We Brits are a hardy bunch – a little rain isn’t going to stop us enjoying ourselves!
There was a bewildering choice of local fairs today – in the past I had attended St Margaret’s Fair which is just down the road in Twickenham and some colleagues were planning to go to the Hampton Hill Fair. But my friend said that she had been to the Barnes Fair for the last three years and that it really was her favourite – with lots of really good quality stalls placed all around the periphery of the picturesque village pond in the middle of the green.
So we drove to Barnes and found a parking place on Ashleigh Road and walked along to the level crossing and onto White Heart Lane. There’s a number of nice shops here and several bars, cafes and restaurants which we browsed as we walked along.
We reached The White Heart pub (Young’s) which is on a magnificent corner location with fabulous views of the river from a variety of outside areas at different levels. On the lowest level there are picnic tables which are practically on the waters’ edge. We strolled along the pavement admiring the river scenery and taking in the plaques showing the different kinds of water birds that we should be trying to spot.
Under Barnes Bridge and along the narrow pathway was jammed with people going to and from the fair. I couldn’t work out if there were more buggies than puddles! Barnes High Street offers a variety of independent boutiques and shops (the cheese shop is incredible) as well as some of the more commonly seen chains such as Pizza Express.
We spent a short while in the regular Saturday food market inspecting the fresh fish, crabs and samphire, the market garden fruit and vegetables and the delicatessen items from Italy and France. Then we crossed the road and joined the crowds of people who had come along to enjoy the fair – with an Olympic theme this year.
We hardly knew where to start – there were stalls and people and dogs everywhere! The grass was a sea of mud so we tried to stick to the paved areas – navigating those buggies, small people and all those umbrellas. The skies opened – with monsoon force – but everyone just carried on regardless.
There were food stalls, jewellery stalls, wooden and pottery goods, scarves (love the brightly coloured zebra designs), handbags, chutney (my friend was delighted to finally get her hands on some Indian carrot chutney), garden ornaments, plants, vintage clothes (I SO wanted a brightly coloured Cartier scarf), charity and local school stalls, fish, health and massage booths, dog biscuits and dog collars, stuffed and carved toys and so on. There were hundreds of them – sprawling into the field behind the pond as well as all around it.
There were some jazz musicians playing some jolly tunes. Then we reached a helter skelter with kids queuing up with their mats completely oblivious to the rain. I was so muddy that my blue trousers had turned brown! There were the dazzling lights of a magnificent carousel – with hundreds of parents holding children with smiling faces full of anticipation. There’s something about that organ music that just takes you right back to your own childhood…
We admired the goods on more stalls – and the stoic cheerfulness of the stall holders who remained entirely unfazed by the unseasonal weather. That’s the spirit! There were teens around the Air Cadets tent – looking mighty fine in their greens. And we urged the guys to row faster in one of the health/gym tents.
We stopped by one of the many authentic Italian coffee vans to get some hot cappuccinos to warm our hands and my friend showed incredible willpower by passing up all of the many cupcake offerings to take a more wholesome melon option instead.
There were hundreds of people out there in the rain with us. And whilst it would have been lovely if the sun had come out, we enjoyed it immensely nonetheless. And as we finally left to return home after admiring a perfectly still heron, we passed a large cordoned-off area of bright wild flowers – in blues, reds, white and yellow – so this is where our summer is hiding!
http://www.barnesfair.com/
