A Saturday in Barnes: the market, the pond and lunch

A Saturday in Barnes has an anchor and a deadline. The anchor is the Farmers' Market on Station Road, opposite the pond. The deadline is two o'clock, when it packs up. The pond, the Green, the towpath and lunch all arrange themselves around that.

This is the route we would walk, in order. It is not a checklist to complete in one morning. The honest version is the market, the pond and one stop, and which stop you choose decides how far you walk.

Barnes Farmers' Market — Essex House Surgery, Station Road

Every Saturday, 8.30am to 2pm, "come rain or shine", in the surgery car park directly opposite the duck pond. Start here. The two o'clock finish is the only fixed point on this route, so if the stalls are the reason you came, come for the morning rather than after a lie-in.

Barnes Pond and the Green

Cross the road from the market and look at the pond properly, but know what you are looking at first. An avian botulism outbreak in July killed the resident swan family, and Richmond Council then funded a carp cull. This autumn a visitor sees a pond recovering rather than the usual swan-and-duck scene. A first-timer should be told that before they arrive with a bag of birdseed and expectations.

The edge of the Green has changed in a less visible way too. Since 15 August, Transport for London's route 209 has run two-way through Castelnau and now turns round at the pond, part of the permanent rewrite of the bus map around Hammersmith Bridge that also withdrew the 533.

The Sun Inn — 7 Church Road

A few minutes round from the market, facing the Green and the water. It is a Mitchells & Butlers pub and it faces the pond, which on a Saturday is the whole point of it: this is the stop for people who want to sit down within sight of where they have just been rather than walk any further. It was in our Barnes pub guide this week.

Orange Pekoe — 3 White Hart Lane

Open 8.30am to 5pm at weekends, with the kitchen serving 9am to 3pm. Near Barnes Bridge station, at the river end of White Hart Lane, which makes it the natural stop on the walk back from the towpath — or the anchor for a quieter Saturday that skips the market altogether. It is a tea house first, and it was in our Barnes coffee guide.

Rick Stein Barnes — Tideway Yard, 125 Mortlake High Street

The longer option, west along the river towards Mortlake. This is the choice when the walk is the point rather than a quick pint, and it is a restaurant to book rather than turn up at. Tideway Yard is quietly becoming a destination of its own rather than a single restaurant's address.

Getting here and away

The 209 now turns round at Barnes Pond, which means the bus stops where the market is. Barnes Bridge station sits at the bottom of White Hart Lane, a short walk from Orange Pekoe and the towpath.

How to choose

If you have three hours: market, pond, the Sun Inn. If you would rather walk than sit: market, pond, towpath west towards Mortlake, and book Rick Stein before you set off. If you have missed two o'clock entirely: White Hart Lane, Orange Pekoe, the river.

Details checked 13 September 2026. The route holds up in any weather; the open question is the pond itself, and whether next summer brings back the birds that made it the reason people cross the road.