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Mortlake Brewery planning appeal delayed until November

The fate of the Mortlake Brewery site is now not going to be known for at least another five months after the last and final planning appeal was called off at the eleventh hour.

The delay was announced after the Planning Inspector appointed by the Government suddenly became unavailable due to circumstances beyond his control.

The planning inspectorate is now looking to appoint a new Inspector for the case and is working with the legal representatives of all the parties involved (the developers, Richmond Council, the Mayor of London) to find a date to reconvene in October or November.

In good news for local campaigners -  who were disappointed both that the original hearing was due to be heard in Twickenham and would not be live streamed – the Planning Inspectorate has urged Richmond Council to find a venue nearer to the site and to make the hearing more accessible.

Meanwhile, plans for the old Barnes Hospital site in Sheen on South Worple way have been signed off and work is about to commence on a development that will include 104 dwellings, a special needs school and a new mental health outpatients facility.

Unlike the Mortlake Brewery plans, where only 7% of the proposed homes will be affordable, the Barnes Hospital site will include 19 homes for social rent and five homes under shared ownership.

The new 90-place school on the site, to be known as London River Academy, is set to open later in autumn next year. It will be run by Beckmead Trust for students between seven and 19 years old with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Permission has now also been granted for the controversial high rise residential development at the old Homebase site opposite the Manor House Sainsbury’s branch. This development will see 453 homes built in four apartment block buildings ranging in height from four to nine storeys. Nearly 40% of the dwellings will be for social or shared ownership housing use.

Mystery surrounds discovery of body near Hammersmith Bridge

The towpath under Hammersmith Bridge was closed for several days this week after a body of a man was discovered in the Thames near the bridge on Saturday June 1.

The police say that emergency services were called at 15.25pm and that the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Much forensic activity has been going on at the scene. The police statement says the death is being treated as ‘unexpected’ and that the man’s next of kin have yet to be informed. Enquiries are ongoing and are being led by officers from the Met’s South West Command.

The BCA searches for the 50 faces of Barnes

To celebrate its 50th anniversary the BCA wants to honour people locally who have really made a difference. So, it has launched a search for the ’50 faces of Barnes’. They want Barnes residents to nominate an unsung hero or heroine. These are people who could be volunteering for a local charity, organising fundraising events and initiatives, or spearheading new local projects. 

Equally you could nominate someone who collects for the foodbank or does a weekly shop for elderly neighbours. The BCA says “We know that there are loads of community champions out there, people who are driven by a desire to help out and who do it without seeking recognition.”

The nominees will receive the recognition they deserve and will be part of special Awards Ceremonies at this year’s Barnes Fair and Food Fair.

BCA Chair, John McNeilly, says: ‘The awards are not just a reflection of the past 50 years but also a call of action for the future; inspiring a new generation to keep the torch of community service burning bright in Barnes. As the BCA celebrates its golden anniversary, it is a reminder of the power of community and the extraordinary difference that committed individuals can make."

To nominate someone you think deserves a BCA’S 50 Faces of Barnes Award, please fill in the form at https://www.barnes-ca.org/nominations-for-local-awards. Nominations must be received by 17 June.

The Tiger Who Came to Barnes

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Barnes Childen’s Literature Festival the characters from Barnes writer Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea have been immortalised in woolly form.

The totally splendid post box cover is the work of The Mortlake Community Association’s knitting group. This is their second project, following a Christmas post box cover displayed outside Mortlake Station last Christmas. The aim was to bring joy to local commuters. It did the trick, and the Barnes post box cover is having just the same effect with small children being entranced by the knitted tableau.

The cover was placed near the Barnes Bookshop which was a much loved haunt of Judith Kerr, who died at the age of 95 in 2019.

The Mortlake Community Association’s Knitting Group says that it warmly welcomes new members. No experience is needed, and the group provides all materials, a complimentary lunch and great company. They meet on the first and third Wednesday of each month at the Mortlake Community Hub, 30 Mullins Path SW14 6EZ from 12 noon to 3pm.

