Whether you’re a seasoned musician or just love to jam, come along every second Thursday of the month for an evening of great tunes and community vibes at the Barnes Home Guard Club.
✨ Event Highlights: 7:00 PM – Open Mic 8:00 PM – Jam Session 9:00 PM – More Open Mic Performances
Bring your instrument, your voice, or just your love for music! Everyone’s welcome—whether you’re performing or simply enjoying the show.
Questions or Ready to Perform? Contact Patrick at pjboundy2@gmail.com to reserve your spot on the open mic.
Don’t miss the chance to be part of the magic at Sheen Live Jam Night!
Bernard, journalist, BBC documentary producer, author, playwright, badminton champion and boules enthusiast died last month and his funeral was last week.
Tom, BBC film director, author, playwright, hockey player (national team), cricketer and rugby player (Oxford Blue) died in March 2026.
They were the best of friends. Both came to East Sheen in the 1970s and worked at the BBC for about 20 years. Both had wives who became Richmond Councillors – Tom’s wife Eleanor as Mayor in 2000-01 and Mona as Deputy Mayor in 2018-19. Sadly both wives died before their husbands – Mona in 2019 whilst still Deputy Mayor and Eleanor in 2023.
Both Bernard and Tom made a huge impact on East Sheen following retirement.
Bernard wrote historic plays about East Sheen starting with ‘The Fall’ which commemorated the 150th anniversary tower collapse of Christ Church. The play told the true story about the collapse of the church tower a month before the scheduled opening ceremony as remembered and narrated by the assistant architect Thomas Hardy who, along with all others involved, had to be cross-examined in court – and who afterwards decided to quit architecture and become a novelist. Bernard also wrote ‘Cosmo’ about a local artist of that name who fought in the trenches in WW1 and wrote letters home and received replies – the whole correspondence having been recently unearthed by a grand-daughter who lived in East Sheen.
In addition, Bernard in 1998 was tasked by the Mortlake with East Sheen Society (MESS) to identify a Millenium project and then implement it. He did so with panache – a boules piste on Palewell Common – he had to apply for planning permission from the Council (which he received) and then bring together a team of MESS members and our local badminton club (run by himself and Mona) to prepare the ground for the works which were funded by the Council.
Tom not only wrote plays about East Sheen but filmed some of them. He wrote and filmed ‘The Magus of Mortlake’ which commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of Dr John Dee and which featured Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, Shakespeare, Marlow, Ben Jonson and explorer Martin Frobisher. He made a film about the newly discovered air raid shelter at St Leonards Court, which has now been shown at least 250 times to audiences from primary schools plus a few adults – and he made a film featuring residents who had stories to tell about their parents in WW2. He also made films about our restauranteurs Leonardo and Rosa, our station-master Daniel and his newspaper seller, and our favourite builder Michael. Last but not least he made a film about Eleanor as Mayor.
Is there anyone left in East Sheen who can fill the gaping hole they have left behind? If so, please come forward.
Contributed by Tim Catchpole Chair, Mortlake with East Sheen Society
Teddington Nub News reported (24/7/2026) concerns about the illegal use of e-bikes across the borough at the last Teddington and Hampton Wick Police Liason Group meeting.
This issue has been raised regularly by EastSheenMatters over the last 18 months and over the last year at East Sheen Police Liaison Group and Mortlake and Barnes Police Liaison Group with no successful outcome. The standard response is lack of resource or the difficulty of intervention.
Cllr Roberts, Leader of Richmond Council is now quoted as saying: “I am happy to raise this issue with the Metropolitan Police and seek assurance that enforcement activity is consistent across London and appropriately resourced…………. there are increasing concerns about illegally modified e-bikes, excessive speed, riding on pavements and the use of e-bikes in connection with anti-social behaviour and acquisitive crime.”
“The legal position on enforcement sits with the Police as cycling on the footway (pavement) is an offence under Section 72 of the Highway Act 1835, unless cycling is specifically permitted. This applies equally to electrically assisted bicycles.
“I therefore agree that this issue should continue to receive attention at the most senior level and I am happy to raise residents’ concerns with the Borough Commander Mr Daniel Knowles where I will seek assurance that enforcement activity is applied consistently across the borough and that local concerns raised through Police Liaison Groups are reflected in operational policing activity.
About time too one might think but will anything actually be done?
