Archived Articles January to December 2015

Green belt stars in students’ TV documentary

Jan 04, 2015 General News
Robin Bishop, with Alex Marshall (centre) and Terri-Ann Williams, looking north across the green belt
High Barnet’s much-coveted green belt is to be featured in a seven-minute television documentary being filmed…

Da Capo Concert Band

Jan 07, 2015 General News
The Da Capo Concert Band
Rehearsals have begun at the Barnet parish church of St John the Baptist for the first of this year’s…

Guns & Smoke refusal 2

Jan 12, 2015 Planning
Guns & Smoke refused planning permision
Planning vote goes against Guns & Smoke. Guns & Smoke, a new American-style bar and grill opposite Barnet…

Another round for Battle of Barnet funding

Jan 14, 2015 Barnet History
Trustees from left to right: Dennis Bird, Carla Herrman, archivist Dr Gillian Gear, co-curator, Mike Noronha
Barnet Museum is to take the lead in a fresh application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant towards the…

Work starts at last at Byng Road’s eco-centre

The Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Hugh Rayner, helps with the spadework
After years of campaigning and fund-raising, work has finally started on the construction of new headquarters…

Catering skills of Barnet students put to test

Jan 23, 2015 General News
At your service at the Tea Station from left to right, Sophie Theophanous, Sara Conway and Annie Hussain
Catering and tourism students from Barnet and Southgate College are gaining work experience at High Barnet’s…

Busting Councillor Cohen’s “myths”

Jan 26, 2015 High Street The Spires
Councillor Dean Cohen
Petition forms distributed by the Barnet Society to around 100 shops and other retail premises along the High…

Plans for Barnet golf course 2

Feb 09, 2015 Barnet History
Club members with plans (l to r) Paul Grant, project leader; Robin Loader, past chairman; and Derek Seeley
Consultations have started on proposals to redevelop part of the course of the Old Fold Manor Golf Club,…

2,500 back free parking campaign

Feb 15, 2015 High Street The Spires
Roger Aitken signing the petition at the Christmas Fair with Robin Bishop, Mary Carroll and Teresa Kelly
Almost 2,000 people visiting shops and other premises in the High Street have signed the Barnet Society’s…

Last orders at the Old Red Lion 17

Feb 19, 2015 General News
The Old Red Lion public house is to close
Another of High Barnet’s oldest public houses is to close – the Old Red Lion, at the bottom of Barnet Hill,…

Dollis Valley’s nursery school to close 6

Feb 22, 2015 Services
Mark and Wendy Oliver beside the temporary classrooms of Valley Pre-School
Valley Pre-School, a community-run nursery for children on the Dollis Valley estate, is appealing to Barnet…

Broadband battle goes on 3

Feb 23, 2015 Broadband
Broadband speeds in some areas of High Barnet are unacceptably low
Andrew Dismore, London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, has stepped in to try to badger British Telecom…

Church bells floating over Barnet

Feb 24, 2015 General News
Bell ringers at Barnet parish church take a pause after concentrating on Grandsire Triples
Sunday mornings are quite a rush for the bell ringers of High Barnet. At 9 a.m. they meet up at the Parish…

A legacy for Chipping Barnet 1

Feb 27, 2015 General News
The Hyde, Church Passage
At a time when Barnet’s library service is threatened with savage cuts, The Hyde Institute in Church Passage…

Visiting BT executive to resolve broadband speed fiasco? 3

Mar 02, 2015 Broadband
Some areas in High Barnet still suffer from appallingly slow broadband speeds
British Telecom has promised to send an executive to High Barnet in mid- March to meet the Chipping Barnet…

UK's first purpose-build co-housing starts in Barnet 6

Mar 03, 2015 Planning
Older Women’s Co-housing of Barnet celebrate the start of construction after a campaign that began in 1998
A group of feisty women, happy to be renowned for their stubbornness, gathered in Union Street, Barnet, for a…

