Support for Barnet Market’s annual classic car show has proved so strong that it has become a showcase event for the increasingly-popular Barnet Classic Car Club.
Classic cars never lose their appeal
Author: Nick Jones
Insight into lost hamlet of Kitts End
Fragments of pottery and tiles found during an excavation of land within Wrotham Park has confirmed that the hamlet of Kitts End did exist during the 1471 Battle of Barnet – and that in fact there was probably habitation there as early as the 11th century.
Spires upgrade a Brexit casualty?
An announcement that had been expected in early June about a go-ahead for the Spires shopping centre redevelopment has still not materialised, and there is still no date when work might start.
Barnet Society criticisms of Ark Pioneer Academy
While we welcome educational use of the site, particularly if coupled with community access to the Academy’s indoor and outdoor sports and other facilities, the current proposal for 1,890 pupils plus 150 or so staff would be an over development.
Continue reading Barnet Society criticisms of Ark Pioneer Academy
Parking wars returns
High Barnet’s notoriety as a hot spot for parking fines is to be featured yet again on national television. Footage for a new series of Dom on the Spot was filmed in the High Street highlighting Barnet Council’s refusal to even consider a short period of free parking in order to help local traders.
Ark say extra school places needed
Planners and consultants representing the proposed Ark Pioneer Academy to be built on the site of the former Barnet Football Club stadium at Underhill, insist that a new school for almost 2,000 pupils is needed for the northern part of the Borough of Barnet.
A misty Easter Sunday morning, just north of Barnet
A print of Graham Turner’s celebrated painting of a young Richard III looking apprehensively across towards the Lancastrian army at the 1471 Battle of Barnet, is to go on display at Barnet Museum to help promote the current archaeological survey to determine the precise site of the battlefield.
Continue reading A misty Easter Sunday morning, just north of Barnet
Elmbank development: a challenge
Building houses and apartment blocks along a narrow, sloping 3.9-acre site, where the land falls sharply by 15 metres, is not a “builder’s dream” says Linden Home’s construction director Shawn Moore.
New plans for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
A radical redesign has been unveiled of the proposed new Noah’s Ark children’s hospice to be built at the environment centre off Byng Road, Barnet.
Continue reading New plans for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
Still no news on major fashion store for Spires
A final go-ahead for construction work on a £7 million upgrade for the Spires shopping centre continues to depend on signing up an “international fashion brand”.
Continue reading Still no news on major fashion store for Spires
High Barnet’s CPZ to double in size?
Residents are being consulted about the possibility of a massive extension to High Barnet’s controlled parking zone to cope with uncontrolled off-street car parking and traffic congestion following recent expansion at Barnet Hospital.
Russian spy’s poisoning and Barnet Hospital
The tenth anniversary of the poisoning with radioactive polonium of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko brings back memories for an ex-Barnet journalist who reported on the role of Barnet Hospital in the story surrounding one of London’s most alarming assassinations.
Continue reading Russian spy’s poisoning and Barnet Hospital
A new nature reserve for Barnet?
A 50-acre green space, open to the public from dawn to dusk, would be one of the suggested benefits of the proposal to establish a natural burial ground on farmland behind Barnet Road and Barnet Gate Lane, Arkley.
Appeal for amateur footballers
A football team for former East Barnet grammar school boys that has expanded over the last sixty years to become a community-based amateur football club, has been celebrating the performance of its top players.
Staggered start times at massive new school
The Ark Academy network says it intends to work with planners at Barnet Council to try to meet local anxieties over proposals for a super-size, £31 million new school to be built on the site of Underhill, the former stadium of Barnet Football Club.
Continue reading Staggered start times at massive new school
Arkley farmland – a site for natural burials?
An environmentally-friendly natural burial ground might be developed on farmland backing on to Barnet Gate Lane, Arkley, and Mays Lane, if there is local support, and planning permission can be obtained.
Continue reading Arkley farmland – a site for natural burials?
Was Kitts End closest to the Battle of Barnet?
A survey to assess the size and shape of the lost hamlet of Kitts End could assist the ongoing archaeological investigation to determine the precise site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471.
Continue reading Was Kitts End closest to the Battle of Barnet?
Critical times for building in Barnet
The combination of planning relaxations, housing demand, property prices and uncertainty as to Council intentions makes this a critical time for building in Chipping Barnet.
New academy school plans on display
After a year’s delay, and a dearth of information, public exhibitions are finally being arranged to allow public consultation over the proposals to build a new free school with over 1,800 places on the site of the Underhill Stadium, formerly the home of Barnet Football Club.
Bench done. Now tackle the graffiti!
“The boys dun good” was the general consensus of passers-by as three High Barnet seniors spent 16 man hours giving the Church Passage bench a much-needed wash and brush-up.
Queen’s birthday beacon at Monken Hadley
High Barnet’s claim to be the highest spot between London and York meant it was ideally situated to take part in the lighting of beacons to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday.
Community action spruces up Church Passage bench
Three volunteers spent the morning washing down and scrubbing clean the long, architecturally-designed teak bench that is beside the gardens in Church Passage, just off Barnet High Street.
Continue reading Community action spruces up Church Passage bench
Threat to our green landscape
A lot of new housing is coming to Barnet over the next few years. In the Council’s Housing Strategy 2015-25, it expected to be able to build 20,000 homes. But the latest forecast is that some 30,000 will be needed, so more sites must be found.
Barnet’s artists publicise work
Local residents will get more opportunities to view the work of members of the Barnet Guild of Artists if arrangements can be made to increase the number of public displays of their paintings and other art forms.
Barnet’s love of poetry
Celebrations surrounding the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death gave an added impetus to the monthly gathering of the Barnet Poetry Group when members spent an April Saturday afternoon discussing the playwright’s many soliloquies and speeches.
Environment centre red-scissor opening
Schools in and around Barnet are already queuing up for their pupils to visit the Byng Road nature reserve and its new eco-friendly environment centre after its official opening by leading benefactor Janet Hulme of the Hadley Trust.
Barnet still a cut above
Barnet is living up to its fame in Cockney rhyming slang: a survey shows there are more hairdressing salons in the London borough Barnet than in any other part of capital, except for the West End.
Threat to Whalebones receding?
Any planning application to build houses on the 14 acres of woods and farmland at Whalebones – between Wood Street and Barnet Hospital – is “highly unlikely” to be approved, says the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.
Bulldozers move in at Elmbank
Work has finally started at the Elmbank site, opposite the Arkley public house, to demolish derelict nurses’ homes that have been an eyesore for years.
Search for Battle of Barnet chapel
A series of test pits are to be dug on land inside Wrotham Park as part of an investigation to locate the possible site a chapel that was erected to commemorate men killed in the Battle of Barnet of 1471.
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