Counting down to the Children’s Literature Festival

Every year, when we write about the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival we always mention the big name authors who come along to meet their avid readers, but that can sometimes mean that the more quirky events on the programme go unmentioned. Yes, you can see Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen or Sophie Dahl but you can also learn how to fight like a Jedi warrior with stuntman Andrew Lawden, meet and hear the story of Jack-Jack the world’s coolest dog and join BAFTA winning animators the Brothers McLeod for a workshop where you can draw your own comic. The sheer inventiveness of many of the events on offer is completely inspiring, and who couldn’t be charmed by a magical screening of My Neighbour Tortoro or a performance of Paddington Bear’s First Concert?

There are some very Barnes specific initiatives too.  The team at Barnes Common will be launching their Beverley Brook Lost Nature Trail at the Festival. It’s a self-guided walk where children can spot species that are threatened or extinct that would once have called Beverley Brook home.  Each ticket includes a Guide Sheet and map and a badge. Children can use the worksheet and map to follow the trail and record the cut-out animals – and those that complete the trail can enter into a prize draw. The trail will be running during National Rivers Week between June 22 and 30.

Our local wildlife also features in Arnold & Friends, Amy, Andrew & Jeremy Wilson’s lovely book about the animals who live around and visit Barnes Pond. To celebrate the return of the Childen’s Literature Festival, The Barnes Bookshop is running a prize draw open to anyone who buys a copy of Arnold & Friends, in which the winner will win a limited edition print of the front cover. 

The Barnes Children’s Literature Festival will be held over the weekend of June 22 and 23 and you can see the extraordinary breadth of events on offer for children from toddlers to teens here at the Festival’s website.
 

Westmoreland Road, SW13                                        £3,150,000

Impressive list of authors announced for the Barnes Bookfest

The full programme of events has just been released for this September's Barnes Bookfest and it looks like it's going to be a fascinating weekend. Star names include Miriam Margoyles, Robert Harris , David Gower, and the BBC’s Frank Gardner: not to mention Barnes locals Roger McGough, Chris Patten and Gyles Brandreth. The books range from popular fiction to politics and, as ever, the real joy of the festival is the conversation, either between authors being interviewed or between authors and the audience.

Expect lively debate when the chronicler of the British Empire Nigel Biggar and political scientist Vernon Bogdanor discuss the politics of the past and what it says about the future. Or experience the personal insight of key figures such as Chris Patten and the last ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow. They will be sharing their personal experience of shifts in political power when the leadership of a country changes.

There will also be hidden gems to discover. We’re particularly looking forward to a talk by nonagenarian Gill Johnson who will be joining the book festival to talk about her memoir;recapturing her experiences as a young girl caught up in the lavish social whirl of the super-rich in Venice in the 1950s.

And if you can’t wait until September for your next literary fix why not come along to the Bookfest’s Launch Event on Saturday June 29th when Alistair McGowan will be talking about his first anthology of poetry Not What We Were Expecting. He will be sharing his inspiration for his poetry with readings from the collection.

A year-round book festival

T here’s something dazzling for a keen reader about a book festival, it’s like gazing upon a bookcase and being tempted by everything you see. However, there’s a lot to be said about taking a slower and more considered approach, and that’s where the Barnes Literary Society comes in. Its monthly events consider one author at a time and mix literary stars with fresh new voices.

In fact, many speakers at Barnes Literary Society events have come in to talk about their debut novels before becoming best selling authors themselves.

This year the Literary Society is celebrating its 20th Anniversary and it has marked the event with by producing a booklet giving the history of the society and listing every single one of the 135 authors who have come to be interviewed about their books. It’s a pretty impressive roll call and obviously we can’t list everyone but famous names include Elif Shafak, Mark Billingham, Ruth Rendell, PD James, Jeremy Paxman, Deborah Moggach, Joanna Trollope and many, many more.
Annual membership costs just £30 and for that you get to come to six author events and special society events like the annual summer party. It’s a complete bargain and you can join online at the Barnes Literary Society website.

