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Arrested!

 

Local police have arrested and charged a man in connection with one of the recent shop break-ins in Barnes, and whether it’s a coincidence or not, our local crimewave seems to have stopped abruptly. However, due to the sheer number of the break-ins over the past two months police cannot assume it was the work of just one individual. Indeed, there are some reports that a team of two people were responsible for some of the burglaries. Following the arrest, Richmond officers are still conducting night patrols in Barnes High Street and its adjacent roads.
The arrest was made after a DNA identification by the police forensics team. 

1,424 days and counting

Hammersmith Bridge has now been closed to traffic for 1,424 days (3.9 years). Though there’s much work going on behind the scenes there’s still no date in sight for its re-opening. And even though the Bugle could probably go on Mastermind with the bridge being its specialist subject we can’t even hazard a guess as to when a car will next cross the bridge, if ever.

 

There are, however, some small snippets of news this month:

The Task force has a new chair
The government Task force which was formed by Grant Shapps with the aim of “banging heads together” hasn’t met for fifteen months, and during that time its previous chair Baroness Vere has been moved on to a different role. The new Chair will be Richard Holden MP  who it seems will be taking on the hardly taxing job of overseeing a committee that never seems to meet.

Stabilisation work continues
The steel frames (which will allow the bridge’s saddles to be jacked up to give engineers the opportunity to work on seized bearings in the suspension chains) are in the process of being installed and currently all seems be on course for a re-opening of the central carriageway to cyclists in May or thereabouts.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is pushing forward with its innovative bridge-within-a-bridge temporary solution
Even though planning permission hasn’t yet been granted the council seems to be trying to speed up the process of getting this structure (see new CGI image above) built, by putting the work out to tender whilst simultaneously seeking planning permission and listed building consent. Prior to the proposal going to the planning committee in September, it looks like there will be a period of consultation including exhibitions of plans in both Richmond and Hammersmith.

Roadworks in Barnes for a year as new gas pipes are laid

Did you know that gas is piped into Barnes via two gas pipes on Hammersmith Bridge? We didn’t until recently, but obviously if the bridge is to be repaired this state of affairs can’t continue. So, at a cost of approximately £5 million, 1.6 miles of new gas pipe is going to be laid along Rocks Lane and Castelnau to meet up with new diverted pipes from Hammersmith. This will allow the eventual removal of the pipes under the bridge.

Work will start near Barnes station at the junction of Rocks Lane and Station Road on March 6 and continue for 12-14 months.

Gas engineering company Cadent says “The work will be completed in 50 metre phases, with traffic management in place to reduce disruption where possible. Various types of traffic management will be put in place throughout the project phases.  At times parking bays will be affected.”

New store opens

The new branch of Tesco Express opposite the Red Lion on Castelnau has opened earlier than expected after a pretty speedy fit-out. Those who were familiar with the old NatWest bank branch that it replaced will be surprised at the Tardis-like nature of the interior and the new supermarket seems to have an impressively large selection of goods on offer. Unlike the Tesco branch at the Castelnau petrol station the product selection in the new branch seems to have a more upmarket feel with the Tesco Finest brand being particularly prominent.

There are, however, concerns about the new arrival amongst other local shops. Local art galleries haven’t been happy to see their windows blocked by parked Tesco delivery vans and the arrival of a new supermarket means more intense competition for shoppers’ wallets in an area already well served by independent food shops

Save the date for The Boat Race

It’s that time of year when those in Barnes who are lucky enough to have riverside views suddenly find themselves extremely popular, with friends and even distant acquaintances angling for invitations to Boat Race parties.

Those without such fortunate friends will have to stick to hanging out on the Putney embankment or by the White Hart or the Ship in Mortlake.

This year’s Oxford and Cambridge boat races will be held on Sunday March 26, quite late in the day, with the women’s teams pulling away from Putney Bridge at 4pm and the men following suit at 5pm. 