New facilities planned for Barnet football and cricket

Mar 04, 2015 Barnet Football Club
Public access is currently denied to the former Barnet Cricket Club pavilion and its playing field at Underhill
Barnet Council is being asked to give its support to a bid to re-open Barnet Cricket Club pavilion at…

Barnet Council says no to free parking – but campaign goes on 3

Mar 13, 2015 High Street The Spires
From left to right, Jonathan Supran, secretary of the Barnet Society: Gail Laiser of Love Barnet, vice-chair of the Society; and James Freeman, managing director of the Victoria Bakery
A joint attempt by the Barnet Society and the Barnet Times to persuade Barnet Council to introduce a period…

The Old Red Lion - CAMRA steps in 5

Mar 15, 2015 General News
The Old Red Lion
Barnet Council is being urged by the Campaign for Real Ale to prevent the demolition of the Old Red Lion…

Battle of Barnet investigation go-ahead 1

Mar 24, 2015 Barnet History
The Battle of Barnet
Military archaeologists from Huddersfield University hope to start work in May surveying the possible site of…

Golf course landfill plan: questions that need answering 1

Mar 24, 2015 Planning
St Albans Road trees
A scheme to re-landscape much of the Old Fold Manor Golf Club at Hadley Common that involves felling mature…

Broadband campaigners go street-to-street 5

Mar 31, 2015 Broadband
BT engineer installing new Broadband cabinet
High Barnet residents without access to a fast broadband connection are canvassing their neighbours in the…

George V plaques

Apr 01, 2015 Barnet History
George V
Barnet Society member Sheila Durchslag has issued an alert over two missing George V plaques from the…

A six-horse race for Chipping Barnet 1

Apr 11, 2015 Election 2015
Six candidates have been nominated for the Chipping Barnet constituency in the general election on Thursday 7…

Physic well at risk? 1

Apr 13, 2015 Barnet History
Rotting timbers in Barnet’s historic well house point to years of neglect by Barnet Council
Torchlight tour of Barnet’s historic physic well but is another historic building at risk? Local residents…

Boarded-up: one sorry sight to go 3

The old nurses home
One of High Barnet’s worst eyesores, the derelict former nurses’ home opposite the Arkley public house, is to…

Old Red Lion campaign continues 1

Apr 17, 2015 General News
The Old Red Lion now closed
Barnet Council has been accused by supporters of the Campaign for Real Ale of acting in an underhand way in…

Campaign for new primary school 12

Apr 21, 2015 Services
Of seven local primary schools, Foulds was the most heavily oversubscribed
All seven primary schools in High Barnet and Underhill have again been oversubscribed, leaving 32 children…

Broadband campaigners prove their case 3

Apr 29, 2015 Broadband
Slow broadband makes life difficult for many
A street-by-street survey conducted by local residents has demonstrated overwhelming support for a campaign…

Broadband Alternative 1

May 16, 2015 Broadband
Barnet residents who cannot get high speed broadband from British Telecom have been offered an alternative…

Is the tide turning? 4

Jun 01, 2015 High Street The Spires
New eateries on the High Street, Carluccios, Patisserie Joie de Vie, Kriszta and Melange
After a run of closures over recent months, the High Street now offers several new restaurants and cafes. The…

100 new houses planned

Jun 13, 2015 Planning
Derelict flats that once provided accommodation for nurses at Barnet Hospital have been an eyesore for years
Work could start as early as January next year on High Barnet’s largest housing development since the opening…

Underhill stadium: site for new six-form-entry academy school 14

Jun 13, 2015 Planning
Pitches of the former Barnet Cricket and Hockey Club would become playing fields for the new Ark Pioneer Academy that is planned for the site of the former Underhill stadium
Barnet Football Club’s vacant stadium at Underhill is to be demolished to make way for a proposed new free…

Needing some warmth

Jun 20, 2015 High Street The Spires
Hanging baskets on the High Street
Barnet High Street is once again bedecked with flowering hanging baskets – their arrival was delayed by the…

