How to improve The Terrace in Barnes
An early sketch of what could be better and why it matters - story 96
I have been interested in improving The Terrace for as long as I have been writing this blog. I think it is the most unpleasant stretch of road for cyclists in Barnes and Mortlake — the place I receive the most abuse and the most close passes.
Of all the key streets that thread through this corner of southwest London, The Terrace offers the greatest potential for transformation. It is more than a road to drive through as quickly as possible. It should be the missing link that connects the best of Barnes, not just for the driver but more importantly someone walking. I tried to bring this to life by imagining a walk from Thames to Thames. If you have not already done so, I suggest you read that first.
Time at Café Barbera, with a coffee, a notebook, and a clear view of the traffic just metres away generated a list of specific ideas.
What follows is a first draft — a set of early reflections, no more — divided into three parts:
A case for why The Terrace must change
And a few proposals I’ve decided to leave behind
Each section is provisional. I’ll return to the topic — and to these individual ideas — in future pieces. For now, consider this a beginning.
Why change the Terrace?
Mode share change
Richmond council’s long term goal is to increase amount of sustainable travel - walk, cycle or public transport - from 61% to 75%. Progress is slow.
Walking is the single most important form of transport for our future.
There are always opportunities to incrementally improve the pedestrian’s experiences. Major opportunities to encourage more walking are much rarer. Barnes currently has one - the closure of Hammersmith Bridge. The Terrace could be a second.
Changes to The Terrace would primarily benefit local residents. This is TfL's profile of walkers across London. It is probably more right than wrong for Barnes including The Terrace. Renewing The Terrace addresses these needs locally, enabling more pedestrians to more easily enjoy more leisure and local shopping.
Climate change
Given Richmond council’s own forecast for the changing climate, this is an opportunity to make an important part of Barnes more climate-ready.
The river is a perfect source of cooler atmosphere.
Remember, Barnes over-indexes on elderly people who are susceptible to these increasingly likely higher temperatures but who must not become locked, lonely, in their homes.
Ugliest main road in Barnes - visually and experientially
On your right walking from the Waterman’s, one of the grandest river in the Kingdom; to the left some of the loveliest houses in London. Straight ahead a tribute to twentieth century municipal planning and development techniques - concrete and rusting iron aplenty.
Pock-marking the horizon are public signs and posts which have accreted through the ages, attracted to posts and walls like moths to a flame. Ugly and frequently useless
Removing hostile environment for pedestrians
Bridge to White Hart Pub (WHP) - after hours there is no lighting.
WHP - off ramp from riverside path to The Terrace drops you on to .. a sliver of a pavement and lots of traffic who are just accelerating away at that point.
WHP - a road crossing doubling as another council-sponsored game of chicken. Road layout would suggest Richmond council traffic planners assume anyone exiting from river at WHP and wanting to visit Orange Pekoe or The Crossing would walk to Rick Stein’s, use the zebra and the cross back. Whereas pedestrians emerging from by the wide of WHP see the drop kerb and think this is a crossing. Drivers don’t agree.
Removing hostility to cyclists
I receive more abuse and endure more close passes on The Terrace than any other road in Barnes
Heading north from WHP, cars accelerate to overtake a cyclist and then all too often have to swerve back into the lane because of the surprise of the bridge or oncoming traffic
Heading south from Watermans, the relief drivers feel having cleared the High Street necessitates changing gear and speeding up. Then a bus pulls up. Then the cyclist weaves through the traffic. Enter abusive commentary from frustrated drivers through wound-down windows.
To be clear - I ride The Terrace because I refuse to yield the tarmac to vehicles and occasionally when I feel threatened I ride down the middle of the lane.
Traffic volume
Traffic seems to be so much heavier in recent months. There is no public data with which to support this observation let alone understand the traffic flow etc. (Why not - data about us which we paid for?)
This is not just about The Terrace but what happens south of the Terrace - Chalkers Corner, Sheen Lane, even White Hart Lane? Drivers keep choosing left and end up on The Terrace with the vast majority turning right down the High Street.
Traffic mix
Three separate 90minute sessions at different times of the weekday between 10.00 and 17.00 last week and this, produced same insight:
there were never fewer than five 18T/HGV wagons
each session saw two Post Office HGVs. They are striking because I have never seen one of these loading in Barnes. I see a lot of the smaller vans, 5T and less.
Traffic light problems earlier this week at 07.45 also added more detail:
majority of cars have only driver
Three HGV of which two good natured drivers confirmed they were following ‘sat nav’.