Making your mind up

A s many as 15% of British voters are still undecided about who to vote for, and all political parties are concerned that apathy may lead to a low turnout.

However, if you feel it is important to cast your vote but find yourself both undecided and apathetic what can you do? Well maybe coming along to the local hustings may help.

Whatever you feel about national politics there's still the important issue of selecting the right MP to represent Richmond's needs in the House of Commons. 

Four of our local candidates, Laura Coryton (Lab), Sara Gezdari (Con), Sarah Olney MP (Lib Dem), Chas Warlow (Green) will be there to answer your questions in a hustings session chaired by former BBC presenter Nik Gowing.

It will be held on Thursday June 20 at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) at St Mary's Church and you can also watch it via a Youtube link on the St Mary's website. If you want to submit a question in advance please email hustings@stmarybarnes.org.

The offer the Olympic couldn't refuse

Who’s the nattily dressed dude with the walking stick in the picture above? None other than Francis Ford Coppola. But how did he end up in Barnes? Well, Mairead Murray (above on the right) who has possibly two of the best jobs in Barnes - she works for both the Olympic and the new film studios The Story Works - invited him.

She met him at a party at the Cannes Film Festival (as you do). He was promoting his new film and she was promoting the new Mortlake studios. She heard he was coming to London and invited him to see the studio set up.

Meanwhile Gary Golding, the film booker at the Olympic had coincidentally planned an anniversary screening of Copolla's masterpiece The Godfather Part II, so after he visited the new studio complex, the great man popped over to the Olympic to make sure that the sound balance for the screening was just right. That’s certainly an offer nobody could refuse.

Star power

Mr Copolla isn’t the only well-known name to grace the stage at The Olympic this month, Viggo Mortensen came along to take part in a Q&A after a screening of his new Western The Dead Don’t Hurt, and local lad George McKay will be doing just the same on June 18 talking about his new film with Lea Seydoux, The Beast. It’s worth keeping an eye on the Olympic website to spot events like these as understandably they sell out rather quickly.

From screen royalty to real royalty

The Duchess of York, aka Sarah Ferguson, aka Fergie has visited Barnes yet again. This time to sign copies of her new book, A Woman of Intrigue, which has been described by Dame Joan Collins as a “A rollicking, romantic tale of love and intrigue in aristocratic Victorian Scotland.” The book’s protagonist is wallflower Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott who uses her sharp intelligence and keen powers of observation to quietly solve society crimes. Fans of royalty and of novels about aristocratic sleuths can snaffle a signed copy at the Barnes Bookshop.

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Become an agent for change by supporting a very special local project

Sometimes we don’t see too far from our own doorstep but not far from our beautiful pond and Green lies the Lennox Estate, where young people don’t have quite the same life chances as their neighbours. Easily visible from the Upper Richmond Road in East Sheen is the old Lennox Estate Youth Club building. Yusuf Lagden used to run drop-in sessions at the youth club there until a few years ago when funding dried up, now he has a plan to reopen it as a safe space and gym for young people.
 
For the past couple of years, he has been negotiating with Wandsworth Council to take over the building and has raised half of his funding to turn it into a boxing gym. Yusuf says “It is all too often we’ve seen councils cutting funding on youth provision. Sometimes we need to take things into our own hands to make our communities our responsibility. A little love, care and support can be the breaking point in a lot of young people’s lives. I want to create a space where anyone feels welcome to come through the doors and be the best person they want to be."
 
As anyone who has dealt with a council knows, it’s not straightforward, but now Yusuf has secured a lease of this run down building, he needs your help to turn into a safe space that young kids from the Lennox and the local area can use to improve their fitness and to let off steam. Yusuf has grand plans that include mentoring, helping some of the older kids work towards a fitness instruction qualification and even into full time work whether it be in the gym or out.
 
On June 17,  Yusuf will be holding a drinks party at the Lennox Youth Club, 236 Arabella Drive, SW15 5LQ to explain his vision and to raise some much-needed funds to get this place back on its feet. Please come along to learn about it and to give some much-needed support.

