Activity at Severndroog Castle between 9.30AM and 10.30AM for anyone who would like to join in. With the help of our volunteer, we will be helping you create your very own Christmas Decorations!  Using our supplied kit of craft materials, we will guide you and your little ones on how to build your craft decorations. You'll be left with a beautiful creations of your own to be proud of.  It's a bit of creative, family fun for the whole family to enjoy on a chilled Sunday morning. Following that, you can visit the rest of the Castle, take in the amazing views from the top of the tower, and even take a family stroll through the woodland.     No pre-booking required. This craft activity is included in the Castle Admission Ticket; which is £2.50 per child, £3.50 per adult or £9 for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 children). You will also have access to the castle's viewing platform where you will experience a spectacular view of London. Please find information on how to find us at the bottom of this page. When you arrive at the Castle, please make your way up the spiral stairs to purchase your ticket and then to the second floor to commence the activity. 

​Our Viewing Platform opening hours are changing to 10am to 3.30pm FROM THIS SUNDAY 27TH OCTOBER until FEBRUARY 15TH 2020   The Autumn chill is here and the clocks are going back this Sunday, so with the daylight changing we will also be updating our opening hours throughout Autumn and the coming Winter. We are pleased to still be open to the public every single Sunday during the new hours of 10am until 3.30pm until the Christmas period is upon us. So you will still be able to enjoy the Castle's panoramic views of London, chilly walks through the surrounding ancient woodland and a warming tea or coffee in our ground floor Tearoom.    tearoom OPENING HOURS - autumn & winter 10am to 4pm  The Terrace Tearoom at the bottom on the Castle will also be changing its opening hours for the Autumn/Winter season. From this Sunday, they will be open from 10am to 4pm, Thursday to Sunday. So do pop in during your stroll or arrange for a meet-up with your friends and family at our cosy Tearoom. We'll gladly shelter you from the cold and treat you with the Tearoom's delicious array of lunches and snacks. Any excuse for a warm scone and a cup of tea, we say! And of course, if you have a four-legged friend, they are welcome to join you in the Tearoom, where we also have complimentary doggy biscuits! The Tearoom will also be open Boxing Day from 10am until 2pm if you are out and about for a wintery walk.    castle closure dates - christmas & january 23rd december to 15th february tearoom open boxing day, 10am - 2pm  We would also like to inform you that the Severndroog Castle Viewing Platform will be closed to the public for the Christmas period as well as throughout January in order to carry out essential maintenance works to this heritage site. The Castle will therefore be closed from the 23rd December 2019 until February 15th 2020, and reopen its doors on Sunday 16th February 2020.     additional information:  No pre-booking required and admission tickets are available from the first floor. Admission prices will be as usual. Please find information on how to find us at the bottom of this page.  

 A HISTORIC ATTRACTION SITUATED IN SOUTH-EAST LONDON    We recently collaborated with travel website myhotelbreak.com on their recent visit to Severndroog Castle. Find out what they discovered in this guest blog edition: We were in London for a long weekend and a friend who stays in the capital had said to take time out to experience Severndroog Castle. They said we were in for a fantastic day and they weren’t wrong. The capital isn’t that well known for its gothic architecture but this attraction has it in abundance. We really recommend those who are looking for accommodation in London to visit Severndroog Castle.    Let’s find out more about the visit…We had visited several other attractions during our city break in the capital and we were more than pleasantly surprised about this attraction. Not only for it being different and unique but because of the building's sheer presence. It was quite astounding and more than impressive.  The amazing view from Shooters Hill was unrivalled too. With views of bustling London and beyond. Visitors will also fall in love with the location.  The building looks at home in its ancient woodland setting which is really surprising for a city like London.  The little ones' imaginations will go wild here! A HISTORIC ATTRACTION SITUATED IN SOUTH-EAST LONDOWhat we recommendThere is really something for everyone here. Whether you’re just looking to learn some history, enjoy a stroll around the grounds or enjoying something to eat and drink in the café. We have to mention the volunteer guides who were on hand during our visit. We got a great insight into the history of the building and the whole purpose of its construction. We learned how it fell into disrepair and the challenge of its re-construction into being one of London’s secret gem attractions. Learn more on the history of the building by clicking here. The team were a delight. From the second we walked in they met us with a friendly smile and made us feel relaxed and comfortable. I had a light bite from a menu which involved an Americano and a toasted Panini. Everything came on time, the food was excellent and the coffee was piping hot. It was a perfect way to relax and reflect on the great day at Severndroog Castle.   In ConclusionFor those looking for a different type of London experience, Severndroog Castle really has it all. Unrivalled views of the London skyline, the Thames and beyond. A breathtaking structure that has been brought back to life, that’s situated in a fantastic and mesmerising location along with a lovely tea room. We can’t recommend it enough. Enjoy creating memories at Severndroog Castle in London.     Photography by Severndroog Castle & London Viewpoints.     

​FAMILY CRAFT ACTIVITY - MAKE & DECORATE A Lantern SUNDAY 27TH October 2019 AT 9.30AM-10.30AM   On the Sunday morning of October 27th, we are hosting a Family Craft Activity at Severndroog Castle between 9.30AM and 10.30AM for anyone who would like to join in. With the help of our volunteer, we will be helping you create your very own Paper Lantern to hang!  Using our supplied kit of craft materials, we will guide you and your little ones on how to build a craft lantern and decorate it. You'll be left with a beautiful creation of your own to be proud of.  It's a bit of creative, family fun for the whole family to enjoy on a chilled Sunday morning. Following that, you can visit the rest of the Castle, take in the amazing views from the top of the tower, and even take a family stroll through the woodland.    No pre-booking required. This craft activity is included in the Castle Admission Ticket; which is £2.50 per child, £3.50 per adult or £9 for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 children). You will also have access to the castle's viewing platform where you will experience a spectacular view of London. Please find information on how to find us at the bottom of this page. When you arrive at the Castle, please make your way up the spiral stairs to purchase your ticket and then to the second floor to commence the activity.