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The magnificent seven

Picture: Andrew Wilson

Stanley Tucci, pah! Holly Willoughby, meh! Gary Lineker, whevs! The only celebrities worth spotting in Barnes right now are the seven brand new cygnets on Barnes Pond. The new brood hatched on April 24 to much excitement and what seems like a million social media posts.

Our elderly (in swan terms) female has engaged in a return to form and once more hatched out a brood of seven. After only two cygnets were born last year there was speculation that the female was at the end of her breeding years, but not a bit of it. 

While spectacularly cute, the new cygnets are also very vulnerable to attacks from other predatory birds and also from dogs. Dog owners are being asked to keep dogs on leads.

Ferry plans revealed

Local campaign group Hammersmith Bridge SOS has been briefed by TfL on plans for the new Barnes to Hammersmith ferry and, as the pictures above show, the journey across the river seems to comprise of a fairly long walk and a rather short ferry ride. 

 

Here's what else TfL had to share:

 

Hours of operation
Weekdays: 6.00 am to 10.00 pm
Weekends: 8.00 am to 10.00 pm

 

Frequency
Between 5-7 minutes in either direction during peak hours and 10-12 minutes off-peak.

 

Crossing duration
90 seconds 
Because of the way the service is planned the boats do not need to turn round, which obviously saves a lot of time. 

 

Boarding
There will be two boarding gates on the ferry, one of which will be used for pedestrians, wheel chairs and scooters, with the other being used for cycles. 

 

Staffing
Thames Clippers will have two staff on the piers at all times to assist with embarking and disembarking, taking tickets etc. There was considerable emphasis throughout the TfL briefing on the importance of enabling access for people in wheelchairs, and those who are less mobile.

 

Passenger Numbers 
The initial plan is for 1,116 movements per hour (558 each way) during peak hours
However as the service beds in and people get used to getting on and off the ferry, these numbers could quickly increase to a possible total of nearly 1500 passengers per hour (750 each way).

 

Read full details here.

Will we be able to walk across the bridge before the ferry even starts?

The Bugle has taken to viewing developments in the bridge situation with a world-weary eye, and currently our cynicism knows no bounds. Bearing that in mind, our inner psychic is envisaging a day sometime this autumn when the ferry launches and, just days after, the bridge actually opens up to pedestrians.

Is this a possibility or just fanciful? The answer is that it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. There are positive noises emerging about the health of the bridge’s structure and although the results of the investigation of the structural integrity of all of the bridge’s four pedestals haven’t been published, it seems possible that some people may be aware of the report’s contents and that they may be giving cause for some optimism. 

In an interview with London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan in the Evening Standard, he gave an upbeat assessment on the chances of the bridge being capable of being reopened to pedestrians. He gave nothing specific away, however, saying that the report needed to be published.

Meanwhile Hammersmith Bridge SOS has heard that no conclusion regarding the viability of the bridge to be opened to pedestrians can be made until a further engineering investigation has been done. This would involve ‘detailed inspection of the chain knuckles in the chain tunnels’ (no we don’t understand what that means either). This secondary investigation has been commissioned and will be completed by July.

So, if this secondary report has positive results, will the bridge re-open to pedestrians and cyclists?

Probably not, as Hammersmith & Fulham Council will need to get insurance cover before opening and says that the government would have to step up as the insurer of last resort. 

The group of engineers monitoring the health of the bridge (the CCSO) also say that the bridge will remain a sub-standard structure until stabilisation works are completed.

And, as the Bugle has previously reported, the CCSO says that a failure to set a date for remedial works must mean continued closure of the bridge, as indefinite use of temporary measures is not acceptable.

This means that no pedestrians shall pass until commitment to funding is given by central government, or it agrees to underwrite the toll finances in its role as insurer of last resort.

Have you asked for it properly?

Bugle readers won’t be surprised to hear that there is still no agreement on funding. The Task Force continues to meet (here’s the statement from last week’s meeting) and the focus of the discussions recently has been the radical Foster & Partners ‘bridge within a bridge’ proposal. 

Hammersmith & Fulham Council says this proposal will reduce the overall cost of the bridge’s final restoration to a full traffic-bearing crossing to £100 million – a £40 million saving on current estimates. The Department for Transport, however, wants to check this costing and says “LBHF and Foster/COWI have committed to work with the DfT and TfL in developing the business case for this alternative option, so that it can be compared to the current proposal”.

And so, April has passed with still no commitment on funding, meaning the completion date for restoration of the bridge is receding further into the distance.
Meanwhile, also talking about the bridge, and also seemingly not getting very far, was the House of Commons.

The motion for the debate was called by Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, who was scathing about the lack of progress being made on the funding issue, saying “The taskforce, which was set up in September last year, seems to have morphed into a significant barrier to any sort of progress, instead of making the urgent progress that we need. It is little task and no force. Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Richmond Borough Council and Transport for London have carried out the actions detailed for them in the taskforce meeting, but the Government have not brought the action needed from their side.”

