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We're on the shortlist

Could we win High Street of the Year?

Barnes High Street” by Louise Braithwaite - image available as a print from www.madloupublishing.co.uk

 

C ould Barnes High Street be voted the best in Britain? Well it's a distinct possibility, as we're on a shortlist of three. Judges from the Academy of Urbanism have already visited Barnes to assess amongst other things local character, community health and wellbeing and commercial success. Over the next couple of weeks they will be visiting our two rivals Mill Street in Perth and Solar Avenue in Leeds.

 

The judges were treated to an introductory briefing at the Bull's Head and visited businesses like The Nest, Barnes Natural, The Barnes Bookshop, The Olympic and Olympic Records where archivist Roger Miles put together a special window in honour of the judges. Of course it featured Oasis' Definitely Maybe...

 

Town Centre Manager and local volunteers, as well as local councillors were on hand to explain the hard work that's gone in over the years to promote local businesses. We hope the judges were impressed. 

 

The winners will be announced at an event on November 23rd. Fingers crossed for good news.

Almost there...

 

T he judges for the best High Street competition came to visit just as the improvement programme to Barnes High Street was nearing completion. The final changes will be the replacement of the temporary east-bound bus top at the river end of the street with a permanent one and the addition of more bike parking racks and seating cubes.

 

When the weather warms up it is anticipated that some local cafés will take advantage of the new wider pavements to put out tables and chairs to add a 'continental' feel to the street.

At least there's one bridge that's close to completion

This is going to be one of those very rare issues without any news of Hammersmith Bridge (it's all gone very quiet) but we do have news of the rather snazzy new pedestrian walkway that's being built on the Chiswick side of Barnes Bridge.

 

Hounslow Councillor John Todd, who is one of the instigators of the scheme to regenerate Dukes Meadows, was very pleased to announce that the final piece of the footbridge was slotted into place on Thursday September 29.

 

With a following wind, the new footbridge will be open to the public in November after a grand opening ceremony. And upon its opening people will be able to walk from Hammersmith Bridge to Chiswick Bridge along the towpath without diversion for the first time since the arrival of Barnes Railway Bridge in the 19th century.

 

The bridge is the centrepiece of a scheme that aims to bring more people to the Dukes Meadows area and give them closer access to one of only two surviving natural river banks in London. The council has invested millions in the scheme which encompasses much improved sports facilities (great hockey pitches for example) and working with The London Wildlife Trust to increase biodiversity.

 

Also in the plans is the rebuilding of the boathouse by the bridge which will, as well as providing great boat launching facilities, have multipurpose uses. Watch this space to find out more.

Further delay to Brewery site planning application

Will the development at the old Mortlake Brewery site ever get built? Well of course it will, but it’s taking its time. After first being approved by Richmond Council and then being turned down by Sadiq Khan, plans were revised to include more homes including affordable ones.

The latest plans which involved adding height to the development met with considerable opposition from Mortlake and Barnes locals. In response, the developer – Singapore funded Reselton properties has made further revisions, removing 14 homes from the plan and reducing the proposed height of one of the apartment blocks by a storey. The developers have also reduced the height of the proposed cinema and provided less space for offices.

The changes have been submitted to the Council and the developer says it expects them to be subject of a further statutory consultation period this month. Once that period is complete the plans can go back to Richmond Council planning department for approval. However, even if Richmond approves the new plans the developers aren’t home and dry as there is always a risk of Sadiq Khan calling them in once more.

While the site is being used temporarily as a film studio the developer is making some money but as it stands without planning permission it has invested a reported £158 million in a site that’s not likely to generate a return for many years to come. Once planning permission eventually comes, the site may be worth considerably more on paper so obtaining permission is obviously hugely important.

Richmond Council has insisted that overall development of the site should include the building of a secondary school. Local campaigners oppose this proposal citing concerns over traffic issues. However, it is Richmond Council not campaigners that has the ability to grant the valuable permission. Given that the site was first acquired by Reselton in 2015 it would seem that permission can’t come soon enough.