By the time the racing teams hit Barnes Bridge, around 15 minutes after the start time, the races are normally already won, but we can always keep our fingers crossed for a nail-biting ending.

The men’s and women’s team line-ups will be announced on Monday March 6 and the expectation is that there will be fewer big international names rowing for each side. This is because it’s a pre-Olympic year and the big-name athletes will be focusing on training for their individual disciplines in the run up to Paris 2024.

The right to party

Richmond Council has announced that it will be waiving street closure fees for those wanting to hold street parties to celebrate the Coronation Weekend Bank holiday over the weekend of May 6-8. 

The Council will also offer grants of up to £5,000 to registered voluntary and community organisations who wish to bring together communities to celebrate or organise volunteering projects as part of the Big Help Out.  

Last year over 300 residential streets across Richmond (21 of them in Barnes) celebrated the late Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee. 

If you are interested in holding a street party you now have less than a month to get your application in with the deadline for applications being April 2. You can apply here on the Richmond Council website. 

Fit for a King

Three of the performers at this year’s Barnes Music Festival have been commissioned by King Charles to write music to celebrate his coronation.
Having personally selected the music for the occasion, the King has asked long-time festival patron, Roxanna Panufnik, as well as Roderick Wiliams, renowned baritone performing Schubert's Winterreise at St Mary's this year, and composer, Debbie Wiseman, playing piano for Wilde at Heart with Gyles Brandreth, to create works to be performed at Westminster Abbey.

You can see their respective concerts in the full Music Festival listing at the bottom of the page.

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Legends in their lunchtime

It’s not just royal patronage that singles out the Music Festival this year, it’s the sheer number and variety of events. Away from the evening concerts there are a huge number of daytime events held at St Mary’s and St Michael’s. There are intimate guitar recitals, an unmissable performance by young musicians from the Menuhin school and uplifting choral concerts. There are also organ recitals by two of the most exciting young organists playing in the UK, Jonathan Lilley  and Rachel Mahon who was the first female organ scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral and is now director of music at Coventry Cathedral. You can read an exclusive interview with Rachel for the Bugle, which tells the story of how she moved from small town Canada to her current prestigious role, here.

There’s also lots on for families with a very special performance of Carnival of the Animals aimed at toddlers and an eco-themed family concert at the Wathen Hall on the St Paul’s school campus.

And even if classical music isn’t your thing you can still join in with the sheer fun that music making brings by taking part in the Abba Singalong at the Kitson Hall on March 11. There, you can join charismatic choral leader Ben Parry, a live band, and a backing choir with singers from local schools for an afternoon rehearsing and performing ABBA’s greatest hits.

Music is art to the ear... and art is music to the eye

Painting: Katie James

If the sheer abundance of music making this month wasn’t enough, the Barnes Music Festival has another treat in store with a festival wide art exhibition being held at St Mary’s Church.

 

You will also be able to see mark-making in action as three artists from local group Barnes Artists have been invited to paint and draw live at three concerts.  Their work which will be inspired, not only by what they see but also what they hear can be viewed in the interval and then sold at the Gala Celebration Concert on Saturday March 18.  

 

Camberwell graduate Sarah Dickinson will be capturing the shapes and sounds of the Ferio Saxophone Quartet on Tuesday March 7 from 7.30pm at St Mary’s.  Fellow former Camberwell student Katie James will be intuitively responding in colour and oil paint to the music of Arvo Part and Robert White at St Michaels on Sunday March 12, and on Wednesday March 15, Slade-trained Penny Roberts plans to soak up the atmosphere in colour pastels and charcoal of 19th century Paris with Berlioz and Friends at St Mary's.

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Every good tern

If you think the tern in the picture above looks a little wooden you would be quite right. It’s just one of a number of fake terns placed on the rafts in the middle of the Leg O’Mutton reservoir by a team from Barnes Common.

The confusingly named decoy birds are anything but as they are there to encourage actual terns to nest.