In response Rachel McClean, The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport said “So far, the so-called bids that have been sent in, amount to nothing more than letters asking for an unsubstantiated amount. It is simply not appropriate to ask for funding from central Government on that basis. The Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham should have taken the time to understand what is required to submit a bid to the Government. We stand ready to help. There is plenty of help available for officials to put these bids together, but that has not been happening.”

So, Hammersmith and Fulham Council blames the government for asking it to come up with money it hasn’t got and the government in turn says that Hammersmith & Fulham Council hasn’t asked for funding properly.

For anyone with an interest in the bridge issue the transcript of the debate is very much worth reading. However, for anyone with a desire to get the bridge reopened as soon as possible it makes very depressing reading indeed.
You can read the full debate by clicking here.

Build a new bridge, says the Times, and name it after Prince Philip

We are aware that an omission we sometimes make in the Bugle is not mentioning the desire amongst many people to simply tear down the existing bridge and replace it with something more fit for purpose.

The reason we haven’t covered this angle in more detail is the fact that none of the parties with skin in the game are contemplating that eventuality. That, and the fact that the Bugle is saturated with bridge coverage and we’re starting to get complaints from readers about the level of coverage we give (too much say some).

This month, however, The Times weighed into the debate to comment on the dire situation of the bridge closure to propose replacing the decaying structure with a brand new bridge to be named in honour of Prince Philip. The editorial said that the wish to “wish to commemorate Prince Philip with a project embodying his interests and commitment to British engineering has widespread appeal”and went on to say “A Prince Philip Bridge would complement the Albert Bridge, also named after a royal consort, which was opened in 1873. It could be part-funded by a public appeal and donations would pour in from those knowing the duke would prefer something useful to another bronze effigy. The duke would no doubt smile benignly on something that liberated west London from gridlock.”

Just a little bit of history repeating

T he Hammersmith Society, described by MP Andy Slaughter in last month’s Commons debate as a “strictly non-political and very civilised body” has recently provided a very interesting historical perspective on the bridge issue.

There is nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes, and a recently published book reviewed by the society shows that the idea for a toll being charged to cross the bridge was first mooted in 1827.

 The book ‘John Dixon’ by Ian Pearce has a fascinating chapter illuminating the design and construction issues around the erection of the first Hammersmith Suspension Bridge (designed by John Tierney Clarke) in the 1820s and its subsequent upgrading into the current structure (which John Dixon’s company constructed) in the 1880s.

According to the Society, parallels highlighted between the problems with the original Hammersmith Bridge and the situation we face now include:

 

•	A toll that irritated residents both sides of the bridge.
•	Ownership issues preventing adequate finance & oversight.
•	Lack of maintenance leading to near collapse.
•	Concerns over bridge loading capacity, weight.
•	Questionable strength of bridge chains and hangers.
•	Roadway disintegration.
•	Use of inappropriate materials for cost reasons.
•	Engineers reports unheeded, or “disappeared”.
•	Plan for a temporary ferry with low capacity & limited hours.

 

One of the few differences that the society can discern is that after the original bridge was deemed not fit for purpose a temporary bridge was constructed while the new bridge was built.

The society also reveals that Hammersmith Bridge’s sister bridge the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest is also currently closed for refurbishment.

Twit, Twoo or Twit, Three to be precise

Picture: Andrew Wilson

There have been Tawny Owls roosting on Barnes Common for quite some time now and the volunteers at the Friends of Barnes Common have been trying to attract more by building bird boxes. Happily, it seems their efforts might have paid off as the cygnets on Barnes Pond aren’t the only new addition to Barnes’s distinguished collection of birds this month.

A new family of three young Tawny Owls have been spotted near Barnes Railway Station and have been brilliantly captured above by local photographer Andrew Wilson.

So this is how you build a footbridge

While progress on Hammersmith Bridge seems to have stalled, work is proceeding apace on the building of a new footbridge on the Hounslow side of Barnes Bridge. As part of the project to regenerate Duke’s Meadows the footbridge will allow walkers to cross under Barnes Bridge on the way to Chiswick Bridge rather than take a dog-leg diversion inshore.
Anyone walking over Barnes Bridge recently will have seen a large area of trees felled to make way for the new construction. The work is in preparation for the installation of a crane, ready to lift the steel supports for the new bridge.

Read more here.

Knives out

Mercifully knife crime doesn’t impact us as much in leafy Barnes as it does in more inner-city neighbourhoods but we’re not crime-free.

Last year the brutal murder of Blaise Algar in North Barnes shocked us all and Barnes mum Becky Beeston says her “life stopped too” when the life of  her teenage son Archie was taken in a stabbing in Kingston last February.

Over the past week the Metropolitan Police have been running Operation Sceptre intensifying action to tackle knife crime and wider violence.

The Bugle caught up with Detective Superintendent Andrew Wadey, Head of Investigations of the South West Basic Command Unit, this month to find out how local police are tackling violent crime.

Looking after the investigation of violent crime in Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth, Superintendent Wadey heads up reactive investigations after crimes have been committed, and pro-active investigation into organised crime including drugs gangs. His remit also includes burglary, robbery and offender management.

