Barnes Common

Barnes Common
Broom on Barnes Common
Type	Common land
Location	Barnes, London
Area	49.55 hectares (122.4 acres)
Open	All year
Status	Local Nature Reserve

The Friends of Barnes Common

Legal status	Not-for-profit membership organisation
Headquarters	Barnes Common, Barnes, London SW13 0HT
Main organ	On the Common (newsletter)
Affiliations	affiliated to Barnes Community Association and associated with the South West London Environment Network
Staff	none
Website	barnescommon.org.uk

Barnes Common is common land in the south east of Barnes, London, England, adjoining Putney Lower Common to the east and bounded to the south by the Upper Richmond Road. Along with Barnes Green, it is one of the largest areas of common land in London with 49.55 hectares (122.4 acres) of protected commons. It is also a Local Nature Reserve. Its facilities include a full-size football pitch and a nature trail.

The Common is made up of mixed broadleaf woodland, scrubland and acid grassland and is generally flat. It is owned by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral, acting through the Church Commissioners, and managed by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, advised and assisted by the Friends of Barnes Common.

Barnes railway station is on the edge of Barnes Common. The Common is also served by London Buses routes 33, 72, 265 and 485.

On Wednesday, 11 August 1736, Barnes Common was the venue for an important cricket match between Surrey and London, which Surrey won by 19 runs. The match report in the Whitehall Evening Post on Saturday, 14 August, refers to Surrey as "Barnes, Fulham and Richmond". It goes on to say that the return on Tuesday, 17 August would be played in the fields behind Powis House (i.e., Lamb's Conduit Field; London won by 86 runs). It extends the hope that "the company will keep a good ring which was very much wanted at Barnes Common". This is the only time that a reference to the common is found in surviving cricket records.