By Charles Campion, Barnes Town Team



One of the 20/20 Visions case studies tells the story of the Big Barnes Ponder, a Charrette organised by the Barnes Community Association Town Team, held in October 2013. The single day Charrette attracted over 300 people to participate in shaping a Vision for their village set in leafy south west London on the banks of the River Thames. Ten years on, many of the projects and concepts that comprised the Vision have been realised and Barnes village today has been transformed into a thriving, vibrant place attracting residents and visitors in droves. The village now has a healthy array of shops, services and food and drink outlets, together with a weekly farmers market and various festivals and fairs throughout the year. A landmark Ponder project was Suffolk Road natural play area, conceived at the Charrette and developed and delivered by the community in partnership with Richmond upon Thames Council. Another completed project is the widening of pavements in the High Street, which is today attracting more and more shoppers who now have more opportunity to promenade and linger.
“The process highlighted that the community is best placed to shape and direct its own destiny and that projects delivered with full community involvement are inevitably going to deliver the best results.”
Emma Robinson, Barnes Town Centre Manager

Barnes Ponder 2 is being held on Saturday 14 October 2023, almost exactly 10 years after the first Ponder. It will include an exhibition celebrating what has been achieved in that time, inspirational talks from Mary Clear co-founder of Incredible Edible Todmorden, as well as workshops to consider issues and aspirations to create a refreshed Vision for the next 10 years. The event will be facilitated by the same volunteer professional team who ran the first Ponder.

The idea of holding the Ponder 2 was first suggested by Steven Mindel, past chair of the Barnes Community Association who said, “The first Ponder was one of the most important things we did when I was chair. We had to learn from the professionals and the placemaking agenda has helped us crystallise our thinking about the way we look at the village: the shops, the traffic and the footfall. Traders are more aware now of what they need to do to run a successful business. And the community at large is now more aware of the usefulness of the High Street – if they don’t use it, they’ll lose it.”
You can see more details about the Ponder 2 and watch short videos showing some of the projects that came from the 2013 Ponder here.