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Yes, it's a double issue this month and we'll be back with you in February after a short break. However, there's not too long to wait for your next Bugle email as we're sending out our Christmas Gift Guide tomorrow.

We've decided not to include it with this double issue to avoid the risk of repetitive strain injury for those scrolling too far down the page.

Please do read it. The Bugle started out of a project to support our local shops, and now, in this time of spiralling rent and heating costs, our shops need and deserve our support; not least because they've got some fantastic gifts to offer.  Also we've scoured the shops so you don't have to, and we'd hate all our legwork to go to waste!

A tale of two bridges

In the 1949 film 'Passport to Pimlico' the residents of a small area of London hit upon the wheeze of declaring themselves a republic. For a while over the past couple of weeks Barnes could well have done the same – cut off as we were from the world (well the north of the river) by the closure of both Hammersmith Bridge and the Barnes Railway Bridge.

Thanks to quick work by Network Rail engineers the bridge has now re-opened and rail services to points west from Barnes Bridge (Chiswick, Hounslow and beyond) have resumed after a two-week break.

Admittedly, the Barnes Railway Bridge closure had nowhere near the scale of impact of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge but the similarities and contrasts are interesting. In terms of similarities, it’s another example of Victorian engineering infrastructure still being in place in the 21st century.  Both bridges are late Victorian with Hammersmith being built in the 1880s and Barnes bridge being built in the 1890s.

However, the differences between the two bridges are also illuminating. Our railway bridge was only ever built to carry trains and therefore is still carrying the load it was originally designed to carry. Hammersmith Bridge, on the other hand, was built before the days of mass car ownership and so has had to deal with stresses and strains that couldn’t have been envisaged when it was built. 

Also, you only have to compare the crowds on the platforms either side at Barnes Bridge Station to know that relatively few of us take the rail track less travelled to commute to points west of Chiswick. So, while the railway bridge closure was annoying for some, most residents of Barnes remained blissfully unaffected.

The biggest difference between the two bridges though, lies in the speed of the repair to the railway bridge. Faults in four of the 86 large steel pins used to support the girders on which the rail tracks sit were found in the annual inspection of the bridge and a swift closure for safety reasons ensued. As they are not a standard component, replacement pins had to be specially made but this was done remarkably quickly by a Hampshire manufacturer.

A SWAT team of engineers then descended on the bridge – or to be truthful ascended from a boat moored underneath. If you walked past the bridge last week you would have seen intrepid workmen attached, Mission Impossible style, to the underside of the bridge by harnesses to fit the new pins.

Everything about Network Rail’s response was impressively fast, even their press office responded to queries within minutes of questions being asked!

As for Hammersmith Bridge, progress does seem to be being made but versus the short story of our railway bridge’s closure the saga of Hammersmith Bridge is more like War & Peace.

And in more bridge news...

No, there is no news this month about Hammersmith Bridge but as we love a good bridge story in the Bugle, here are two more.

Firstly, the pedestrian walkway underneath the north side of Barnes Bridge at Dukes Meadows is very close to completion and it is anticipated that it will receive its official opening sometime in January.

Secondly, plans to develop the unused early Victorian bridge that sits next to Barnes Bridge as a green walkway are proceeding apace. The team behind The View at Barnes Bridge are applying for grant funding for the next stage of the process which will involve environmental reports, surveys for the PLA and public consultation.

An ode to Barnes

Sadly, Barnes was pipped to post for the title of Britain’s Best High Street by Mill Street in Perth in the 2022 Urbanism Awards, but the consolation prize was a lovely thing; a specially drafted sonnet by poet Ian McMillan.

Each short-listed contender received a poem but Barnes’ was more heartfelt than most as MacMillan is a friend and admirer of Barnes’s two wonderful poets in residence David Harsent and Roger McGough. His poem is based on the true story of a walk he took down Barnes High Street with McGough where somebody rather strangely shouted ‘It’s Barnes o’clock’ at the two poets. You can see McMillan recite the poem by clicking on the video link above. 

High Street changes split opinion

Our newly enhanced High Street received praise from the judges at the Academy of Urbanism but the response from Bugle readers to a poll we ran last month wasn’t so unanimously favourable. Pedestrians and particularly parents of young children have been happy with the changes, with those with buggies appreciating the extra space to stroll.

However, parking was the issue that concerned most of those who weren’t keen on the new street layout. Some respondents said that although the overall number of parking spaces hasn’t been reduced the spaces’ relocation had made it harder to find a parking place. Others pointed out that, although the scheme had been put in place to ease traffic congestion, bottlenecks still persist in the High Street; the culprits being delivery vehicles and also private cars parking on double yellow lines.