As has always been the case, a large number of crimes are committed by a small number of people and offender management and rehabilitation is a strategically sensible way to try to bring down crime numbers.

Finally, his team spends a lot of time engaging with young people via their schools with the aim of preventing a new generation falling into a life of crime.

The first thing Superintendent Wadey wanted to emphasise is that Richmond is one of the safest places to live in London, but that we’re not completely immune to serious violent crime or indeed the sort of offences that make people scared to go out at night such as muggings.

He said the police are constantly learning and adapting to deal with new situations, referencing the fall in moped related crimes after a change in tactics in dealing with moped gangs.

Similarly, he said lessons have been learned about the targeting of vulnerable individuals like Blaise Algar by criminal gangs who take over their homes to use them as a base for drug trafficking. Cuckooing, as it is known, has been on the rise and the Superintendent says that, in order to tackle it, intelligence from the public is crucial. Anyone seeing what they think is drug dealing activity going on in a flat or house should report it.

In fact, for every type of crime his unit tackles he couldn’t emphasise the value of the community’s contribution to providing evidence enough.

The introduction of doorbell cameras has been a boon for the police and Superintendent Wadey assured the Bugle that any footage of crimes being committed, or of attempted crimes, should be forwarded to the police. So, if your camera spots someone speculatively casing up your house or checking car doors in the street, the police would like to see that footage. It will be viewed by their team of ‘Super Recognisers’ and could lead to a conviction. Just go to met.police.uk and click on report.

Crime figures have reduced through lockdown but with the re-opening of the night time economy police are expecting violent crime to inevitably increase and are on the look out for new forms of crime.

The next big thing apparently is crime related to electric scooters. Young offenders are using the scooters to carry out robberies such as mobile phone theft and to get away quickly. Also, sadly, owners of the scooters are being targeted by those who want to steal them. Only last week a 14-year-old boy in Canning Town was stabbed to death after thieves targeted his scooter.

Superintendent Wadey cautioned parents about buying scooters for their children pointing out that their use is illegal.

Finally, Becky Beeston who so tragically lost her son last year is appealing that people do whatever they can to call out potential criminal behaviour by contacting CrimeStoppers. If someone had been able draw attention to knife ownership by Archie’s assailants, he might still be alive today. 

Covid in Richmond

It really is good news when it comes to local Covid figures this week. Across Richmond the number of newly diagnosed cases per week is currently averaging between 30 and 40 bringing the rate per 100,000 to 17. Contrast that with the last week of December 2020, when over 1300 cases were diagnosed and the rate per 100,000 was 658.

Looking more closely at Barnes over the last week, fewer than 3 cases were diagnosed in North Barnes and 4 cases in Mortlake and South Barnes. Covid hasn’t gone away but it seems to be very much in retreat.

Memories of Mortlake to wow the Barnes Film Festival

The ability of film to capture a mood and to shed new light on the world is beautifully exemplified in one of the short films being screened at the Barnes Film Festival next month.

Local film-maker Mark Forbes stepped into the door of Memories of Mortlake a second-hand shop in East Sheen and was enchanted.

And through his film he has shared that enchantment with a whole new audience. 

The elegiac film is about the shop’s owner Elke, still startlingly beautiful in her 80s, but it is also about so much more; the passing of time, the throwaway nature of modern society and, most of all, our need for human contact. 

It is simply constructed, Elke talks to camera about what the shop means to her and touches on her personal history. She came to England over 60 years ago, married an Englishman and stayed. She talks about her love of the items she sells and the changes she has seen over the years. Filming in the shop, Mark captures the happiness of discovery that pottering in a second-hand shop brings. The film also and maybe points to a turning of the tides, with younger customers seeking things that aren’t mass produced and marketed.

Made last year, before Covid forced Elke to close the doors of the shop, the film also touches on the blanket of isolation that the pandemic has thrown on the elderly.

Hollywood comes to Barnes

The Barnes Film Festival has opened up its competition to international entrants and this year has received more submissions than ever, there’s even an entry starring ‘Hollywood Royalty’ Will Ferrell.

This year’s festival, like last year’s, will be online. Live events will return next year but the online festival has attracted so many new followers from around the world that a new live/online format is the plan for future years.

Started to give students the chance to have their work seen by a worldwide audience and to champion emerging and diverse filmmakers, the festival has attracted stellar patronage including actors George Mackay, Vanessa Redgrave, Stanley Tucci, Malcolm McDowell and director John Boorman.

Oscar winning producer and Director of Film4, Daniel Battsek who sits on the Board of Trustees says, “Barnes Film Festival has turned South West London into an area which attracts filmmakers and people working in the industry. It’s a delight to support it. Highly selective, deeply creative and perfectly organised, they are making a name for themselves in the competitive world of film festivals. The team love what they do; it’s a vocation. It’s a great place to discover rising artists, connect and enjoy cinema in its purest form.”

 

The festival will run between June 17 and 23 and you can find out more on its website.

 

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