💡New zebra crossing at Essex House - WIP Proposal
Story 111
Welcome to Bridged2050: ideas for living well in a climate-ready Barnes.
A zebra crossing is needed outside Essex House at the junction of the High Street and Station Road in Barnes.
Of all the places in Barnes that lack a safe place to cross, this is the most urgent.
The Barnes Community Association (BCA) has already persuaded Richmond council of the need for this cross. What’s missing is funding and a clear choice about where and how the crossing should be built. Before getting into those options, it’s worth stating why this location matters. A new crossing would:
Make a heavily used walking route safer
Slow traffic entering the village
Strengthen the shift towards a people-first Barnes
Pedestrian safety
This is one of the busiest walking links in Barnes. On one side: the High Street, where footfall continues to grow. On the other: the Pond and the Green, the social centre of the village. Just beyond sits Church Road, another key route.
The pavement already looks like a crossing. The drop kerbs are in place, as the image below shows.
There’s even a sign warning drivers of swans crossing. And rightly so. They do so often, and drivers usually stop.
Humans?
Not always. Especially not after dark or during busy traffic periods, when the pseudo-crossing becomes another council-sponsored game of dare.
Traffic calming
Bridged has already highlighted the need for an additional crossing on Mill Hill Road. Speed-test data revealed a speeding truth. One that continues on this busy route.
Cars on Station Road routinely accelerate between roundabout and existing crossing by the church and then from the crossing to the High Street. By the time they reach the former Cote restaurant, they are roaring into the heart of the village.
It gets worse.
There’s also the rolling turn: drivers glancing right, deciding they don’t need to stop, and swinging into the High Street somtimes at pace.
Drivers need to slow down.
Or more accurately the road design needs to encourage them to slow down. Another crossing along this stretch would dampen the temptation to surge through the limit.
Pedestrian-first Barnes
Walking is the simplest, cheapest and most universal form of transport. Cycling matters, but it isn’t for everyone. Short car trips can be replaced most easily by walking—especially in a compact village like Barnes.
Barnes well placed to move from a driver-first to pedestrian-first community.
This junction is an important next step. It is the missing link in a pedestrian spine that runs from one side of Barnes to the other. It makes the whole of Barnes more walkable.
Formalising the crossing would connect key destinations: the High Street, the Pond, the Green, and beyond. It would plug a gap in the Thames-to-Thames walk, a route that connects the best of Barnes from river to river.
Practical considerations
There is a live discussion about where to place the zebra crossing.
Some want to position the crossing near to the former Cote restaurant. So many people cross Station Road along this stretch that a case could be made for the crossing to be placed at any point. Part of the attractiveness of this option is that it swerves the design challenges of the swan-triangle - see below - and it reflects the high footfall from Cleveland Road.
An alternative proposal is for a crossing where Station Road meets the High Road. Bridged prefers this location.
This has (probably) has the highest footfall along this stretch. The crossing would connect with the triangle - so loved by the swans - on two sides. This is the first of the complications. The birds have rights too. It is not clear if these are unsurmountable.
There is another complication. Transport for London’s ongoing review of Barnes bus services has floated the idea of using the triangle as a turning circle. The proposal has met resistance. We won’t know the outcome until 2026.
One other thing.
Whether this is a signalised crossing or a side-road zebra is secondary. Bridged has consistently argued for more side-road zebras: they’re far cheaper and almost as effective. If the council can’t fund a pelican - lights, electronics and all - a side-road zebra would still deliver most of the benefits at a fraction of the cost.
As BCA have made clear, a crossing on this road is the pedestrian priority in Barnes.
This proposal is a work in progress
It be reviewed and improved on a regular basis.
This story was last updated on 03 December 2025.
You can find all the current proposals listed here.