Barnes, London

Barnes is a suburban district in south-west London, England and the extreme east of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is centred 5.8 mi west south-west of Charing Cross in a bend of the River Thames.

Its built environment includes a wide variety of convenience and arts shopping on its high street and a high proportion of 18th- and 19th-century buildings in the streets near Barnes Pond which together make up Barnes Village conservation area where, along with its west riverside, pictured, most of the mid-19th century properties are concentrated. On the east riverside is the WWT London Wetland Centre adjoining several fields for the three main national team sports. Barnes has retained woodland on the "Barnes Trail" which is a short circular walk taking in the riverside, commercial streets and conservation area, marked by silver discs set in the ground and with QR coded information on distinctive oar signs. The Thames Path National Trail provides a public promenade along the entire bend of the river which is on the Championship Course in rowing. Barnes has two railway stations and is served by bus routes towards London and Richmond.

Geography and transport
Hammersmith Bridge at the north end links Barnes to the centre of Hammersmith, the nearest entertainment and high rise office area.

Barnes adjoins the South Circular Road and Putney, which forms a rival commercial hub to Hammersmith. Unlike Mortlake and Hammersmith, Barnes has no dual carriageways. The locality is one of a minority at its radius from the centre of London in the early 21st century to be defined by suburban by a Greater London Authority paper.

Barnes has two mainline railway stations:
 * Barnes Bridge railway station
 * Barnes railway station

Its nearest tube station is Hammersmith, which also has bus connections to central London.

History
Historically part of Surrey, Barnes appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as "Berne". It was held by the Canons of St Paul of London when its assets were: 8 hides, paying tax with Mortlake; 6 ploughlands, 20 acre of meadow. It rendered (in total) to its feudal system overlords £7 per year.

The original Norman chapel of St Mary's, Barnes' village church, was built at some point between 1100 and 1150. It was subsequently extended in the early thirteenth century, and again c. 1485 and in 1786. After a major fire in 1978 destroyed the Victorian and Edwardian additions to the building, restoration work was completed in 1984.

Some of the oldest riverside housing in London is to be found on The Terrace, a road lined with Georgian mansions which runs along the west bend of the river. Construction of these mansions began as early as 1720. Gustav Holst and Ninette de Valois lived in houses on this stretch, both of which have corresponding blue plaques. The Terrace also has an original red brick police station, built in 1891. It has been remodelled as apartments but still preserves the original features.

The pink-fronted Rose House facing the area's pond dates to the 17th century, while Milbourne House facing The Green, the area's oldest, parts of which date to the 16th century, once belonged to Henry Fielding. The park of Barn Elms, formerly the manor house of Barnes, which was for long the parish's chief property, is now an open space and playing field.

The listed Barnes Railway Bridge, originally constructed in 1849 by Joseph Locke, dominates the view of the river from The Terrace. In 2009 a project began to re-paint the bridge.

Castelnau, in north Barnes and on the banks of the river, has a small church, Holy Trinity. The area between Castelnau and Lonsdale Road contains a 1930s council estate (including roads such as Nowell Road, Stillingfleet Road and Washington Road), mostly consisting of "Boot Houses", constructed by the Henry Boot company.

Economy
According to a 2014 survey, Barnes has the highest proportion of independent shops of any area in Britain, at 96.6%.

Barnes Common and the London Wetland Centre


Barnes Common is an important open space and a local nature reserve. Its 120 acre dominate the south of Barnes, providing a rural setting to the village and a wealth of habitats including acid grassland, scrub, woodland and wetland. Beverley Brook passes through part of the common before meeting the Thames at Putney.

In April 2001, Barnes Pond dramatically emptied overnight. Although a broken drain was suspected no cause could be conclusively found. The pond was redeveloped and landscaped with funding from Richmond Council and the local community.

Barn Elms reservoirs were turned into a wetland habitat and bird sanctuary in 1995. The majority of the WWT London Wetland Centre comprises areas of standing open water, grazing marsh and reedbed. It is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest as it supports nationally important wintering populations of shoveler (Anas clypeata) and teal (Anas crecca).

Landmarks, trails and events
The Barnes trail, a 2.3 mile circular walk funded by the Mayor of London and Richmond upon Thames Council, was opened in June 2013. It gained in 2014 a further QR code-marked extension, along its riverside, which equates to the Thames Path National Trail and part of which is wide, pavemented embankments with Victorian townhouses and the rest is tree-lined green space.

The site of rock musician Marc Bolan's fatal car crash on Queen's Ride in 1977 is now Bolan's Rock Shrine. The memorial receives frequent visits from his fans, and in 1997 a bronze bust of Bolan was installed to mark the twentieth anniversary of his death. In 2007, the site was recognised by the English Tourist Board as a "Site of Rock 'n' Roll Importance" in its guide England Rocks.

A cinema, Olympic Studios on Church Road, is independent, showing a mixture of films on general release and art films. Originally a local cinema and for many years a leading recording studio,  down the  decades Olympic played host to some of rock and pop's greatest stars,  from the Beatles, who recorded the original tracks of "All You Need Is Love" in Barnes, to the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Queen, Eric Clapton, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Nilsson, the Verve, Massive Attack, Duran Duran, Coldplay, Madonna and Björk.

Facing the Thames, and on the main commercial street's junction, the Bull's Head pub is known as the "suburban Ronnie Scott's" and was one of the first and most important jazz venues in Britain from the post-war years onward.

The Old Sorting Office Arts Centre is a venue for art and fringe theatre, hosting numerous exhibitions and theatre productions, as well as a regular auction. Actors who have performed at the venue include Patricia Hodge, Stephanie Cole, Timothy West, Julian Glover and Robert Pattinson.

