BARNES UK: THE LITTLE VILLAGE WITH BIG DISTINCTION
By Diane Dobry
Though I’ve been an Anglophile for decades, my first visit to the UK came just last year. My cousin’s daughter, Heather, invited me to stay with her and her husband Chris in Barnes, a lovely village in London. Heather was incredibly helpful and resourceful, guiding me through various logistical challenges and introducing me to this small but pleasant and interesting place.
ON BIG BLEND RADIO: Travel writer Diane Dobry talks about her visit to Barnes, a charming village in London, England. Watch here in the YouTube player or download the episode on Podbean.
Initially, I thought Barnes was outside of London, but I quickly learned it is a village within the city’s limits, with easy access to central London via buses and trains, much like commuting from the outer boroughs of New York City into Manhattan.
Heather and Chris took me on a walking tour of the village, along the way passing colorful townhouses with navy blue rooftops, old brick homes with 8-smokestack chimneys and upstairs and downstairs bay windows. By the time we reached the intersection of Station Road and High Street (what we would call Main Street in America), I was ready to sit down someplace. But Chris directed me to the pond where they, and most other locals, often stop to enjoy a group – or should I say, paddling—of ducks. As we walked up High Street toward the Thames River, Heather pointed out local shops, including a boutique selling her own stuffed bunny creations, a bookshop, a toy store, cheese and fish stores, and a tea house called Orange Pekoe. I made a mental note to return later to continue exploring.
As we approached the Thames, I noticed several pubs like The Waterman’s Arms and Coach & Horses, and shops that cater to the area’s upscale clientele. I admired the small-paned windows on some notable buildings, including the former fire station Dunmow Hall, now converted into upscale duplexes.
Clearly, Barnes is a highly sought-after area, being home to celebrities such as actors Stanley Tucci and Richard Pattinson, and musicians like Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen. One of the most striking sights was the memorial to Marc Bolan, the T-Rex singer who died in a car crash nearby. It wasn’t just a simple cross or flowers, but a shrine with photographs, a sculpted image of Bolan, and tributes from fans, with small plaques on the steps that honored some of his bandmates who also died young.
The connection between musical celebrities living and dying in Barnes made sense to me when I discovered, on my return visit to the village, the unusual fact that The Olympic Sound Studios—one of London’s most famous music studios—is in the heart of this little village, not far from the duck pond. I had a fascinating chat with a man in Olympic Studio Records across the road, who showed me photo albums and LPs of many groups and performers from every big-name band from the mid-1960s through 2009—including Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, for example—who recorded albums there.
There was one more special place that I visited with Heather in walking distance or only two train stops away from the Barnes station—the (300-acre) Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, known familiarly as Kew Gardens. She had worked there as a researcher, and still works in connection to Kew, which gives her the inside scoop on everything from flowers to insects and the history of the area.
There are several key points to see in the Gardens, but my three favorites included seeing Kew Palace, the smallest royal palace, where King George III, the British monarch during our Revolutionary War, lived with his wife and 17 children. I am not sure how such a large family managed to live there. The Palace Gardens have a collection of plants that were only in existence up to the 17th century, and several are considered to have medicinal qualities.
The second treat was a honeycomb-like aluminum structure called the Hive that has a programmed hum based on actual bees in a hive. You have to experience it to really understand what it is like, and how soothing it is.
My third favorite was our lunch at a popular well-known tearoom called The Original Maids of Honour on Kew Road outside the Gardens. Heather, however, was more excited to go to Palm House—a stunningly designed iron and glass greenhouse, which had on display a very rare plant that she was anxious to see personally. We both benefitted by walking through the rose garden, which, because it was June, had roses of varying types in full bloom with scents that made us literally swoon. Apparently, roses produce mood-boosting endorphins and also have medicinal benefits for inflammation, diabetes, stress, seizures, and aging, among other conditions.
The only other place near Barnes I would like to have gone, but missed because of time constraints, was Chiswick House and Gardens, also in walking distance and close to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Overall, though, I was happy to not only to become acquainted with Barnes as a somewhat lesser-known part of London, but also to connect with my newly favorite cousin and her husband in the process.
Find out more about Barnes at https://www.barnesvillage.com/
Diane Dobry, a content creator who covers travel, food, wine and “spirits,” worked in PR for 20 years and taught PR and journalism college classes. International travel began with a Fulbright award; teaching in Hungary; importing wine to the US; teaching an online course with a Hungarian viticulture professor; and receiving a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization. Here articles have appeared in Wine Enthusiast, Pink, Big Blend Magazines, FWT, and Florida and New York newspapers. She reviews books for an NDE research foundation and creates varied online content here: DiscoveryDaze, GettingHungary, and HungarianAquarian. Also on Facebook, Spotify, and Instagram.