Local Town Centre Manager Emma Robinson says that the issue of cars parking illegally was hugely frustrating. “We’re working with the council to increase the number of parking enforcement officers in the High Street, particularly at peak commuting times to try to deter illegal parking.” she said.

In response to those who expressed concerns about the changes she said “I understand that some people aren’t happy, and there are some teething problems caused by people parking illegally. However, in the long term I really hope everyone in Barnes will appreciate a revitalised High Street with more room to stroll and enjoy the shops.”

There are still more finishing touches to come with the installation of seating cubes and some greenery. Older paving away from the widened sections is due to be replaced some time in 2023. 

Emma Robinson says that she hopes the new space will really come into its own next summer when local cafés will be able to put tables and chairs outside giving the High Street a touch of continental je ne sais quois.

For the record

Roger Miles at the wonderful Olympic Studio Records is celebrating achieving an extraordinarily high price for a vinyl record. The shop sells records that come from people clearing out their vinyl collection, often as a result of what he calls one of the 3 Ds (divorce, death and down-sizing).

 “Even though it’s sad for some people to let go of their collections, often the records we get have been gathering dust in cupboards. They deserve to be given a new lease of life.” Fortunately, thanks to the current fashion for vinyl there are collectors around who are happy to pay quite surprising prices for rare gems and Roger loves being the bearer of good news to those who have consigned their records to the shop for sale.

“You may think it would be records by well-known names that command the highest prices” says Roger “but that’s not always the case”.

This month Roger managed to sell an album by the psychedelic 60s band Mighty Baby (I know, we haven’t heard of them either) for £800.

So, if you have a copy of Mighty Baby’s magnum opus Jug of Love lying around you should hot foot it down to Olympic Records sharpish. And if it is accompanied by well-preserved albums by bands like The Deviants or Skip Bifferty (we swear we’re not making these names up) then even better, as these are also in high demand by high paying collectors.

The highest price ever achieved for a vinyl record sold through Olympic Studios Records is £1250 for a rare early copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

However not all records cost that much and if you're thinking of bestowing someone with the gift of vinyl this Christmas, you can find albums in the shop with prices starting at £10.

Help the food bank this Christmas

Fuel and food bills are going through the roof and those with the smallest incomes are suffering the most. All of which means food banks across the country are seeing unprecedented levels of demand.

Our own local food bank, based at the Castelnau Community Centre, is no different and would hugely appreciate any donations Barnes residents can make. Donations can be large or small. You can drop off bags of food at the centre itself or if you have just a few cans or packets of pasta to give there's a handy collection point at St Mary's Church. Alternatively you can donate on certain days at Holy Trinity Barnes - see details below.

If we all had a look in our kitchen cupboards to see what we could spare we could surely fill the shelves at the food bank. Or why not coordinate a big delivery to the Food Bank via your street WhatsApp? You would be helping to give a Merry Christmas to those who need it most.

Beauty parade

Town Centre Manager Emma Robinson, who has been campaigning for improvements to the Castelnau shopping parade close to Hammersmith Bridge for many years, is pleased to report that Richmond Council has secured public realm improvement funding for the parade.

Urban Design consultants have been briefed by the Council to come up with proposals that aim to make the parade an even more attractive place to shop and eat. Expect greenery and planters as well as a focus on street clutter.  Once a design consultancy has been briefed they will be in consultation with local residents about their views on the parade.

Ring Ring

Before the beautification of the Castelnau parade even begins, the old phonebox by Hammersmith Bridge is going to get a sprucing up all of its own.
The BCA have adopted the box and like the phonebox outside the Olympic Cinema which is now home to a community defibrillator it will be put to good community use.

You shall go to the ball

It’s panto time, oh yes it is, and the biggest show in town is Cinderella at The OSO. It’s actually two shows as the show comes in two versions – one family friendly and a more risqué ‘After Dark’ version.

As ever, the show is full of topical jokes and its director Jonny Danciger says there have been multiple re-writes “There have just been so many things going on that lend themselves to panto jokes. We started off focusing on partygate but that was soon followed by Boris Johnson’s defenestration followed by the shortest time in office by any modern-day prime minister. It’s a year you couldn’t have made up.”

The show marks a return to the OSO for Danciger, who is the former artistic director at the venue. He’s now branched out and can be found directing plays and particularly opera in venues across the UK. His next big project also has its origins in Barnes – he will be managing the UK tour of Roger McGough’s new musical based on The Wind in the Willows - Money-go-Round.

Tickets for the panto are on sale on the OSO’s website – oh yes they are!

Ace of Base

A pizza restaurant that started life as a driveway pop up during lockdown is coming to Barnes.

Tim Thornton, the founder of Base Face Pizza has spent the past ten years as one of the UK’s most in-demand jazz bassists (hence the name) performing at venues ranging from The Albert Hall to Glastonbury.