 

Local campaign group MBCG has provided a handy guide to the changes which you can read here. It is also holding a public meeting on October 17 at St Mary's Church in Mortlake High Street at 7pm.

A fleeting Royal visit

For those of us living and working near the centre of London the solemnity of the mourning for Queen Elizabeth II was never that far away, and just for one fleeting moment it came even closer to us when, unusually, a Royal motorcade came through Barnes. It was bringing the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex through the High Street on their way to Windsor from London and passers-by captured the brief moment on video.

Elsewhere in Barnes there was a packed service of remembrance at St Mary’s and Barnes’ royal expert extraordinaire Gyles Brandreth was constantly on hand for TV and radio interviews.

Foodie Barnes in the news

It’s usually trendy East London that makes all the running when it comes to food writers so it’s great to hear of two Barnes’ foodie favourites receiving acclaim.

 

Firstly, the Lockdown Bakehouse* has been named as one of London’s top bakeries by The Infatuation – a great website full of food recommendations across London.

 

Then Italian restaurant Riva was mentioned last week on the BBC's Saturday Kitchen. Barnes’ own Stanley Tucci was the star guest promoting the new series of his Searching for Italy food documentaries, which prompted the chef and presenter Matt Tebbut to join Tucci in waxing lyrical about Riva’s charms.

 

*It’s actually the sister branch of our Bakehouse in Wandsworth that got the plaudit but our Bakehouse stocks the same breads and pastries so we’re claiming the win for Barnes 
 

Our weekly bread

The Lockdown Bakehouse may be one of London’s best bakeries (see story above), Gail’s may be lovely and the Parish Bakery may be just the spot for a traditional white bloomer, but hidden away just off Barnes High Street is a very exclusive bakery indeed.

 

In the back garden of a lovely Victorian cottage sits a professional bread oven, the pride and joy of its owner Dan, PR consultant by day and baker by night.

 

Actually, Dan prepares up to forty loaves to order every Friday and they get baked early on Saturday ready for collection by eager bread aficionados.

 

He makes four regular types of bread – each named after streets in Barnes. We tried the Melville which was stunningly good and next on our list is the Malthouse (named after Malthouse passage) which sounds as though it would be the perfect accompaniment to a hearty soup. 

 

Every now and then Dan adds a new variety, and streets in Barnes are vying to have a new loaf named after them.

 

Surprisingly, Dan’s passion for bread predates lockdown when many of us got the sourdough making bug. His bread journey (get us with the British Bake Off lingo!) began when he was given a one day baking course at the E5 Bakehouse in Hackney as a birthday present. Things got serious after that with a five-day course at The School of Artisan Food in 2019. He began making bread for friends and neighbours and, after word got around, he scaled things up even more. His professional oven, which can cook 12 loaves at a time, arrived, and now, thanks to the help and advice of the wonderfully named Ma Baker, he runs a fully-fledged micro-bakery.

 

You can find out more about Dan’s Barnes Bakehouse and order your bread by signing up to his email list on his website.
 

Barnes Bookfest makes news

The Barnes Bookfest is going from strength to strength and is making such a name for itself that it generated not one but two stories for the Times Diary last week.

The very funny Theo Fennell, who was interviewed by actor Richard E Grant about his memoir ‘I fear for this boy’ told a joke that was so risqué it was unrepeatable – even in the Times – but the explanation of the book’s title did make it to a diary piece. “That was my second best school report” Fennell said proudly. “The best was, ‘Fennell’s nose and the grindstone have again not met this year’.”

The second Times story was the revelation by royal historian Hugo Vickers of how organised Lord Mountbatten was in planning his funeral, right down to different menus for the reception to match whatever season the funeral might be held in.

The Times however missed some other wonderful talks, Michael Whitehall did an excellent impression of Barry Manilow, Patricia Hodge gave many backstage insights, including the story of Jeremy Irons coming into her dressing room while they were performing Harold Pinter’s Betrayal to complain loudly about the script. Irons was too busy slagging off the play that he hadn’t noticed Pinter himself sitting in the dressing room with Hodge. Dame Eileen Atkins recalled the time her mother had entered her into a poetry reading competition as a child in which the judges commended her but described her as a little Cockney. In those different, snobby, times the remark led to elocution lessons and then a career on the stage.