“In terms of the boroughwide hire e-bike scheme, the Council’s new contract with Forest places obligations on the operator to address non-compliance and complaints promptly, including through the issue of warnings and penalties for misuse as well as ensuring the Council has access to real-time monitoring information.”
Can we be told how that will work in practice so that the public can report non-compliance, make complaints and learn how to identify wrongdoers?
Lower Richmond Road, Mortlake multi-way temporary traffic signals from outside no.67 to junction of Sheen Lane for Cadent Gas utility works commencing on 10/08/2026 to 04/09/2026. Contact: Cadent Gas 08000 159 057.
Three weeks! Recalling the problems on this road last time they did a stretch, this is clearly an area to avoid if you can.
Let’s just hope they don’t decide to work on Clifford Avenue at the same time.
Dave Emms who has owned Chubbs the Butcher for 20 years and been associated for 30 years before that has announced that he is closing down on Saturday 15th August.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
Dave Emms who has owned Chubbs the Butcher for 20 years and been associated for 30 years before that has announced that he is closing down on Saturday 15th August.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
Deputy Mayor Matthew Wherry speaks about the history and development of Mortlake Station.
“One hundred and eighty years ago today, the first scheduled public passenger trains ran on this line. On Monday 27 July 1846 Mortlake station opened, together with Richmond, the terminus of a brand-new railway from Nine Elms.
This was not a great railway company extending its empire. The line was promoted by local residents, and their independent venture, the Richmond Railway Company, was authorised by its own Act of Parliament in 1845 and opened the line a year later.
Today we sit on the Waterloo to Reading line – though in 1846 there was no Waterloo, no Clapham Junction, and certainly no trains to Reading.
In 1846 you could send a letter anywhere in Britain for a penny, and the electric telegraph and photography were dazzling new technologies. But there was no telephone, no electric light, no motor car and no London Underground. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was still more than a decade away.
By the summer of 1847, more than one hundred thousand journeys between Richmond and London were being made in a few weeks, with thousands more beginning or ending here at Mortlake. The railway transformed these communities from villages of market gardens and meadows into the places we know today. Last year, Mortlake served well over a million passengers, and Richmond handled over nine million National Rail journeys. These stations now welcome more travellers in a matter of days than lived in both parishes combined when the line first opened.
Some of those passengers waited in rather more style than others — this very building began life as a royal waiting room, built for Queen Victoria’s visits to White Lodge in Richmond Park. Prince Albert used it too, as, in later years, did Edward VII when Prince of Wales.
But we are not only here for the history – we are also here to celebrate the newly installed artwork on the pedestrian bridge. The mural began when pupils at Thomson House School were invited to draw the high street they know so well – the street that crosses this railway line, with the station, the shops and the buildings they pass every day walking between their school buildings. Students and tutors at the Art Department at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College, were also involved in enhancing them.
The children’s drawings are stunning and delightful – full of joy, and full of belonging. The project itself embodies what community rail is all about: it has linked child artists and adult artists across two of our borough’s learning settings, and delivered by the Hounslow and Richmond Community Rail Partnership, in collaboration with South Western Railway.
One hundred and eighty years ago, local people built this railway. Today, local schoolchildren, students, volunteers and rail partners are still shaping it. That is worth celebrating.
Today we mark not simply two stations, but everything they made possible: connection, growth, opportunity – and one hundred and eighty years of grumbling about the fares!”
Deputy Mayor Matthew Wherry delivers his speech.
Tim Catchpole, Chairman of the Mortlake with East Sheen Society, congratulates Daniel Opoku on his long service as stationmaster.
Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me, And I’ll protect it now. ‘Twas my forefather’s hand That placed it near his cot; There, woodman, let it stand, Thy axe shall harm it not.
That old familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Are spread o’er land and sea— And wouldst thou hew it down? Woodman, forebear thy stroke! Cut not its earth–bound ties; Oh, spare that aged oak, Now towering to the skies!
When but an idle boy, I sought its grateful shade; In all their gushing joy Here, too, my sisters played. My mother kissed me here; My father pressed my hand– Forgive this foolishtear, But let that old oak stand.
My heart-strings round thee cling, Close as thy bark, old friend! Here shall the wild–bird sing, And still thy branches bend. Old tree! the storm still brave! And, woodman, leave the spot; While I’ve a hand to save, thy axe shall harm it not.
This is beginning to look like the ‘hard to follow’ Council planning application with changing dates rather than the open CommunnityBluescapes Consultation.