When Covid hit his life was turned upside down; no more live gigs and lots of spare time.

His pizza business was born when he started serving pizzas from his Ooni Pro pizza oven on his driveway to raise funds for the NHS charities.

Moving off the driveway he started popping up at wine bars, jazz clubs, farmers’ markets  and health clubs, all the time honing his pizza recipes.

The pop-ups have proved so successful that now he has an actual bricks and mortar restaurant in King Street in Hammersmith, which must be doing well because now he’s opening in Barnes.

Appropriately enough for a jazz bassist, the new restaurant is just across the road from The Bull’s Head in the old Impress premises. The short menu offers a choice of 11 pizzas and an edited selection of wine, cider and cocktails.

From the looks of the exterior it’s going to take a few weeks of fitting out before the new pizza restaurant is ready to open. We look forward to finding out more when the Bugle returns in February.

Plans unveiled for state-of-the-art mental health facility

At the Bugle we’re what they call in Ireland blow-ins. We don’t come from a family that can trace its roots back through many generations of Barnes residents. So, when we moved in, one of the things that perplexed us most was people talking about Barnes Hospital.

Where was this mythical hospital, we’d never seen it? Right now, half of all Bugle readers will be shouting at their phone/tablet/pc saying “It’s on South Worple Way on the other side of the railway line you ninny” and the other half will be thinking “Yes I’ve always wondered that too”.

The hospital started life in 1889 as the Barnes Isolation Hospital, treating patients with diphtheria and scarlet fever. It later became a specialist mental health inpatient and then outpatient facility.

Half of the hospital’s site was sold to a residential developer in 2019.
The redevelopment plan, which has met with opposition from local residents, includes 106 apartments within a mixture of new and refurbished buildings.

Now plans for a new health hub and special needs school on the site have been revealed. The site will remain an outpatient centre but funds raised from the sale of half the site to developers have contributed to the costs of redeveloping inpatient facilities at Springfield Hospital in Wandsworth and Tolworth Hospital in Kingston.

As everyone knows, demand for mental healthcare has been soaring since the pandemic so the new facility will be a boost and a boon for many.

Picture perfect

Hidden away behind Barnes High Street is the fantastic Barnes Atelier where students come to learn classical painting and drawing techniques from two extraordinary artists – Travis Seymour and Nancy Fletcher. Both studied painting in Florence, and as well as being teachers they both produce paintings of breathtaking technical skill, from portraits to still lives.

Very excitingly, they are now opening their own gallery in the Taylor & Marr premises on White Hart Lane where you will find paintings that display immense artistic mastery. 

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Stile Italiano

Also new on White Hart Lane is Bottega, a hair salon taking the place of Pelo.

As the name suggests, the team behind the salon is Italian and as well as bringing an Italian flair to their styling they will be using some exclusive Italian hair products by cult brand Elgon.

Some people in Barnes may already be familiar with stylist Nicolo Mazzadrelli as he has previously worked at Making Waves. He’s a third-generation hairdresser and both his father and his grandfather still work in the family salon in Milan. Nicolo himself has a high fashion background having worked both as a session stylist and as a backstage stylist at fashion shows.

The name of the salon is an old Italian word for shop, but it means much more than that – it’s the sort of shop run by artisans – bottegaio – and for Nicolo and his business partner Nuncia that sums up their approach to hair styling.

Orchard to be planted in memory of The Queen

The Conservators of Wimbledon Common are planning to plant an orchard on Putney Lower Common on the borders of Barnes. Originally planned to be part of the Queen’s Green Canopy for her Jubilee celebrations the new orchard will now be dedicated to The Queen in ‘memory of her extraordinary service’.

Funds are being raised via Just Giving and there’s also the opportunity to sponsor each of the 12 trees being planted.

Money raised will go towards the cost of planting and protecting the orchard and also towards more schemes to improve and enhance Putney Lower Common.

Celebrating the 'third act' in style

Linda Lines has been many things, a nursery school founder, a pioneering woman in the City of London and now a poet and photographer. She’s also a huge lover of Barnes which she found later in life and adores for the wonderful sense of community. 

Her passions are many but what focuses her mind most right now is how to celebrate the third act of life with style and grace.

More than many people she knows how important it is to seize the day – at the age of 31 she was severely injured in the 1975 IRA bombing of Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair. She had only just returned from Singapore after the end of her marriage and was a single parent. It took a year to recover but when she was well enough she took her young son skiing in Austria where she met a small group of financial advisors from London. That chance meeting led her to found her own financial management company at a time when women were trying to break through the glass ceiling in the city.

Now in her retirement, she takes the same approach of risk taking and paying it forward as she did in her career. As a lover of poetry she supports fellow poets and has become a mentor and friend to Lemn Sissay. She’s also published two volumes of her own poems. One, Inside Outside, combines her love of photography and writing and another ‘Men in My Kitchen’ mixes poetry with recipes. You can also read her blog here.