For co-organise Anne Mullins her highlight was the talk by veteran Green campaigner Jonathan Porritt. Anne arranged for 20 primary school aged children to meet him before his talk and she says the children were mesmerised by him.

 

For the Bugle our highlights were a great talk by Bonnie Garmus the very witty author of Lessons in Chemistry and a chilling insight into the state of Russia and the mind of Vladimir Putin in a talk given by Russia specialist Peter Conradi and investigative journalist John Sweeney. 

Roll on next year’s festival is all we can say.

Poo-tastic!

The night before Chris Peskett ran the 2021 marathon (dressed in a suit) was Dame Deborah James’ 40th birthday. Deborah who had been a keen runner herself dared Chris to run the 2022 version as a poo. That’s just what he did on Sunday with the aim of raising thousands in Deborah’s memory for her BowelBabe fund 

 

So, if you think you’ve seen a man dressed in a poo costume running through the streets of Barnes late at night we can reassure you that you haven’t been hallucinating. Like all costumes it had to be tested and refined.

 

The effort paid off although running with a heavy costume was so exhausting that the run took two hours longer than Chris's normal 3 hour marathon time. He completed the course in just under five hours making headlines into the bargain after he was interviewed by the BBC en route. He was also mentioned by Lorraine Kelly in her morning TV show.

 

It was Chris’s final marathon – he says his knees are ‘shot’ - so he’s hoping that he’ll raise more money for this run than he’s ever done before. It is, after all, for a very good cause. So far he has raised over £4,500 but would love to raise more. You can top up his total here.

Cheers for Frears

One of Britain’s most distinguished film and TV directors, Stephen Frears will be coming to Barnes next Monday (October 10). He may be doing so with some trepidation given that our own Roger McGough name checked him over 50 years ago in a hit song ‘Lily the Pink’. “ Mr Frears has sticky out ears” sang Roger’s band The Scaffold.

 

Both Frears and McGough are now in their 80s but still going strong, and Frears' visit to Barnes is not to exact revenge for the song but to take part in a special live Q&A following a screening of his film The Lost King at The Olympic.

The film, which stars Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan, tells the story of the amateur historian whose research eventually led to the discovery of the body of Richard III in a Leicester car park.

It’s a fantastic chance to get an insight into the work of one of our greatest auteurs and you can book your tickets here. 

Over 50s to get vaccine booster at Essex House vaccination hub

Just as we’ve all started to think that Covid is a thing of the past, cases are rising once more. And, even though the milder omicron variant is less deadly, it still packs a punch, particularly if you are older or more vulnerable.

The NHS is offering an autumn Covid vaccine booster to everyone over 50 as well as care staff and people aged 5 to 49 with underlying health conditions. 

Some people will have already received texts from the NHS pointing them to vaccination centres in South West London, but if travelling is an issue for you it’s worthwhile knowing that all patients of our linked four local practices (in Barnes, Sheen and Kew) will be invited to get their vaccine at our local Essex House vaccination hub.

So far, the Essex House team (which is comprised of volunteers and staff from all four local practices) has been prioritising the oldest and most clinically vulnerable patients. To date they have run two clinics and vaccinated around 2,400 patients and this week another 1,200 patients will receive their vaccines. They look set to run more clinics in the coming weeks (including evenings and weekends) so it won’t be at all long before they have invited all of the eligible patients in Barnes.  

No ifs, yes, butts

Image: charlies.co.uk

If you are one of the Bugle readers who has decided help prevent flooding in Barnes by making small measures to collect rainwater at home we’d love to hear from you. Last month in the Bugle, Mike Hildesley, the chair of Barnes Common, gave a real insight into the difference that we all can bring about just by making small changes. The simple suggestion of not running a washing machine cycle when it’s raining, so as to not add excess water when the drains are in danger of being overwhelmed has changed the way we think at the Bugle. It’s one of those things that is obvious when you stop to think about it, but like most of us, it’s not the sort of thing that we normally give any thought to.