Time: 7.15pm to 8.30pm. Location: Lennox Club Room, 236 Arabella Drive, SW15 5LN. RSVP yusuf@boxcollective.co.uk

Tried and trusted

Have you ever thought about becoming a charity trustee? It’s a brilliant way to share your skills with charities that could really do with your expertise. All charities need help with governance and with providing the staff who work for them guidance and advice. It’s a kind of  ‘eyes on, hands off’ role and it’s the perfect way to give something back to your local community.

If you work part time, have a portfolio career, or are recently retired then maybe you could spare the time to help out at FiSH or Age UK  both of whom are on the lookout for new trustees. 

Whatever your experience in life, you could be able to offer something really valuable. Small charities can’t afford to employ HR specialists, for example, so people with a background of and knowledge in HR can be hugely helpful. If you’ve run a company or have specialist legal or accountancy knowledge, then your help with governance issues can be invaluable. And, if you’re a dab hand at fundraising, now you’re talking.

But what do you get out of it? A great deal of fulfilment according to one local trustee we talked to. They said “I’m semi-retired, I have the time to help that I couldn’t have given when I was in my high-pressure corporate job. Mixing paid part time work with being a trustee gives me the perfect balance and the reward I get for my time is seeing the smiles on the faces of the people my charity helps.”

Currently FiSH is looking for trustees who may be able to help with governance and transport skills and you can find out more and get in contact with FiSH by emailing chair@fishhelp.org.uk.

Age UK Richmond is also looking for a new trustee and a dynamic Chair who can lead, govern and be an ambassador for the charity. You can find out more at www.ageukrichmond.org.uk 

You don’t have to be mad to live here but…

Who isn’t mad about living in Barnes? It’s an Eden on earth. Well that’s what Julian and Gilly Armstrong think. They’ve lived in Little Chelsea since 1988 and such is their love of Barnes that for their 60th wedding anniversary their children bought them a very special number plate; SW13 MAD. The MAD in this case stands for mum and dad but it also reflects their ardour for Barnes. James their son also says, entirely with his tongue in his cheek, that it could also refer to the fact that his parents are at times slightly eccentric. To which the Bugle says ‘Aren’t everyone’s parents?’.

The time has come for Julian and Gilly to stop driving in London so the number plate is now up for sale, and by separate negotiation you could also buy the car that’s attached to it. Just scroll down to the classified section below to find out how you could get your hands on one of the most desirable number plates in Barnes.

It's not too late to join the Barnes Ponder

The task of reimagining Barnes in large and small ways has started with groups of local volunteers who want to achieve a range of goals - a safer Barnes, a greener Barnes, a more connected Barnes and much more - meeting to set out their goals and devise strategies for achieving them.

It's' not too late to join in. If you're interested in what's going on you can come along to the Barnes Green Centre at 6.30pm on Wednesday June 19 where you can find out what the ponder project teams have been up to since the last meeting a couple of months ago.

You can find all the details of the Ponder 2 project here on the BCA website.

Call 07749 618547 to join the guest list

or to make a private appointment.

Driving off into the sunset...

At the Bugle we’ve only been writing about Barnes for twelve years but if anyone has had a proper perspective on how Barnes has changed over the years it’s Dr Jonathan Botting who has retired as a partner at Glebe Road after 34 years, looking after generations of Barnes families.

When he hung up his stethoscope in April his was no ordinary retirement party as patients who’ve been treated by him for decades came to say goodbye and thank you over coffee at The OSO.

We caught up with him soon after that and asked him what he would miss and what were his happiest memories of working at Glebe Road. The answer to both those questions was families. He said it has been a privilege to watch his patients’ lives unfold and revealed that at one stage he was looking after four generations of one family from toddlers to great grandparents. He himself arrived at Glebe Road when his son was in a baby carrier and he decided to finally retire when his grand son was in his carry cot.