New finds may throw light on Barnet’s history 1

Jun 22, 2015 General News
Barnet Society’s President Aubrey Rose (left) welcomes Simon Marsh, research officer of the Battlefields Trust, Theresa Villiers, MP, and Howard Simmons, also of the Trust, who is advising Barnet Museum
When work starts in October on a survey and excavation to find the site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471,…

Tie a yellow ribbon

Jun 25, 2015 General News
George Tranda beside the 100-year-old oak tree in Whitings Road which Barnet Council intend to fell
A yellow ribbon is tied around the trunk, and the words “save me” have been sprayed onto the bark of a…

Bargain hunters boost Boys’ Brigade 2

Jun 29, 2015 General News
Members of the 1st Barnet Boys’ Brigade and Girls’ Association 2014 at their 2014 annual camp at Chichester
High Barnet’s biggest and best jumble sale – that is the proud boast of the 1st Barnet Boys’ Brigade and…

The Battle of Barnet Project 2

Jun 30, 2015 Barnet History
Re-enactment of medieval battlefield scenes by the Milady De Mowbray re-enactment group
A re-enactment of scenes from a medieval battlefield was the highlight of the official launch of the Battle…

Town and Country free-for-all 1

Jul 01, 2015 Planning
The barns at Brent Lodge Farm
You’d think that planning controls in the Green Belt and Conservation Areas would be stricter than elsewhere.…

Old Fold Manor Golf Club proposed landscaping works

Jul 08, 2015 Planning
The Poplar trees to be felled on St Albans Road
The Club’s application for major re-landscaping has been submitted to the planners. The Barnet Society is…

Green roof for countryside headquarters

Jul 09, 2015 General News
Barnet's new countryside headquarters green roof
A living roof planted with sedum is one of the eco-friendly features of the new Barnet Environment Centre,…

Union Street residents annoyed 5

Jul 09, 2015 General News
Work is well underway on 25 new flats for older women in Union Street
Two new housing developments are changing still further the appearance of Union Street in High Barnet, which…

£7 million upgrade for the Spires 5

Jul 27, 2015 High Street The Spires
The Spires is to have a £7 million upgrade
A Canadian investment fund is the new owner of the Spires shopping centre in High Barnet, having paid £40…

Broadband - will Virgin Media step in? 3

Jul 29, 2015 Broadband
Will Virgin Media step in?
After endless delays and broken promises by British Telecom, High Barnet residents without high-speed…

Homes to replace High Street shops 2

Aug 05, 2015 High Street The Spires
After Office Hours to be demolished stands next to The Bull
Two High Street premises will be extended to include flats if planning permission can be obtained from Barnet…

Ancient oak tree might be spared 2

Aug 05, 2015 Planning
Whittings Road Oak tree
A campaign to save what has been dubbed the “mighty oak” of Whitings Road has made significant progress.

Demolition could reveal medieval market 1

Aug 21, 2015 High Street The Spires
Barnet Market circa 1800
If permission is granted to demolish the empty After Office Hours bar next to the Bull Theatre, the Barnet…

Queen Elizabeth's Girls’ School

Aug 28, 2015 Barnet History
Queen Elizabeth's Girls’ School
Queen Elizabeth I’s charter of 1573 provided for ‘boys and youth’, but it was not until 1888 that Barnet got…

Barnet’s hanging baskets

Sep 01, 2015 High Street The Spires
Hanging baskets are not supported by Barnet Council
Barnet High Street has been bedecked once again with flowering hanging baskets. But please do not be fooled…

Barnet to match Tewkesbury’s banners? 1

Sep 01, 2015 Barnet History
Banners similar to those displayed in Tewkesbury could be seen on Barnet's High Street
Decorating the High Street with the banners of medieval noblemen might be one of the ways to celebrate the…