Renewing sense of the whole
Correcting the balance between cars and pedestrians on The Terrace would amplify the impact of the improvements already made elsewhere in Barnes. A renewed Terrace is the thread that connects the best of communal Barnes:
Wetland Centre
Church Road
Barnes Green
High Street
The Terrace
Footbridge
White Hart Lane
Proposals
Wider paths
The wider the path, the better - proper promenading needs girth.
From the Watersman’s to the Bridge, copy Fulham Football Club’s approach:
they have built out into the river channel so respected the river but hugely increased public access at Fulham Pier:
‘ With the river wall, it was important to maintain the actual hydrology of the river, you can’t go around changing river walls because you never know if you’re going to have a knock-on implication further downstream. So the riverside deck is actually suspended out over the river on piles, but the river wall itself is not in a different location.’
There could be another small viewing platform into river like one at end of High street
Or the widened path could be built out over this unused spare platform that runs down the edge of the road. It varies in width from 4’ to 2’. Reducing the road slightly would act as a traffic calming measure.
From the Bridge to WHP:
the restored paths are a huge improvement on the mud that came before - but they were a like for like replacement
even 1’ wider would make a hugh difference.
More trees for shade
The trees from WHP to the Bridge - where they exist - are welcome. We need more trees and ones that provide shade.
Then we need to look at how we can do anything, if only in parts, between the Watersman’s to the Bridge.
Trees for people is a winning formula.
More shaded benches for resting
The simple benches by the bus stops throughout Barnes are popular - spend any hour watching one to see the evidence.
Currently there is one bench at the junction of the High Street then three others between the Bridge and WHP.
They should be every 50-75m and more welcoming with natural shade provided in the summer.
They need maintaining. This should not be a ‘one and gone’ change.
New visual and tactile experience for pedestrians including protection from traffic
This a statement development for Barnes. A mile up-river the Stag Development will create a new neighbourhood with a riverside expression based on mid-height residential buildings. Renewing The Terrace is a chance for Barnes to have a similar change but one that reflects Barnes in the same way The View takes the Victorian rail bridge and adopts it for the twenty-first century.
Aesthetically all the public developments in this space must relate to each other:
The Terraced renewed
The View at Barnes Bridge
Dukes Meadow Footbridge.
Accepting the need for tendering etc., Moxon architects might be best placed to achieve this. They designed the Footbridge and have contributed to the The View.
Please replace that crass rusty tube guard-rail with a people-first, Barnes-positive look and feel.
Extend the path’s use with lighting
The built environment reveals underlying priorities again - the road for cars has street lighting. What’s more, it is not present from lamp-posts by the houses but on the river side. On the river path for people? Nothing.
The goal should to extend the sense of safety and so utility by two or three hours, through to dusk everyday.
This does not mean plant a dozen lamp-posts.
We need a Barnes-sensitive discrete solution - think airline floor lighting that is light activated and solar powered.
Bridge tunnel lighting
Cars don’t need lighting here, so clearly the rest of us have it.
In Berlin and Paris last year, I struck by beneficial use of artful lighting to lift dingy tunnel spaces. This is not dull wite strip lights - rather subtle dashes of colour that serve to act as a way point when walking at night and then make another dark, dull place a momentarily more vibrant.
Zebra crossing between WHP and Orange Pekoe
The pavement design is appalling. Pedestrians are encouraged to think cars will stop.
As well as making safe an established pedestrian routing, it would have the additional benefit of being another traffic calming measure.
Managing traffic volume
Understanding and managing the traffic is well nigh impossible to do with a lack of data.
There are three places to influence the volume, heading north:
before WHP where The Terrace starts
on the Terrace
at the end of the Terrace by the Waterman’s.
The focus should be on shaping the traffic before the WHP.
Add to that more traffic calming on the Terrace and High Street
Change traffic mix: new 18T traffic management system - Change sign and its’s position
This is current sign:
Remove ‘the except loading’ - 18T should be banned.
Push the sign beyond WHP - denying them loading seems a bit bonkers.
House owners who complain should understand the trade-off: more pleasant road daily in return for more admin in the event they move house.
Enforcing new weight traffic management system
Currently the use of the road depends on goodwill - that provided by pedestrians.
Making the rule simpler (see above) should make it possible to automate the enforcement - ANPR etc..
Traffic calming between WHP and Waterman’s
We need fewer vehicles in general driving along The Terrace and all of them to be moving more slowly.
Need to introduce greater calming measures along the length so traffic is slower even on a quiet day.
Building out the pavement north the Bridge would serve to ‘cramp the road’ slightly.
‘Bike the crest, not the gutter’ - we should campaign to encourage all bikes to ride down the centre of his/her lane of The Terrace. This is legal. This approach would reduce the average speed to less than 15.9mph. Legal e-bikes stop providing power at that speed.