A very special 60th birthday

O ur brilliant local charity FiSH is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year. That’s sixty years of work combating loneliness and maintaining the independence of vulnerable and elderly people in Barnes, Mortlake and East Sheen.

Not many people know that one of its founders, Mary Lee Berners-Lee, was not only a pioneer of women working in computing but was also the mother of the ‘father of the World Wide Web computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee.

 

So, it’s no surprise in a way that the organisation she helped to found is about building local networks to help prevent loneliness in older people. However, the networks that FiSH builds through its team of volunteers are anything but virtual.

The charity has quite a few big events to look forward to this year including:

A Coronation Tea to mark the new reign of King Charles at Barnes Green Centre on May 3 for FiSH members and volunteers.

The Sheen Open Gardens on Sunday June 4.

A service of celebration at St Mary’s Barnes on Sunday October 1.  

Masterchef winner wins Sausage Roll Off

A sausage roll that was a celebration of Dorset chef Matt Follas’ local suppliers was unanimously voted the winner of this year’s Great Sausage Roll Off at the Red Lion.

 

You may recognise Follas if you are a follower of Masterchef as he won the competition way back in 2009. He’s now going to display the Sausage Roll Off trophy together with his Masterchef trophy (both obviously equally prestigious) at his restaurant, Bramble, in Sherborne.

 

The winning sausage roll -  pork sausage meat from his local butchers, slow cooked onions, bacon and a secret spice mix, topped with a pork crackling crumb and served with Mat’s Sunday Roast gravy for dipping – will also be going on his restaurant’s menu. 

The panel of judges for the award was the most stellar yet, featuring chefs Daniel Clifford, Simon Rimmer and Pip Lacey as well as LBC broadcaster James O’Brien.

Sixteen chefs took part, cooking 12 sausage rolls each. The ones not sampled by the judges were sold to raise money for good causes. Sales of the rolls plus a charity raffle helped the night raise thousands for the charity Hospitality Action.

 

The Red Lion’s General manager Angus McKean said “The atmosphere was electric, the sausage rolls were delicious, and this is the best line-up of entrants and judges we have ever had. It was a great night.”, but perhaps the last word should go to Angus’s wife and co-manager Claire Morgan who said “The Great Sausage Roll Off is really Angus’s baby. We’ve been together for 24 years – but to be honest, he would only notice me and the kids in the run up to the Roll Off if we were wrapped in pastry and baked in the oven! But I have to say, it is a magical night in The Red Lion and living proof of the amazing things you can achieve – even if you are just a wonderful community pub in South West London.”

Murder most horrid

When the Bugle first moved to Barnes from a grittier part of London, our first impression of it was as St Mary Mead brought to life. For those unfamiliar with Agatha Christie’s oeuvre, St Mary Mead is the village in which the redoubtable Miss Marple resides and uncovers the hidden slights and resentments beneath the surface of outward respectability that in her world inevitably lead to one thing – murder.

It seems the potential of Barnes as a perfect setting for a murder mystery has ignited the imaginations of two very different writers featured in the Bugle this month.

 

The first is Irish playwright, Gavin Fleming who doesn’t live in Barnes but through his work at the OSO over the past few years has had the opportunity to observe our way of life with a gimlet eye. The second is novelist Bernard O’Keefe who has lived and worked in Barnes (formerly as a teacher at St Paul’s) for many years who brings an insider’s perspective.

 

Inspired by two different conversations over a pint at the Sun Inn last year Gavin has written a black comedy – The Barnes Slasher - which will be performed at the OSO later this month. His story follows the path of a Sweeny Todd-like mother and son, a local undertaker and her boomerang-baby son. She wants him out of the house but still needs to keep him close to her apron strings. For her, nothing but a Barnes address will do for her precious child, but, as we all know, property prices make that hard…but not if you devalue a property as a result of it being the scene of a particularly grizzly killing. In this topsy turvy drama the killers are the putative heroes, and the victims are somewhat annoying Barnes stereotypes.

