
End of an era. Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.

End of an era. Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.

High Barnet’s police station will close to the public by the end of the year along with 36 other police stations across London where the Metropolitan Police is withdrawing a front counter service.

After protests from local tree lovers, Barnet Council finally called a temporary halt to trench digging and cable laying directly under a 250-year-old oak that commands the brow of the hill at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road, New Barnet.

After being refused permission in January, Barnet Council’s planning committee has now approved plans for the proposed Ark Academy school on the site of the vacant Underhill stadium, former home of Barnet Football Club.

Unthinking council planners and contractors are being blamed by local tree lovers for hacking through the roots of 250-year-old oak by excavating a trench and building two concrete bases for broadband telephone boxes.

Two students who took part in a workshop at the Wood Street campus of Barnet and Southgate College are to appear in a new play, Cookies, that explores the challenging world of cyber-bullying.

Record GCSE and A-level results for the second consecutive year have now been topped by the news that Queen Elizabeth Girls’ School, Barnet, has been ranked in the top 2 per cent of all secondary schools by the Department of Education.

Barnet Old People’s Welfare committee fears that the demolition of the Fern Room, its day centre in Salisbury Road, to make way for a block of ten flats might well force the closure of a group that has been providing activities for Barnet’s elderly resident for the last 75 years.

Michael Portillo, presenter of the tv series Great Railway Journeys, unveiled a plaque at Hadley Wood station to commemorate the great steam locomotive engineer Sir Nigel Gresley, who was a former Hadley Wood resident.

Plans have been announced by a developer to demolish the Fern Room in Salisbury Road, Barnet, and replace it with a new building containing ten flats as well as new ground-floor community facilities.

Barnet market stall holders are delighted by the news that the managing agents for the Spires shopping centre are planning to move the twice-weekly stalls market to the paved area between Waitrose and the bandstand.

Organisers of Barnet’s teenage market – to be launched on Easter Saturday next year – are hoping that this new attraction will match the boost to the Spires shopping centre provided by the opening of H&M’s fashion store.


To coincide with the start of building work on its site at the environment centre off Byng Road, Barnet, an appeal has been launched for the final £2 million needed to complete construction and fit out the new Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice.

A derelict former nurses’ home that has been an eyesore for years will finally be demolished under plans to build flats and townhouses on the Marie Foster Care Home site in Wood Street, Barnet.

A service to institute and induct its new vicar, the Reverend Andy Rimmer, was described as a moment to celebrate the commitment shown by Christ Church, in St Albans Road, to reach out to the High Barnet community.

High Barnet police station is one of 30 or so across London where a front counter service to the public is likely to be withdrawn under a cost-cutting plan announced by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Neil Kinnock led the tributes at a party to celebrate the 93rd birthday party for Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s most celebrated trade unionist – and a New Barnet resident for over 60 years.

Reaching out to local schools to explain and promote Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses is one of the key objectives of the lottery-funded Battle of Barnet project.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, re-opened High Barnet’s Roman Catholic church after the completion of a 100-seat extension and extensive refurbishment.

New Ground co-housing, the innovative flats for older women in Union Street, High Barnet, have been declared overall winner of the prestigious 2017 Housing Design Awards – and are now up for another accolade.

After failing its first public examination, Ark Pioneer Academy (APA) is back for a re-sit – this time a planning application for a new 1,200-place secondary school and 6th form.

A survey is to be undertaken to discover the extent of local interest and reaction to the prospect of housing development on the Whalebones green space, between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street.

A £10,000 pledge of support from the Spires shopping centre has given an all-important boost to the crowd-funding campaign to raise £56,000 to stage a monthly teenage market in Barnet from Easter next year.

Internal fixtures and fittings are being added to a 100-seat extension to the Roman Catholic Church in Union Street, ready for its re-consecration by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, on Sunday 3 September.

Roads running between High Barnet and New Barnet merge together almost seamlessly today, but in the 1930s, when farmland still separated the two towns, the footpath up to the shops in the High Street was through fields filled with cows.

To the dismay of its owner, Barnet Council has refused planning permission for a semi-derelict shop in Union Street, High Barnet, to be demolished and replaced with either a two-bedroom house or two one-bedroom flats.

The Barnet Press, once one of the most respected weekly newspapers in North London, has ceased publication after steadily losing circulation and struggling financially.
Local ramblers who have followed the guiding notes in ‘Rambles Round Barnet’ Part 1 for Walk 1 may well be familiar with the changing fortunes of the footpath that leads from Totteridge Common to the Dollis Valley. It is referred to in paragraph 7 of this walk and runs parallel to, and just to the west of, Lime Grove.
Continue reading Lime Grove Footpath and the Darlands Nature Reserve

An unrivalled display of images of Richard III, from his role in the 1471 Battle of Barnet until his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, has been amassed by photographer Geoffrey Wheeler.

Generations of Barnet children have enjoyed a trip on the miniature railway that circles the Wood Street garden of Ian Johnson, a well-known retired doctor and skilled model engineer, famed his collection of model steam engines.
Carl Troon posted a comment on Imminent sale of abandoned and derelict former Quinta Youth Club has added urgency to fund raising for new community hub in Mays Lane
RF posted a comment on Barnet Council faces dilemma over deteriorating state of condemned blocks of flats at Dollis Valley Estate
Art Vandelay posted a comment on A switch from weekly to fortnightly bin collections is one of the options as Barnet Council struggles to reduce a £200 million deficit
Jim posted a comment on A switch from weekly to fortnightly bin collections is one of the options as Barnet Council struggles to reduce a £200 million deficit