And how has Barnes changed since he’s been here? Well, he says it’s no longer the sleepy village it once was, and that changes in society generally haven’t escaped Barnes. “We live in an age of instant gratification, parcels can come from Amazon at the click of a button, and people expect a GP appointment to be just the same. We’re all time pressured – GPs more than most people – but it takes time to talk to a patient understand their life and their medical conditions and to provide the sort of long-term care that hospitals just can’t give.

“Patients share their stories with GPs, sometimes sad, but often interesting and occasionally hilarious. I’ll really miss the stories” he says “and the people, both patients and colleagues.”

What he won’t miss about general practice is the politics of it - how it’s funded and how it’s been valued by governments. Partner-led surgeries like Glebe Road risk becoming a thing of the past and with that the continuity of care that he’s been able to provide may also fall by the wayside.

Dr Botting hasn’t given up practising as a doctor altogether as he still does some work at the skin cancer clinic at Chelsea & Westminster hospital but he’s now able to indulge far more of his many passions and hobbies.

He says that having interests outside of work are what has helped him be able to switch off from what is a very stressful job. He’s a keen fisherman, loves to ski and is a practised hand at DIY, but his biggest love affair has been with cars. For many years he drove his classic Scimitar sports car to work each day. His first Scimitar was bought while he was working in a hospital obstetrics department. He’d gone into a car dealership to buy his dream car – a Lotus, but it transpired he’d delivered the salesman’s baby not long before and in a fit of honesty the salesman warned him off the Lotus and recommended the Scimitar – the first of four he would own. These days his passion is Bugattis, he’s raced one at Goodwood and has just driven his 1924 Brescia Bugatti over 1000km on a rally around Sicily.

As we spoke on the phone he was looking out on the drive from his holiday house in Umbria with the vintage Bugatti in the garage, relishing the time he has to spend with it, not to mention his wife and family, now that he has retired. Not a bad life!

Treemendous

The BCA’s tree pits rewilding scheme is back for a third year and across Barnes you can see luxuriant banks of wild flowers garlanding the bases of street trees. However, not every tree pit has been planted and the BCA wants to identify more trees to benefit from the scheme. If you would like to add flowers to the tree pit outside your home, do get in touch with the BCA and let them  know the exact location of the tree so the volunteers working with the BCA can  make sure it is suitable for seeding. You will then be invited to pick up the seeds and postcard from Rose House. The seeds will be a mix of native wildflowers and bee-friendly perenials. Email info@barnes-ca.org to get involved.

Un doppio per favore

We've got a brand new coffee bar, and its very Italian indeed. There's a whopper of an espresso machine which has been custom made in Italy, and you can choose from 33 different varieties of coffee based drinks.

There are panini, not to mention cake (lots of it!) and very soon there'll be gelati.

Cafe Barbera, which is in a lovely spot by the river (across the road from the Waterman's Arms) is perfectly placed for an ice cream while sitting outside, or for a double espresso en route to Barnes Bridge Station, particularly as its open from 7am.

It's actually part of a very big worldwide chain of coffee shops which originated with one coffee shop run by Mr Barbera back in 1870 in Messina in Sicily. These days it is headquartered in Naples which is where the coffee is roasted and blended.

The Barnes branch is only the second in the UK  but there are plans to expand and to spread the word about proper Italian coffee. Salute!

Make a difference: help the food bank

It seems stocks are running low at our brilliant local food bank. If you have non perishable food items that you can spare all you need to do is drop them off on a Friday morning at the Castelnau Community Centre (7 Stillingfleet Road, SW13 9AQ). Or, why not coordinate a collection of items in your street with your neighbours on your street WhatsApp group. That way just a few items in your cupboards could join many others and help get stocks back up to where they should be at the Food Bank.

The following non-perishable items are urgently needed, including but not limited to, long-life or tinned meats, fish, pasta sauces, fruits, custard/rice pudding, soups, vegetables, potatoes (tinned or instant), tea, coffee, fruit, nut butters, jams, honey, UHT fruit juice, UHT Milk and cooking oil.

Additionally, all toiletries such as shampoo, shower gel, soap, toothpaste, and deodorants are greatly appreciated.