Change some of the road surfaces especially at the acceleration points such as after the WHP and Bridge.
Change the priority at the zebra crossing by the bridge
Currently if you press the button by the bridge, you wait .. and wait .. and wait.
Change the priority: pedestrians are more important.
Going forward, pressing the button should result in a very quick sequence of amber then red lights.
This would act as traffic calming, too.
Reclaim the dead spot
These are dead because the cars don’t want them: they are not important to car, so unimportant to all of us.
The largest one is just north of the bridge by the bus stop.
We need a pedestrian-first landscape.
Shared e-bike storage
If the council’s current review of shared e-bike operator’s licence results in a more forceful use of geo-fencing - see Merton council’s recent announcement - The Terrace would be a good place for them, like the other key stretches of Barnes.
Reclaim at least 1 of the on-street car parking spaces.
Use the dead spot north of the Bridge.
Incentivise bikes to use the road not the Thames path
Provide clear signage and route from before WHP onto main carriageway.
New zebra there would enable more cars travelling more slowly at the point of exit.
Then enable easier on-ramp to path after Waterman’s.
Declutter road signs
Some are required, often for legal reasons. Which of these nine could be removed?
Other clutter can be removed. Look at this pole by the coffee shop - a sign not much bigger than your mobile phone banning 18T
Resist any commercial opportunities
The Terrace pedestrians do not need a digital advertising board to enhance their experience.
Nor do they need new billboards.
Big changes often mean saying no.
Summer Night experiments
Barnes has several large community events every year - Barnes Fair, Boat Race, Children’s Festival etc. The Terrace could be used to enhance these celebrations. Or we could create another such as Midsummer.
The Terrace could be closed to all traffic from say Friday night through Sunday afternoon, with only emergency services, public transport and bikes are allowed to drive north from WHP to the High Street.
Barnes needs to experiment more with ideas before they are adopted and implemented. ‘Try before you buy’. Doing this will make major changes easier later - think Parklet.
Barnes Pier
Even if this does not happen in 2026, plan for it - BCA Ponder 4 (2045-2055) anyone?
Getting travellers on and off tidal rivers is a solved problem.
At some point there will be a business case for the river taxis to run beyond Putney and into Barnes and if some at Mortlake Mash-Up have their way, Mortlake too.
The Thames on this stretch has several old docking points - re-use one of those.
Even a seasonal Barnes Pier would be enhance the area.
Empty public bins more often
More people = more rubbish.
Proposals I rejected
One way system
There is no public data with which to understand the traffic flow etc. My sense after several (splendid) coffees at Cafe Barbera is the preponderance of traffic is from WHP and turning right in the High Street
For a one-way system to work, traffic from WHP travelling north to the Bridge would have to be banned.
I suspect this will happen one day. The View launches, this project delivers, the number of cars falls as forecast by TfL, Richmond council’s ‘cargo bike capital of London’ becomes more of a reality .. Ponder 3 (2035-2045) will be demanding another huge change in traffic management.
But this is too big a leap in 2026. There are too many cars. Congestion is a feature not a bug but this change in 2026 would render ‘fortress’ Barnes log-jammed.
Banning bikes on Thames path
You can change the status of a Bridleway but seems hard and long-winded.
By all means start but decided to instead to make a the path so attractive to pedestrians it is flooded with people at the busiest times so deterring most cyclists, plus making accessing and using the the main carriageway more attractive.
Separate bike lanes
This hurts to write as a cyclist who covers 1,800miles yearly.
There is insufficient road space to accommodate two lanes of cars and two lanes of traffic.
Cyclists lot will be improved by changing traffic mix and type.
Turning right from High Street into Road
I think this addresses the sympton not the cause - there’s an unusual volume of traffic that needs to be better managed before this point.
It might encourage many new bad behaviours - U-turn at Gail’s or using Nassau Road - which will not improve The Terrace.
Parklet on house side of The Terrace
This is an obvious traffic calming measure either side of the bridge.
But I can’t image what to do with it. Maybe my lack of imagination?
Guerrilla campaigns
Be French for a day - organise a ‘bike bus’ to ride up and down The Terrace repeatedly at peak times on random days, all bedecked in high-viz tabbards with the logo, ‘Barnes belongs to all of us, not just drivers’.
Be a luddite for several days - schedule a team of Googe Maps and Waze users by WHP and over a period of days first thing in the morning, keep telling the app traffic is stopped or moving very slowly. At some point the algorithm will be forced to send traffic on other routes.
Tempting but immature.