This was my favourite part of the Arts Fair at OSO.
I am familiar with some of the history of Barnes and Mortlake - Archbishop Langton and the Magna Carta, John Dee’s epic library on the Thames and even the world famous cricket bat manufacturer. But I had no idea that tucked away behind the Sun Inn on Barnes Pond there’s a walled enclosure where bowls had been quietly played for centuries.
What’s more, the rules of this club and rest of the English Bowling Association are different.
At Barnes each player uses a pair of wooden bowls, not a set of four made of henselite that other clubs now use. Our woods have an unusually high bias (graded 12 or 13), unlike Association woods that have a much lower bias.
Here’s the full history of the Barnes Bowling Club.
The collaboration between Barnes Bowling Club and Barnes Artists began in 2023 when the Club was looking for ways to celebrate the tricentenary. Several local artists spent time at the club in 2024. By 2025, the Club had agreed to sponsor the panel of work at the OSO Art Fair. A number of the images of the Bowling club will feature in a forthcoming book of works by Barnes Artists due for publication later this year.
Michelle Hawes is one of four Barnes Artists featured in the Art Show.