This is the story of two competing ideas.
I want to live my life to the full. Great feasts, magical places and memorable experiences.
I also want to respond seriously to human-influenced climate change.
How do I manage the tension that sits between? Can I live well and responsibly in the world’s greatest city? Can I enjoy this stage of life without pretending the climate emergency is happening somewhere else, to someone else, later?
The search for answers starts with a Bridge.
In April 2019, Hammersmith Bridge was closed to all vehicles, leaving the crossing for those walking, wheeling and cycling.
For Barnes, the effect was immediate. More than 20,000 cars, vans and lorries had been using the Bridge each day. Bus passengers were disrupted too. There was, understandably, a local furore.
Pretty much everyone I spoke to wanted the Bridged re-opened as soon as possible.
I was not so sure.
A few years earlier I had started a new role in which one of my teams was researching the relationship between media technology and climate change. Their work had sparked something.
By 2019, I knew enough to understand that transport — and private car use in particular — was a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. If a major disruption made us think again about car ownership and car use, then perhaps we should not rush into simply reversing it.
Don’t sit this one out
My view was also influenced by a more personal change. I had recently bought an e-bike. It was a pragmatic decision. I lived in Barnes and worked in Shepherd’s Bush. The fastest way to work was by bike. Increasingly, the car sat unused, parked on the road near home.
Then came Covid. Then the continuing failure of national, regional and local politicians to agree how to fund the return of motor vehicles to Hammersmith Bridge.
My own life had changed again.
I took a career break. Within a year, that became early retirement. I am fortunate. I have the means, time and health to enjoy this phase of life. I explored, and still explore, a recent interest in early twentieth-century art. I started helping on an allotment. I offered pro-bono career coaching to twenty-somethings. I travelled.
And yet, nagging away, was the same question: how should I live well, and responsibly?
Over the previous ten years I had changed parts of my lifestyle. Less red meat. Trains not planes to Europe. Hundreds of miles a month on my e-bike.
But that quote from Carl Sagan seemed to follow me around. I would read, hear or see it regularly.
Don’t sit this one out.
I realised I wanted to do more.
The next phase
The answer, when it came, was the one I had spent a long time resisting. I should respond in the way most true to me: as a storyteller.
At first, that felt like a rejection of retirement. It was not. Becoming a sole content creator in fields where I was more curious than qualified - urbanism, transport, climate, place - turned out to be another new life experience, one unlike anything I had done before.
That said, 40 years public service experience in local journalism, digital technology, innovation and rising climate awareness provided a useful foundation for this next stage in my life.
The project began in earnest in October 2024, with paper exercises and rough thinking. A minimum viable product followed in January 2025. After 100 days, I decided to commit for a full year. In March 2026, I committed to another two.
Barnes2050
Barnes in south-west London has been my home for more than twenty years, and it is now the focus of my latest project: Barnes2050.
This is a futures project, looking towards 2050. It explores how Barnes — place and people — might thrive in a climate-ready future.
The project began with this online journal, barnes2050.com, because writing helps me think clearly, and publishing keeps me honest.
I plan to grow Barnes2050 but slowly. Deliberately. For now, it’s a place to think things through, learn in public, and see where ideas go. A workshop, not a platform. That will change.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you’ll take what follows in the spirit in which it is offered.
My name is Andy Conroy.
I live in south west London and have a lifelong commitment to the public realm.
I am an amateur writer and an aspiring place-maker and environmentalist-in-progress.
I care deeply about these issues and my city.
I am trying to age with mischief, grace, and a lighter footprint.
if this is your first visit, then why not start with the emerging thinking about a future Barnes in 2050 or with the latest insight.
