Before Selfies is the title of a collection of photographs taken during the lifetime of Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s oldest and most famous trade union leader.
Continue reading “What’s a selfie?” – asked Fred, 94, next birthday
An attempt to set a new world record for endurance in performing press ups is to be the highlight of a fun day at the Spires shopping centre in Barnet, which is being organised to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and Noah’s Ark Hospice.
The coat of arms of Henry VI is the latest to be painted as part of the Battle of Barnet Project – and it is one of 30 heraldic banners that it is hoped will be hung along the High Street to celebrate Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses.
Barnet Borough Council is back firmly under Conservative control after the Labour Party failed to make its much-anticipated breakthrough and ended up losing five seats in the council elections.
Continue reading Conservatives sweep back to power in Barnet
A computer-generated image shows the proposed Premier Inn hotel and restaurant to be built on the site of Barnet Market, at the junction of St Albans Road and Chipping Close.
Footfall in the Spires shopping centre is up by over 50 per cent in the first three months of this year – just one of the statistics the management are quoting to squash rumours that two leading tenants, the H&M fashion store and Carluccio’s restaurant, are thinking of pulling out.
A ceremony was held at the construction site of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet, to mark the topping out of an atrium designed as a welcoming focal point for children and families.
Nearby residents have been given an assurance that the design of the new Premier Inn planned for the historic site of Barnet Market will respect the local conservation area and will be in keeping with terraced houses across the road in Chipping Close.
Scenes from the battles of St Albans (1461) and Barnet (1471) – two of the engagements in the Wars of the Roses – are to be re-created as part of the Barnet Medieval Festival to be held over the weekend of June 9 and 10 at the Byng Road playing fields.
Continue reading Re-living the Battles of St Albans and Barnet
Buildings around the iconic headquarters of the former National Institute for Medical Research on the Ridgeway, at Mill Hill, are being demolished to make way for a new 460-home development by Barratt London.
If planning approval is given, a Premier Inn hotel and restaurant is to be built on the historic St Albans Road site of Barnet’s much reduced stalls market.
A bumper crowd of well-wishers and Easter Saturday shoppers turned out for the opening of the first Barnet Teenage Market.
Hands-on experience in a great variety of trades, sports and occupations was all part of a careers day organised at the Pavilion School, in Chandos Avenue,Whetstone, which provides support and education for Barnet children who are outside mainstream education.
Continue reading Opportunities for Barnet’s challenged youngsters
Cromer Road Primary School’s swimming pool – where countless hundreds of Barnet children have learned to swim over almost half a century – is in desperate need of repairs, improvements and a new roof.
Replica copies of four of the heraldic banners of the dukes, earls and knights who fought in the 1471 Battle of Barnet are now on display in the Spires shopping centre.
Fred Howett, a long-standing member of the Barnet Guild of Artists, who helped to organise regular and numerous local exhibitions of members’ art work, has died at the age of 74.
Continue reading Death of popular organiser of Barnet art exhibitions
A new masterplan for the future redevelopment of the Barnet Hospital site is in preparation and it does include proposals for a new multi-storey car park.
Fund raisers from across north and central London laid foundation bricks at a ceremony at the construction site in Byng Road, Barnet, for the new Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, due to open in the spring of next year.
Continue reading Foundation bricks laid at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
A double-brush Hertfordshire hedge – re-laid in a way passed on by a Romany gipsy who lived at Welham Green – is the latest addition to the Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road.
Keeping the High Street in High Barnet spick and span gives veteran road sweeper Douglas Shrubb so much satisfaction that he has opted to continue working rather than take retirement.
Over the last 18 months, Sadiq Khan has been consulting Londoners about aspects of a new London Plan. It sets a framework for local plans across London.
Unless Barnet produces more detailed plans or policies for Chipping Barnet, therefore, all developers need to do to get planning permission is to show that their proposal meets the London Plan – which is mainly a set of aspirations rather than specific design requirements.
Forcing Barnet Hospital to build an upper deck over its car park is one option that should be considered by Barnet Council in an attempt to relieve excessive parking in nearby roads.
Continue reading Why no upper deck for Barnet Hospital car park?
A deep, sometimes noisy divide opened up at the Barnet Society’s election hustings over a wide range of contentious local issues including the need for affordable housing, concern over an increasing number of empty homes, the outsourcing of services to Capita and the demand for free town centre parking.
Continue reading Council election candidates go head to head
A campaign has been launched to restore to full use Hadley Green’s historic water fountain, an ornate structure built of pink marble, and once resplendent with a set of brass drinking cups.
Years of uncertainty about the ownership of Barnet Museum and the future of Barnet’s historic physic well have both been successfully resolved after sustained efforts by volunteers and well-wishers.
Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet, played its part in the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Representation of People Act giving women the right to vote.
Sitting right in the middle of a typical Barnet street of Edwardian homes is an eye-catching 1960s modern house that is still lived in by the architect who had to fight long and hard against town planners reluctant to give their approval.
High Barnet’s most prominent “ghost advertisement” – high up on a side wall in the High Street – is creating quite a flurry of interest and might well be up for listing as being of historical interest.
Leading Barnet councillors and candidates will be lining up to answer residents’ questions at the Barnet Society’s Open Forum on Thursday 22 February.
Almost five years since Barnet Football Club played its last game at Underhill, its stadium off Barnet Lane is finally being demolished to make way for a 1,200-place Ark Academy secondary school.
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NEW: Protest rally
NEW: Protest rally
NEW: From toy shop to post office - the latest from Barnet High Street
NEW: Community groups fight back against plans for high rise flats by High Barnet station
rob posted a comment on Transport for London bans flats protest rally outside High Barnet station – but across the road residents launch their “New Battle of Barnet”
Thoughtful Resident posted a comment on Transport for London bans flats protest rally outside High Barnet station – but across the road residents launch their “New Battle of Barnet”
McDonald Rob posted a comment on Transport for London bans flats protest rally outside High Barnet station – but across the road residents launch their “New Battle of Barnet”
John D posted a comment on Transport for London bans flats protest rally outside High Barnet station – but across the road residents launch their “New Battle of Barnet”