That’s a small and simple change but there are other steps that take just a bit of extra, although small, effort. These include adding more drainage to our front gardens or connecting water butts to our drainpipes.

If you have made any of these changes, we’d love to hear from you and share your inspirational innovations with other people in Barnes. Just drop us a line at admin@barnesvillage.com.

Don your wellies to beat the wet wipe scourge

It’s extraordinary to think that the course of the Thames at Hammersmith is being changed by wet wipes. As we’ve written before in the Bugle, these seemingly innocuous items are having a huge impact on our overstressed sewage pipes (they are a key component of dreaded fatbergs). When they are not clogging up the sewers, they are being flushed out from sewer pipes into the Thames when it rains. A huge number of them have accumulated in the bend of the river to the west of Hammersmith Bridge forming what has been dubbed a ‘Wet Wipe Mountain’.

Now charity Thames 21, which is dedicated to improving London’s waterways, is inviting volunteers to spend time on the muddy foreshore in an organised wet wipe count. It’s dirty work but someone has to do it, and if you want to do your bit to help combat the wet wipe scourge you can join the Big Wet Wipe Count on 11 October from 9.45am till 1pm, on the south side of the bridge at the junction of Castlenau and Riverview Gardens.

Find out more a pre-register your attendance on Thames 21’s website.

Get your skate(board)s on

There are big plans for beautifully integrated skate ramps as part of the redevelopment of the Vine Road recreation ground and in preparation the team at Barnes Common have been working hard to develop a relationship with young skateboarders across Barnes.

As part of this initiative, some temporary skate ramps have been constructed and there will be drop-in sessions on offer every Tuesday from 3:30pm to 4pm and every Sunday from 11am to 4pm throughout October. There will be a first aid trained staff/volunteer on site but children under 10 need to be supervised by an adult. 

Advertorial

Could you be the new Chair of FiSH?

The current Chair of FiSH, Liz Wall, will be retiring in February 2023 and the Board at FiSH is now looking for a replacement.

The Chair, as well as being a trustee of the charity, works to support the Director who oversees the operations of FiSH on a daily basis. The Chair also represents the charity at community events and at meetings with stakeholders and the wider community.

Liz says “‘It has been so rewarding to serve as a FiSH trustee and then as Chair and to see at first hand what a lifeline FiSH is for so many people in our community. In 2023 FiSH will celebrate its 60th year of providing friendship, help and support so that people can continue to live independently knowing that help is at hand. That is an amazing achievement and a testament to the staff and all the FiSH volunteers.’

You can find more details of the position here.

Advertorial

Recession bites at local microbrewery

In the first signs of the recession biting, local micro-brewery Jefferson’s has announced that it is going to be suspending operations. Brewing requires a high energy input and with the cost of energy to businesses going through the roof, the two local brothers behind the craft beer project realised that their business model was going to be unsustainable for the medium term.

Such is their loyal fanbase that when they made their announcement they very nearly sold out their complete stock of beer. They held some back for a swansong at The Barnes Food Fair. For now, Freddie and George are dusting down their CVs and looking to re-enter the world of salaried work. Hopefully it will be a temporary blip and once energy prices stabilise it could be that their fans can start ordering their favourite Barnes beers once more. 

 Love letters to Barnes

After we published a story last month about Vassos Alexander’s love of Barnes we received this lovely letter (below) from Simon Nicholas telling us how he first discovered Barnes.

 

If you would like to share your own love letter to Barnes with us do write it and send it to us – we might just publish it!

 

With regard to the remarks about the beauty of Barnes by Vassos Alexander, you may find my experience interesting.  It was final year at school in Dorset and, as a member of the rugby fifteen, we travelled to London for a match at Rosslyn Park against Rugby School. As we waited for the train at the local station we stood amongst the trees in the country generating quite a lot of excitement at one of our rare visits to the big city with its glamour and mini-skirted girls.  On arrival at Waterloo however we were ushered to a side platform and put on a train to Barnes.  You can imagine the disappointment as we walked through the woods to the ground.  This was not London, we might as well have stayed at school.  It was not until many years later that my wife finally persuaded me that White Hart Lane was not the home ground of Tottenham Hotspur and in 1972, as we drove to Barnes, we crossed the railway bridge on the common and I recognised the station.  ’This isn’t London” I said.  We have been here ever since.
 