The area around Barnes Pond is host to several open-air and covered markets each month. Barnes Green is the site of the Barnes Fair, held each year on the second Saturday of July and organised by the Barnes Community Association (BCA), whose headquarters is at Rose House, a distinctive 17th-century pink-painted building on Barnes High Street.

Places of worship
Barnes has eight churches, of which six are members of Churches Together in Barnes:
 * Barnes Baptist Church
 * Barnes Healing Church
 * Catholic Church of St Osmund, Barnes
 * Holy Trinity Barnes
 * The Methodist Church by Barnes Pond
 * Russian Orthodox Church, Barnes
 * St Mary's Church, Barnes
 * St Michael and All Angels Church, Barnes

Sport
Barnes has a place in the history of football. First, a former High Master of St Paul's School, Richard Mulcaster, is credited with taking mob football and turning it into an organised, refereed team sport that was considered beneficial for schoolboys. St Paul's School is currently sited on Lonsdale Road, although in Mulcaster's time it was at St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London.
 * Association Football

Barnes was also home to Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who in 1862 was a founding member of the Football Association. In 1863, he wrote to Bell's Life newspaper proposing a governing body for football, and this led to the first meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern where the FA was created. He was the FA's first secretary (1863–66) and at his home in Barnes he set out the first set of rules for modern football, and these were adopted by the FA and subsequently spread throughout the world. As a player he took part in the first match played according to today's rules. Morley may be considered the father of football for his key role in establishing modern Association Football.

Barnes has a Non-League football club, Stonewall F.C., who play at Barn Elms Playing Fields. Barnes Rugby Football Club has evidence to show that it is the oldest club in the world in any football code. Its ground is next to the WWT London Wetlands Centre formerly known simply as Barn Elms. In rowing the loop of the Thames surrounding Barnes forms part of the Championship Course used for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race and the main national head races, the Head of the River Races, for each category of Olympic boat. Three rowing clubs are across Barnes Bridge which can be crossed by foot and St Paul's School boat from Barnes. A statue of Steve Fairbairn who revolutionised technique and equipment in the sport is by the river close to the London Wetlands Centre in the district.
 * Rugby
 * Rowing

Notable residents
Only people who are sufficiently notable to have individual entries on Wikipedia have been included in the list and, in each instance, their birth or residence has been verified by citations.

Actors

 * Joss Ackland and Rosemary Ackland (1951–2002) lived in Barnes
 * Michael Ball, singer and actor, lived in Barnes
 * Phyllis Calvert (1915–2002), actress, lived in Barnes
 * Patricia Hodge, actress. lives in Barnes
 * Rik Mayall (1958–2014), actor, writer and comedian, lived and died in Barnes
 * Alistair McGowan, comedian, lives in Barnes
 * Robert Pattinson, actor, lives in Barnes
 * Jon Pertwee (1919–1996), Doctor Who actor, lived in Barnes
 * Terry-Thomas (1911–1990), comic actor, moved to a flat in Barnes in 1988
 * Frank Thornton (1921–2013), actor, who played Captain Peacock in the BBC comedy Are You Being Served?, lived and died in Barnes

Artists

 * Gillian Ayres, artist, was born and grew up in Barnes
 * Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948), artist, lived at 39 Westmorland Road, Barnes. The site is marked by a blue plaque

Musicians

 * Carl Davis, composer, lives in Barnes
 * Gustav Holst (1874–1934), composer, lived at 31 Gretna Road, Richmond between 1903 and 1908. He and his family moved to 10 The Terrace on the riverfront at Barnes in 1908, where they remained until 1913
 * Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer and actor, moved to Barnes in 2012
 * Pete Tong, disc jockey, lives in Barnes
 * Queen members
 * Brian May, musician and astrophysicist, lived in Suffolk Road, Barnes
 * Freddie Mercury (1946–1991), musician, shared a house in Ferry Road
 * Roger Taylor, drummer, lived in White Hart Lane

Politicians

 * Susan Kramer, Baroness Kramer, former MP for Richmond Park, and life peer
 * Lyon Playfair (1818–1898), professor of chemistry and Liberal MP, lived at 26 Castelnau Villas (98 Castelnau), Barnes in 1851, when taking part in organising the Great Exhibition
 * Sir John Power, 1st Baronet (1870–1950), British businessman and Conservative MP for Wimbledon, lived at 1 Queen's Ride, Barnes, 1908–1919

Scholars, scientists and engineers

 * James Henry Greathead (1844–1896), railway engineer and pioneer of tunnelling, lived at St Mary's Grove, Barnes. The site is marked by a blue plaque
 * Colin Patterson (1933–1998), palaentologist

Writers

 * Henry Fielding (1707–1754), novelist, lived at Milbourne House, Barnes Green in about 1750, when writing Amelia. He later moved to Ealing
 * David Harsent, poet, lives in Barnes
 * Judith Kerr, author and illustrator, lives in Barnes
 * Matthew Kneale, novelist (b. 1960), was brought up in Barnes
 * Roger McGough, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright, lives in Barnes
 * Eric Newby (1919–2006), travel author, grew up in Castelnau Mansions
 * Barbara Pym (1913–1980), novelist, lived for many years at 47 Nassau Road
 * Dodie Smith (1896–1990), the author of I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians, lived in Riverview Gardens
 * Colin Welland, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Chariots of Fire

Other

 * Ninette de Valois (1898–2001), founder of the Royal Ballet, lived at 14 The Terrace on the riverfront at Barnes between 1962 and 1982. A blue plaque now stands on the building

Demography and housing
To give an equal councillor number and electorate, the wards in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are multi-councillor but aim to be equally sized. To achieve this, approximately half of one of the two wards covering modern Barnes also falls within the boundaries of neighbouring Mortlake.