British Telecom to upgrade broadband 15

Sep 03, 2015 Broadband
Mrs Villiers said the upgrading of six of the nine cabinets identified by Barnet Society was an important step
After months of campaigning by the Barnet Society, British Telecom have finally given an assurance that it…

Barnet Market’s longest-running stall 1

Sep 03, 2015 Barnet Market
“Pineapples, two for a pound!” – father and son David and Tyler Bone have both been shouting out prices for…

Parking Wars 1

Sep 10, 2015 High Street The Spires
Parking Wars on ITV
The Barnet Society's campaign for a 30 minute free parking period in the High Street is featured in the…

Oak tree reprieved

Sep 22, 2015 Planning
The reprieved oak tree
After a determined campaign by local residents the “mighty oak” of Whitings Road has been saved from the axe.

High Barnet cottage industries to go 6

Sep 23, 2015 High Street The Spires
Brake Shear House
Almost 30 small businesses and workshops with premises on land behind Barnet High Street may have to relocate…

Fibre4Barnet seeks support 1

Sep 29, 2015 Broadband
Ken Rowland, Fibre4Barnet campaigner, beside BT cabinets excluded from the latest promised upgrade
Fibre4Barnet, the pressure group set up by Ken Rowland to try to force British Telecom to complete the…

Battle of Barnet metal detecting starts

Sep 29, 2015 Barnet History
Dr Glenn Foard, Huddersfield University’s celebrated military archaeologist
A training weekend for local metal dectorists in a freshly ploughed field off Kitts End Lane has kicked off…

Death of historian who championed Barnet Museum 7

Sep 30, 2015 General News
The late Dr Gillian Gear
Dr Gillian Gear, who fought a heroic battle to save and maintain Barnet Museum when Barnet Council withdrew…

Smartphone app for Barnet Ramblers 2

Oct 02, 2015 Rambles
Rambles Round Barnet
Walkers who have enjoyed following the popular trails featured in the Barnet Society’s Rambles Round Barnet…

North London Waste Plan

Oct 05, 2015 Services
Some six or seven years ago the Barnet Society was solidly involved in the early public discussion and…

New future for abandoned Meadway woodland

Lesley Graham with rubbish removed from neglected woodland
Teachers, parents and volunteers are hard at work trying to convert an area of neglected woodland into an…

Showcase reopens 1

room 89 open for business
Number 89, the community-run pop-up shop selling local arts and crafts that was in the High Street until a…

Dairy maid reappears 1

Oct 12, 2015 Barnet History
Dairy maid painted on wall tiles discovered recently decades after they were last seen
A set of painted wall tiles revealed during building work at 89 High Street Barnet depict a dairy maid…

Barnet jugs found in Formby

Oct 18, 2015 Barnet History
One of the two Victorian measuring jugs
Two Victorian measuring jugs from a former public house in High Barnet have turned up mysteriously in the…

Housing to replace dilapidated buildings 4

The former British Legion hall with Checkalow Tiles in the background
The purchase by a property company of Barnet’s former British Legion hall at the corner of Moxon Street and…

Challenging time for new head of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School

Oct 18, 2015 Services
Violet Walker, head teacher, with pictures from her time as a pupil in the 1970s
Violet Walker, the new head teacher at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, has every justification for her…

Fight to keep White Lion 1

Oct 28, 2015 General News
The White Lion, St Alban's Road
Renewed uncertainty about the future of the White Lion on St Albans Road has led to a successful bid to…

Hadley Green oak tree for former MP

Oct 28, 2015 General News
From left to right: Christine Bateson (sister), Jenny Chapman, David Chapman (son), Laura Woods (daughter), Andy Woods and Claire Chapman
An oak tree in memory of the former Chipping Barnet MP Sir Sydney Chapman has been planted on Hadley Green,…

Barnet Society wins parking review 5

Oct 28, 2015 High Street The Spires
Getting on his high horse: Nick Jones, Barnet Society Chair, arguing for free parking on ITV’s Parking Wars
Barnet Council has finally agreed to review its parking charges along Barnet High Street following a campaign…