 

At the other end of St Mary Mead, oops we mean Barnes, a body is found in Barnes Cemetery, and it’s not been there since 1897. So begins Bernard O’Keefe’s second novel featuring his country-music-loving, Larkin-quoting sleuth D.I. Garibaldi.

 

The victim is Giles Gallen, a young Cambridge graduate working as a tutor in Barnes. When Gallen’s murder is followed by assaults on and threats to other tutors working for the same firm more questions follow. Did Gallen know something? Did someone kill him to keep him quiet? And why are other tutors being threatened?

From  the super-rich in Tuscan villas and the middle-classes of leafy Barnes to aspirational students on the White City Estate the novel follows the stories of those trying to climb their way up the educational ladder and the ways that tutors can become entangled in the family life of their employers with unexpected consequences.

 

The book will be out on March 30 and you can reserve your copy at The Barnes Bookshop.

The singing detective

Just as we thought we were stretching the Agatha Christie analogy too far (see story above), an email arrived in our inbox from singer Susie Webb who may lay claim to being Barnes’ very own Miss Marple – albeit a rather younger and more glamorous version than Christie may have imagined.

We’ve featured Susie in the Bugle before after she managed to track down and retrieve her son Archie’s stolen bike – a feat lauded in an article in the Sunday Times.

Since then, her accidental entry into the world of detecting has continued and she’s helped identify a scoundrel who was one of ten people doing a runner from a restaurant.

Her investigating skills and talent for publicity have been rewarded once more with an article this time in the Daily Express

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'Faceted and intriguing' - The Observer's verdict on the new Dukes Meadows foot bridge

Pictures: Andrew Wilson

The Observer’s architectural correspondent has been singing the praises of the latest addition to our local landscape – the Dukes Meadows foot bridge and you can’t get a much better review than being anointed with the phrase ‘elegiac engineering’. The article also notes that bridge’s architects Moxon are also involved in the plans to transform the disused old Barnes Railway Bridge into a green walkway. We’ll bring you more news on that potentially exciting new project in Bugles to come.

You've got that Pete Tong

Roger Miles picture: Andrew Wilson

Legendary dance music DJ Pete Tong already has thousands of vinyl records in his own collection, but until recently there was a significant gap – no prog rock.

 

How anybody can live a full life without experiencing the studenty seriousness of an 18 minute track by 70s supergroup Yes is a mystery to us at the Bugle, but luckily for Tong, later in life, he has now visited Olympic Records to stock up on some seminal works by artists such as Genesis and Emerson Lake and Palmer.

We don’t know if he’s been converted to a new genre as the records were bought for a vinyl listening evening that he was attending, but he certainly made a dance music discovery, as the Olympic’s own music archivist Roger Miles pressed a copy of his son’s new dance music record upon Mr Tong.

It seems Miles’ audacity was rewarded as Tong went on to play a track from Jack Miles’s album – Cerulean by Jeigo on his famous Friday night Radio 1 dance show. You can listen here at 1 hr and 25 minutes into the programme.

Joined up writing

We live in a place of poets.  Two of Britain’s greatest poets David Harsent and Roger McGough live in Barnes, perhaps inspired, or at least given safe harbour, by the gentle suburban rhythms of life here.

Thanks to our literary festivals and the OSO we can hear Roger McGough perform his poetry but now aspiring poets in Barnes can learn from him too.

This April, Wurkshop which specialise in running arts and crafts courses, will be holding a course in poetry writing presided over by Roger.

Over the course of three nights in different weeks throughout April, Roger will introduce a small group of students to the art of playing with words. He will talk about patterns, metaphor and imagination and teach participants how to draw on their own experience and originality to write the poetry of their lives.

It’s the third time he’s run such a course and those who have taken part before say they have left with their eyes opened and their imaginations on fire. Find out more on the Wurkshop website. 