She is now working on her third book Women in the City, where she is interviewing women who have broken boundaries in what once was a very male bastion. She’s keen to interview some younger women who are currently in the city or have recently left and she’s hopeful that an appeal to Bugle readers might unearth her next interviewees. If you would be happy to be interviewed by Linda just email us here at the Bugle at admin@barnesvillage.com. 

Baking with abundance

When you work in a shop surrounded by beautiful baking ingredients it’s no surprise that you might be inspired to take up baking yourself. That’s just what Amaar who works in EnGrain on Barnes High Street has done. Together with his young nephews he’s adding some sweet treats to the items being sold at the shop, all, of course, using the wonderful organic products stocked at EnGrain. Last week he was selling cookies and this week he’s hoping mince pies will be on the menu. Just pop in to EnGrain to see what he’s been cooking up

Because we're happy

The world may be gloomy and the skies may be grey, but at least we live in the London Borough of Richmond on Thames which has just been voted ‘The Happiest Place in London’ for the eighth year in succession. They may be cheery in Chelsea, gleeful in Greenwich and merry in Maida Vale but they can’t match us in Richmond for happiness it seems.

However, true contentment lies outside London and if even the joys of Richmond can’t lift your spirits maybe a move to St Ives in Cornwall which is the happiest place in the country should be on the cards. 

Overall, according to property portal Rightmove, Richmond is the 11th happiest place in Britain and the only London borough to make it into the survey’s top 20.

Approach the bench

If you have been wondering about the two strange benches that have popped up on Barnes Green wonder no more. They have been specially designed for elderly people and those with mobility issues. They are higher than a standard bench and have sturdy grippable handles making it easier to stand up after taking a rest by the pond.

Talking Turkey

Who wouldn't want to dress up as a turkey or a grinch and run around the Barnes towpath on a chilly Sunday morning?

If the Bugle wasn't suffering from a longstanding hamstring injury (imaginary) we would of course have been there. 

However, not everyone is as lazy as we are at the Bugle, and hordes of people took part in Barnes' annual turkey run on Sunday December 4, helping to raise funds for the BCA/FiSH Christmas lunch for the elderly in our community.

Lots of people around Barnes chipped in to help. Toby from Wurkshop made the medals - which double up as beautiful Christmas decorations, &Feast supplied cookies for the runners and The Coach & Horses furnished everyone who took part with a beer and a turkey bap.

The Men's 10 mile race was won by Paul Cheetham (for the 5th time) with a time of just over an hour, Alice Riddell Webster triumphed in the Women's race coming in just shy of 1hr 7 minutes.

This year also saw the inaugural Tiny Turkey Run for children (a course of just over 1 mile) which was won by Josh Edwards.

Harrodian pupils team up with FiSH

Harrodian pupils have hosted users of FiSH, the Castelnau Community Centre and residents of Viera Gray for a special tea party at the school. Pre-Prep children sang to the guests and handed round cakes, whilst Senior music pupils helped pour tea and performed popular numbers on piano, guitar or vocals. Guests left with a goodie bag filled with, amongst other treats, lavender bags made from the school allotment.

Meanwhile, older pupils have been writing Christmas letters in their English lessons as part of a community pen-pal initiative with FiSH.  Their letters, each of which enclose a stamped, addressed return envelope and card to make it easy for recipients to reply, will be sent as part of a bigger mailing posted out by the charity in advance of Christmas. Last year over half of the children participating received a letter or card back. The project began when a Harrodian English teacher decided to tempt pupils away from their phones and to put pen to paper. She hit upon the idea of writing to users of FiSH and a whole pen-pal scheme was born.  

However perhaps the Harrodian pupils who have contributed the most are young entrepreneurs Ned and Will Battersby who every year sell and deliver Christmas trees across Barnes. Over the years the boys have raised in excess of £8,000 for FiSH through their gardening service, sponsored walks and Christmas tree sales.

Later Gator?

The team at Barnes Common are raising funds to replace their ailing ‘Gator’. This little vehicle is indispensable in their work on Barnes Common and the Leg o’Mutton reserve, transporting tools, moving mulch and much more. You can help the team out by donating here. 

Keeping it short

When local author Victoria Dowd was just about to have her first novel published, lockdown happened and she felt like she was releasing her novel into a void. It was a strange time and she was much helped by the camaraderie of fellow novelists who were in the same boat. She joined a group of debut novelists and every Friday they would Zoom, and they still do now. 
All the novelists in her group have decided to pull together a short story collection for charity - The Trussell Trust who will be keeping food banks open this winter, Victoria says there are some amazing stories in there by some incredibly talented writers. You can find it here.

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