Painted tiles depicting dairy maid date from 1910

Nov 01, 2015 Barnet History
Ozgur Titizoglu and Barnet’s long-lost dairy maid
When workmen removed the last wooden panels covering up tiling on the walls of 89 High Street, Barnet, they…

Rambles round Barnet booklet and geotourist.com updates

Nov 02, 2015 Rambles
The photograph shows the trees on 16th February 2016
Correction: ‘Rambles’ Vol. 2 Walk 5 (ii) Paragraph 5. The additional information in italics refers to ‘..an…

Battle of Barnet coins found

Nov 12, 2015 Barnet History
Mrs Katy Rawlings cleans an Elizabethan silver sixpence unearthed on farmland off Kitts End Lane
A medieval silver farthing that might have been in use at the time of the Battle of Barnet of 1471 is the…

Barnet Fayre 2015

Nov 13, 2015 General News
Over 100 stalls will line the High Street and the courtyard outside Barnet College for the annual Barnet…

Rambles Round Barnet Updates Nov 2015

Nov 15, 2015 Rambles
Lime Grove Footpath Reopened

Gated housing planned off High Street 10

Nov 16, 2015 Planning
Barnet Society’s planning and environment chair, Robin Bishop, inspects Wrenbridge’s plans for new houses and offices on the Brake Shear House site. From left to right: Markus Geiger, Barnet Society; Jessica Stewart, Wrenbridge public relations; Robin Bishop; Jeff Wilson, director, Wrenbridge; J-J Lorraine, architect
Plans for a five-storey block of flats and a three-storey office block are the main features of an extensive…

New super fast broadband for Barnet?

Nov 17, 2015 Broadband
Superfast broadband for Barnet
A possible scheme to deliver superfast broadband to High Barnet via a wireless network was greeted…

A Barnet business start up that changed the world 1

Nov 20, 2015 Barnet History
Clovelly Cottage. A commemorative plaque was fixed to the right of the door, but now only the mounts remain
It is not well enough known that British cinema was born in Chipping Barnet 120 years ago. Moving images were…

Whalebones Park to go for houses? 39

Nov 20, 2015 Planning
Whalebones Park stretches westwards for 14 acres from the junction of Wood Street and Wellhouse Lane
Whalebones Park, a 14-acre stretch of fields and woods between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street, is about to…

20 years old and growing fast

Nov 30, 2015 General News
Whitings Hill
Twenty years ago this December, the first of two tree plantations was inaugurated at Whitings Hill to…

Whalebones trustees reassurance 9

Dec 01, 2015 Planning
Peter Mason 79, with his poultry flock, has been farming at Whalebones for the last 50 years
Trustees for the Gwyneth Cowing estate have given an assurance to the Barnet Society that any development of…

Barnet Museum plans rejected 1

Dec 04, 2015 Planning
The Barnet Museum, Wood Street
Volunteers at Barnet Museum say they are shocked and dismayed that after months of discussion Barnet…

Mayor of Barnet praises Museum

Dec 07, 2015 General News
Jade Andrews (15), and Rashaan Shahe (14) led the procession from the Bull Theatre
Barnet Museum – and its role in leading the Battle of Barnet project – was singled out for praise by the…

MP willing to confront bulldozers 1

Dec 08, 2015 Planning
An aerial view of the woods and farmland around Whalebones Park
Responding to fears about the possible zoning for housing of the woods and fields around Whalebones Park, the…

Spires £7 million upgrade 9

Dec 12, 2015 High Street The Spires
Gail Laser of Love Barnet is shown the plans by James Winpenny, Hunter Real Estate
A two-storey, 24,000-square-foot new fashion store – replacing four existing shop units – will become the…

Concert rounds off 2015 at QE Girls

Dec 18, 2015 General News
Music teacher Paul Nathan conducing QE Girls’ school orchestra and choir
A seasonal concert that drew on the great range of musical talents at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School,…