A garden anniversary

The Barnes Community Gardeners – an initiative started by the team at Barnes Common and supported by FiSH is now one year old.

Since its inception over 1,000 volunteer hours have been spent on community projects across Barnes.

The volunteer team have been helping tend the gardens of residents whose age or disability have meant they have been unable to maintain their much-loved outdoor spaces. They have been working on larger projects too, including the Monday gardening club at care home Walsingham Lodge.

On other days you might find them lending a hand at Barnes Primary and Lowther Schools introducing children to allotment gardening.

Volunteering for the community gardening team is a wonderful chance to reap the rewards of sowing and growing but also to make a genuine difference for some garden owners who themselves welcome the extra social contact that gardening visits bring.

If you would like to volunteer you can find out more here.

To Heaven on a Harley

When the Bugle saw a group of leather-clad Harley-riding bikers congregating in our quiet street two weeks ago we were intrigued. Why would a gang of bikers come to Barnes? All was revealed when we followed them around the corner to find a parade of bikers congregating behind a special motorcycle and sidecar hearse.

They had come to pay respects to Daryl Clarke another Barnes resident whose life was claimed too soon by cancer.

By day Daryl was an Independent Financial Adviser working with the men behind heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden but in his spare time he was an avid lover of motorbikes. 

He founded ChildLine Rocks in 2008 to raise money through music-related events for ChildLine and went on to help organise a whole series of sponsored bike rides, participants of which included Morgan Freeman and The Hairy Bikers. Through his work he helped raised huge sums for the charity and make a real difference to many children living in difficult circumstances. We wish we knew more about Daryl when he was alive but it’s clear that his packed funeral showed how much respect he was held in and how many lives he touched.

The sound of leather on willow

One of our earliest joyful discoveries on visiting Barnes was to find a cricket match in progress on the common so we’ve been intrigued to find out more about the Barnes Common Cricket Club.

Local cricket in Barnes started close to where the Pond sits now, but the pitch moved to its present site in the 1890s as Barnes expanded. The new ground was constructed for £40, and club records show that a railway carriage provided unique dressing rooms for players.

Today the Barnes Common Cricket Club continues the tradition of cricket on the common with weekend fixtures, and tours annually to Shropshire and Dorset. It has also toured overseas including India, Australia, and Barbados.

The modern version of the club was founded by cricket fanatics Steve and Lynn Page and you can now find a pair of benches near the pitch engraved with their names in celebration and commemoration of their contribution.

Anyone interested in finding a social level of cricket can come along and join the club and you can find out more in this lovely article on the Barnes Common website by the club’s chair Peter Eaton.

Fashion re-imagined

If you’re a fashion maven or you simply have a keen interest in sustainability there’s an unmissable event at the Olympic Studios this month that has your name on it.

It’s a screening of the documentary Fashion Re-imagined which features the designs and campaigning work of Amy Powney the woman behind the pioneering label Mother of Pearl.

It’s an eye-opening film for anyone who is unaware of how much waste and air miles go into the garments we all wear. 

The screening on March  9 will be followed by a Q & A with the film’s director Betty Hutner and you can book here.

Poster girl

It’s always a treat to see each year’s new poster for the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival so we’re pleased to reveal that the illustrator behind this year’s poster is Cressida Cowell, the author of How to Tame your Dragon.

As we mentioned in last month’s Bugle, this year’s Festival yet again has a hugely starry line-up including Sir Lenny Henry, Gruffalo illustrator, Axel Scheffler, renowned cartoonist Chris Riddell and space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

This year the Festival will also be at the centre of the centenary celebrations of our beloved late Barnes resident Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog the Forgetful Cat and so many more books that have become classics of children's literature.  

A highlight will be a very special event featuring a rare public appearance by Judith's daughter Tacy Kneale who will join her mother's dear friends, the former Children's Laureates, Sir Michael Morpurgo and Lauren Child, to remember her remarkable life.

 

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