Add your sparkle to the Wetlands this winter by volunteering to help at a beautiful light show

This Christmas the London Wetland Centre is going to be transformed into a beautiful winter wonderland with the aid of some spectacular illuminations.

It's a fantastic event to visit as it enchants families, but more importantly it introduces many visitors to the magic of the Wetlands, and brings people into Barnes to visit our shops and support our local businesses.

 

It ran for the first time last year and was a huge success. However, it's an event that needs the help of many more people than actually work at the centre. That team is augmented by some brilliant local volunteers and they really stepped up to the plate to help last year's event run smoothly. 

 

This year the Wetlands Centre is appealing for more volunteers to help out with numerous tasks during the run of Illuminature and they are looking for people who are free to volunteer during the period from mid November until the first week of January.

 

Tasks that you can help out with include marshalling, car park work, ticket checks, engagement of visitors and even some animal checks. The volunteer shifts are deliberately short at 2 to 2.5 hours. The first shift starts at 3.45pm and the last ends at 8.30pm. There's no need to volunteer to cover all of the Illuminature evenings, just as little as two evenings would be the minimum the Wetland Centre would ask for.

 

To volunteer your service just email Huw Davis by clicking here.

Making a difference with ADHD

A local charity that started out as a small support group for parents of children with ADHD is now celebrating its 20 year anniversary and reading about how it has developed to help hundreds of families cope with their children's unique needs is hugely inspiring.

 

October is ADHD Awareness month and ADHD Embrace has been in contact with the Bugle to ask us to help raise awareness, which we're very happy to do. The charity hopes to  introduce more people to its services which include one-to-one sessions with parents, regular parent meet-ups and really useful seminars and courses  for parents and for professionals, like teachers, who work with children with ADHD. 

 

Often very simple changes in how children with ADHD are approached by adults can reap huge rewards. You can see more on the ADHD Embrace website and also on a lovely video that the charity had produced.

Spice up your life

S pice is an adorable 7 month old kitten who is currently being fostered by a family in Barnes. The charity that is looking after her is now looking for a forever home. She'll need to go somewhere where there are no other cats as although she loves humans she's not so keen on cats!

 

Spice has had a difficult start in life. She was hit by a car and seriously injured then taken into a local veterinary surgery. Her owners were found but they could not afford the vet bills that would be necessary to give Spice a chance of recovery so a cat adoption charity took on her care.

 

They say that Spice would be a great family cat as long as any children are old enough to be aware that she has had a serious hip injury.

At the moment, the vets think she may have to be an indoor cat. However, being so young, Spice will need a large home where she has plenty of space to run, play and explore.

 

Find out more here.

Barnes Potter finds new home in Sheen

S heen potter Lindy Barletta who used to have a studio in Priests Bridge but after her previous studio was closed during the Covid pandemic she had to retreat to a tiny home studio. Now however she's found some great new premises in Sheen, and in good news for budding potters (perhaps inspired by the Great Pottery Throwdown) she'll be offering pottery classes from January 2023 onwards. Find out more and sign up for news, and even order from Lindy at her website here. 

Bike sale racks up £17k in profits

The brilliant Barnes Bike Sale has come up trumps for local charities again, raising a staggering £17,000 for good causes including the Castelnau Community Centre, Age UK and FiSH.

 

The queues for this year's sale - held on the same Saturday as the Food Fair - stretched down Church Road as eager purchasers waited to buy donated second hand bikes which had been carefully refurbished by volunteers. Well done St Mary's.

Celebrating the autistic brain

L ocal writer and autism specialist Dr Gloria Dura-Vila has produced two books for children with autism and their families and will be launching them at The OSO on Sunday October 16. She's inviting anyone with an interest in autism to come along to the launch event which will be held at 11.30am.

 

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