Bread of heaven

While the Barnes Food Bank is based at the Castelnau Community Centre, it is run in conjunction with the church community at Holy Trinity in Castelnau. Some members of the Holy Trinity church community also run a micro-bakery which is one of Barnes best kept secrets.

The Nourish and Grow Micro-bakery donates 8-10 loaves of bread each week to the food bank but it also offers home baking for sale to anyone who wishes to order.  It’s a social enterprise, using profits from its sales to sustain local community growing initiatives.

Every week they cook up everything from normal cottage loaves to rye bread, to three types of sourdough. Often, they add special one-off recipe breads too. And you can also choose from a range of home-made preserves from sweet marmalade to savoury picallili. For the full menu and ordering details, see their Instagram feed.
 

No trains over Barnes Bridge for six days at the end of July

Network Rail will be carrying out maintenance work on Barnes Bridge for six days at the end of July (from July 28 to August 2) which will mean that no trains will be running over the bridge during that period. They will also be installing scoffolding on the bridge as part of the preparation works before the maintenance starts. The scaffolding installation will take place at night after trains stop running between 10pm and 5.30am  on each night between June 15 and July 21.

A matter of life and death

For many people death seems the ultimate taboo. We don't walk to talk about it until we're forced to. However, giving some thought to how we want people to deal with our own death can actually help with our own peace of mind and be tremendously helpful to the people we love in the sad event of our own death.

Do you want a funeral? Should people wear black? Religious ceremony or humanist? Where should your ashes be scattered? And of course, have you made a will? There are other things to consider too like 'How can I help a friend who has been bereaved?' It's so easy to get things wrong but it's just as simple to know how to do the right thing.

Poppy Mardell the founder of a modern funeral directors Poppy's wants us all to think about death differently, and through her work she meets grieving people daily. She's passionate about getting people to open up about death and its aftermath.

She offers regular free sessions where people can discuss death and their wishes around death. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session. The next session is being held at the Boulangerie Jade on the Upper Richmond Road on Thursday June 13 between 10.30 and 12noon. You can find out more about the session here.

Swords and sorcery

I f  you love, theatre, musicals or swordfighting or perhaps all three then an event at St Mary's on June 15 could be just the thing for you.

Enterprising local theatre company Shadow Road productions is holding a special event to help raise funds to take the company to the Edinburgh Festival this year.

Emma King-Farlow from Shadow Road says "With a wide variety of songs from the musicals, swordfights, and scenes from Shakespeare, Shadow Road’s original work, and elsewhere, there’s something for all tastes. We hope you will laugh and cry, be enthralled and entertained – and unafraid to sing along if the moment calls for it!"

You can buy tickets at www.ticketsource.co.uk/shadowroad

About the Bugle

The Barnes Village Bugle is an independent publication. People often think it's produced by the Barnes Community Association, but no, they have their own excellent email Prospect Plus. 

At the Bugle we endeavour to simply report what's going on in Barnes in as comprehensive and entertaining a way as possible. We have no agenda apart from spreading the word about the huge number of genuinely interesting things happening in and around Barnes and sharing information about local campaigns and news events.

If you have a story you would like to see featured in the Bugle do email us by clicking here.

We can't guarantee that we'll run it, but if we think it's going to be interesting to our readers then we'll publish your information.

If on the other hand you want to publicise a commercial venture then it's easy to advertise with us. Our mailing list has over 5,000 subscribers so you'll reach lots of people in Barnes very inexpensively.

The Bugle is a labour of love, not a profit-making venture. We pay to send it out and our mailing costs are covered by the fantastic support we get from Winkworth and our other advertisers. We'd love to get more advertising as that would at least go some way into covering the costs of our time, so if you advertise with us you'll not only be reaching a large audience you'll be keeping a local resource going.

At the Bugle we endeavour to check information for accuracy to the best of our abilities. However we are reliant on information provided to us by third parties. On occasion, dates and times of events may be subject to change and we would urge Bugle readers wishing to attend events, or use a service mentioned to verify information in advance. Where possible we provide links to websites to allow readers to double check the most recent information available, as details can be subject to change.

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