BCA x Bulls Head = Shy smiles + countless stories
Story 168
Welcome to Bridged2050: creating an even better Barnes during this climate crisis
You can overthink a pint of Diet Coke. Or maybe not.
Barnes Communiuty Association (BCA) held their first ‘Barnes Tuesday Local’ at The Bulls Head on Tuesday 27 January. It was billed as,
An informal weekly get together for neighbours, locals, old friends and future friends.
No pressure, no plan.
Just turn up, grab a drink and have a chat.
Just a pub, a corner of space and permission to talk and listen.
The initiative has been set up by the BCA Placemaking Barnes Group, as part of a wider effort to strengthen community ties, support local businesses and strengthen placemaking in Barnes. Such initiatives have proved popular and successful elsewhere.
Around the tables about twenty people a place like Barnes is made of: a screenwriter and a housekeeper; retirees and twenty-somethings; couples and solo flyers. Not a club. Not a committee. Not a hobby group. Just neighbours, briefly becoming less anonymous.
Youngs helped, providing a 10% discount on all drinks.
And the result? Enjoyable. Warm. Surprisingly easy.
Notes & thoughts
Walking into a pub full of strangers on a cold winter evening can feel like a competitive sport, especially if you’re shy. I did what many introverts do: I slow-walked and arrived late, hoping the room would already have a shape.
Credit to Charles Campion and the other BCA members for the kind of welcome that doesn’t fuss but does notice. There were familiar BCA faces by the fireplace such as Emma Robinson, the Town Centre Manager and Paul Hodson who chairs the BCA Travel Barnes group. Oh, and Jan (Black) the Petition. If you know, you know. But you MUST sign her petition to improve The Terrace.
The Barnes Fund at their 2025 annual general meeting explained how loneliness was a growing problem across Barnes. It was one of the factors behind the growing mental health issues in the area. The Fund, FiSH, BCA and others are tackling it from different angles, but the aim is shared: swap isolation for belonging.
Tuesday Local sits neatly in that gap. It’s a low-stakes way to bump into other people.
Its difference was right there in the invitation: no pressure, no plan. This wasn’t a gathering of gardeners, squash players, or local-history devotees united by a hobby. It was a handful of people who shared the same postcode.
The pub setting helped.
Barnes has enjoyed a boom in coffee shops. There are so many and most are very good. They dominate the daytime social spaces.
Pubs have not faired so well but those that remain are also very good. They own the evening. The Bulls Head, famous for its jazz, provided a perfect space for this ninety minute mixer. A welcoming corner, tucked to one side with tables and chairs for those who needed them, standing room for those who don’t.
And everywhere a reminder that every person has as story worth hearing. Those stories - not buildings or streets, not shops or schools - are what make a place.
The BCA can’t eliminate the moment every introvert dreads: the awkward silence before an introduction lands. But a warm and welcoming atmoshere can make it tolerably short. On Tuesday night, it did.
See you next Tuesday.
