Two Chapters in England
The England posts on this blog come in two distinct chapters. The first is Barnes and southwest London from 1999 to 2002 — before the blog existed, written retrospectively during COVID using Sharon’s Creative Memories albums and whatever the internet could fill in. The second is Surry and Richmond from early 2016 to July 2017, when I was on a work assignment based out of an office in Shepperton. Additionally, I have had several layovers and we try to visit Barnes each time. England is the country I have lived in longest outside the United States.
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Barnes, 1999–2002
We moved to Barnes in southwest London in 1999 with babies and 26 checked pieces of luggage, which is a different proposition from arriving as a single adult with a carry-on. Barnes is a small, prosperous suburb on a peninsula of the Thames — the river wraps around three sides of it — about four miles southwest of central London. It is the kind of place where nothing much changes, which I mean entirely as a compliment. Our rental townhouse was on a quiet street about four houses from the Olympic Studios, where the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and U2 had all recorded. They had, of course, finished recording there before we moved in. The high street has a good pub, a pond, a church, and a weekend market. Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC, is a short walk away. The Barnes Terrace along the river is one of the nicest stretches of residential riverside in London. We took the girls to the playground by the river and bought ice cream at Loo Loo’s cafe. The Red Lion pub had what I can only describe as the most dangerous playground in the world attached to its garden, which tells you something about the era.
Returning to Barnes — 2023 & 2025
In 2023 I had a couple of hours to kill on a Friday night layover before a flight back to the US and went to Barnes. It was like travelling back in time — not much had changed. My last visit had been in 2017. I walked the Hammersmith side of the river first — there is not a better spot on a sunny Friday evening in London — then crossed the bridge into Barnes on foot. The high street looked the same. Our old townhouse had been renovated, finally, and is now worth about $3 million. We were renters. Loo Loo’s cafe was still there by the playground. The Red Lion had been upgraded. The Sun Inn was closed for refurbishment. The creepy church by the pond was exactly as creepy as before. Olympic Studios is still there. Barnes is the kind of place that absorbs time rather than showing it, and I mean that as the highest compliment I can give a neighbourhood.
In 2025, we made it back for Christmas and made it over to Barnes (after dark since it gets dark at 3:30pm in December). I was working while Sharon and Annelise toured with friends and got to see London at Christmas time.
Shepperton and Richmond 2016–2017
The second England chapter is the 2016 to 2017 work assignment, based near Heathrow spliting my time between an Holiday Inn in Shepperton and a flat in Richmond. This is was there for over a year and my primary off-day activity was cycling along the Thames. I covered most of the riverside path from Westminster to the M25 across several rides — from the redevelopment at Chelsea and Battersea Power Station, through Wandsworth and Putney, past Hampton Court Palace from the river, through Shepperton and past a local Aston Martin dealership that I chose to read as a sign about the neighbourhood’s general standards. There are pubs located approximately every couple of hundred yards along the Thames Path and I approached this as a feature rather than a problem. On one 40-mile ride I came across a beer festival at the 15-mile mark and somehow got distracted.
The Putney social life revolved significantly around the Half Moon — a famous local music venue two blocks from Loo’s Loos cafe where we took the girls to the playground that has hosted everyone from the Rolling Stones to Springsteen in its time. I saw several shows there. When Annelise couldn’t find a better social option she would come too, which tells you something about the calibre of the booking. Sharon came over regularly on UK bank holidays — the flight from the east coast is only about 90 minutes longer than DC to LA, which makes spontaneous weekends viable — and we used those trips to wander. On one bank holiday we ended up walking from Portobello Road to Little Venice and stumbled into a boat parade on the canals. On another, in Barnes, we tried to crash a Rolling Stones tribute band show that was sold out. No cash, ATM card frozen, no ticket. We tried option C — act like you know what you are doing — and it almost worked. They felt sorry for us and we eventually made it in, but in my old age it took two songs to get sorted. The band played the hits and also their personal lesser-known favourites, so every third song no one had heard.
Day Trips — Corfe Castle, Isle of Wight, the English Riviera
The England posts are full of good day trips and weekend escapes that demonstrate how much there is within two hours of London if you bother to go. Corfe Castle in Dorset is a thousand-year-old ruin on a hill that happens to be the venue for a May Bank Holiday Vikings versus Saxons battle re-enactment if you show up on the right weekend. We did. Both sides were fervent hobbyists who played their parts with complete seriousness. The Vikings still lost, as historically instructed. We then drove to the coast for some hiking on the cliffs — cut short by wind and rain, which required digging out the orange Oklahoma State sweatshirt from the car boot. The English Riviera — Torquay, Paignton, Brixham — is a genuine surprise. The coastline is more Mediterranean than English, the fish and chips are outstanding, and the whole area moves at a pace that feels genuinely removed from London. The Isle of Wight is a ferry ride from Portsmouth and worth the trip — Victorian seaside architecture, good walking, and the sense of having actually left the mainland. The English seaside on a good day is something special.
U2 at Twickenham — The Best Concert I Have Ever Been To
About six months before the end of the assignment I got a pre-sale announcement from the U2 fan club — summer tour, coming to a stadium about a mile from where I was staying. And Noel Gallagher was opening. Two of my three favourite bands in one spot. I bought four tickets immediately, unsure if I would even still be in the country, and put the word out. People ended up flying in from India and Spain. Annelise joined as number five when we realised it was her transition weekend at school and she needed somewhere to stay anyway. We sorted an AirBnB in Richmond — walking distance — and the logistics looked perfect. Two AirBnB screw-ups, Wimbledon weekend, Pride festival, and a large concurrent concert at Hyde Park later, getting to the stadium was considerably harder than planned. A disabled access van driver offered us a lift while we were walking very slowly in the wrong direction. We took it. As for the concert itself: Noel sang acoustic Oasis — looked like it wasn’t his life’s dream to open for U2 — then U2 played the best concert I have ever been to, and then Noel came back out for the encore and 80,000 people sang “Don’t Look Back in Anger” together. It was the loudest singalong of the night. Hard to follow U2 and he did it.
Leaving England — Week 184
I left the UK at the end of July 2017 and went back to the USA after completing the assignment. A much different experience from when we moved to London in 1999 — that time we were all in, with babies and 26 checked bags and no plan B. This time was more like an extended visit with a return address already sorted. The assignment was good. The Thames bike rides were excellent. The Half Moon was excellent. The bank holiday weekends were excellent. England is not a country that surprises you — you go in knowing broadly what to expect — but it consistently delivers more than it promises if you get out of London and into the countryside, or if you just slow down in a neighbourhood you actually live in rather than sightseeing. Barnes in 1999 and Richmond in 2016 both gave me that. I get over to London a couple of times a year and hopefully I’ll get future opportunities.
JC Travels · my-jc.blog · England · Barnes 1999–2002 · Richmond 2016–2017 · Weeks 106–184
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