Seventy-five years ago workmen from a local building contractor, W. Foster & Sons, were asked to complete a highly unusual task: they had to restore the unique appearance of one of Chipping Barnet’s oldest residences.
Continue reading Wood Street’s whalebones – 75 years in situ
When customer satisfaction is the only protection against the tsunami of change that is sweeping through so many of Britain’s high streets, few Barnet traders can match the long-standing loyalty of local residents for the refreshments served at Dory’s cafe, still going strong and now in the hands of the third generation of an Italian family.
Underhill stadium, home ground of Barnet Football Club for over a century, is to be sold. News that the club’s chairman Tony Kleanthous has put the Bees’ former stadium up for sale will be a disappointment for the campaign Back2Barnet that has been fighting to get professional football restored to the town.
Glenn Foard, a celebrated military archaeologist, is to spend a day assessing the prospects for a new bid to obtain funding for an archaeological excavation to determine the precise site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Transport for London has turned down a suggestion by the Barnet Society that by slightly extending the final destination of the 34 bus service (Walthamstow Central to Barnet) there could be a reorganisation of bus stops at the top of Barnet Hill and an easing of traffic congestion.
Feasibility study begins on future use of abandoned Marie Foster Home: could it become the site of a new GP surgery for High Barnet?
Having been High Barnet’s most notorious blot on the landscape for the last decade, a future use for the long-derelict Marie Foster Home and surrounding land is at last being considered by NHS Property Services.
Continue reading Abandoned Marie Foster home could become GP surgery
One of the many vacant frontages along Barnet High Street is about to get a new lease of life as a pop-up shop where aspiring independent traders, artists and voluntary groups can display samples of their work, goods and crafts.
New look for Spires shopping centre: a continental cafe-style culture for Barnet High Street?
Barnet Council has promised that a heritage officer will carry out an inspection in Church Passage in the “very near future” in an attempt to resolve continuing disagreement over cladding on the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.
Barnet Council has almost £150,000 available which could be spent immediately on improving the road junction at the top of Barnet Hill, if only an agreement could be reached on how best to ease traffic congestion and make it safer for pedestrians.
Continue reading Loads of cash to improve Barnet’s traffic bottleneck
A restaurant with an outside seating area will become part of the High Street frontage of the Spires’ shopping centre if Barnet Council gives its approval.
A new layout for High Barnet’s bus stops could benefit passengers and speed up traffic flow. Transport for London has been asked to consider reorganising the bus stops at the top of Barnet Hill in order to reduce traffic congestion around Barnet parish church and to provide easier access for bus passengers.
The Friends of Barnet Market have orgainsied a series of events this Spring to encourage new shoppers to visit the Market site.
The Barnet Society pinpoints the sites of missing telecoms cabinets needed to deliver a fast broadband service. The Barnet Society has identified eight sites where it believes British Telecom needs to install additional kerbside telecoms cabinets if several thousand High Barnet households are ever going to have the chance to obtain a fast broadband connection.
An imaginative array of ideas for reviving Barnet’s shopping centre was outlined at the Barnet Society’s annual question and answer session with the Chipping Barnet MP Mrs Theresa Villiers.
Barnet Museum is staging a display of instruments and memorabilia belonging to Barnet Band, thought to be the oldest musical group in the London Borough of Barnet, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
Local historians are busy researching the lives of Barnet men who lost their lives in the First World War. The aim is to compile as many life histories as possible in support of a special exhibition which is being organised by Barnet Museum to commemorate the centenary of the Great War.
After collecting High Barnet’s rainfall figures since the 1980s, a Barnet family can say without hesitation that this winter has been the wettest locally for at least thirty years.
Hopes have been dashed of getting approval for an early start to an archaeological excavation to determine the precise site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471. An application for funding has been rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Continue reading Battle of Barnet dig – will Boris intervene?
A controversial plan to demolish the twin spires to provide a new entrance to the Spires shopping centre has been dropped after overwhelming opposition from Barnet residents and shoppers.
Two designs for a new High Street entrance to the Spires shopping centre – one of which would be without the two original spires of Barnet Methodist Church – are now on public display and open for consultation.
A long-awaited meeting between Theresa Villiers MP and senior executives of British Telecom has still left unanswered many of the questions about when – or if ever – many High Barnet residents will be offered a superfast broadband connection.
Continue reading MP tackles BT but is High Barnet any the wiser?
Barnet has probably more to thank the politicians and planners of the 1930s and 1940s for than any other town in north London. With protected Green Belt land on three sides, the High Barnet of today is blessed with some unrivalled countryside on our door-step.
Continue reading Green belt “critical to the health” of Barnet
Members will recall that a previous update on 11th September 2013 referred to the closure of the Totteridge Village/Lime Grove footpath in the summer of that year without any notice showing an alternative route back to the footpath.
A final decision is expected by the end of January on the extent of financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the cost of an archaeological excavation to determine the precise site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471.
A planning inspector has ordered that unauthorised timber cladding must be removed from the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.
Is Barnet in danger of losing another historic link with the past? The well house protecting the town’s famous physic well is looking decidedly the worse for wear.
Continue reading Barnet’s historic physic well now sad and forlorn
Like much of the south-east of England, Chipping Barnet is seeing a rapid rise in home extensions and offices being converted into flats. An easing of planning restrictions has given home-owners and property developers greater freedom. But are large home extensions an intrusion for neighbours? Will more flats instead of offices change the character of the town centre?
Ronnie Biggs, who spent the final years of his life at the Carlton Court Care Home in Bells Hill Barnet, has died at the age of 84.
He was released from jail on parole in 2009, shortly before his 80th birthday, after completing a third of the 30-year sentence that was imposed after the Great Train Robbery in August 1963.
Local residents who are against plans for tree-felling and landfill on the site of Old Fold Manor Golf Club off Hadley Green have been promised the support of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.
Continue reading Theresa Villiers opposes golf course landfill
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Northern line briefing
⚠️ Travel news: there is a 27 minute interval between trains on the Northern line this morning ⚠️
NEW: Christchurch Spinney in High Barnet threatened by new building
Barnet food waste caddies will arrive from Jan-Mar 2026! 🍽️ Ready for the new service - pop in leftovers & put it out for weekly collections from 30 Mar 2026. Find out more and win £100 vouchers here: http://www.barnet.gov.uk/foodwaste
Tickets for our home fixture against Cambridge United in the Vertu Trophy are now on sale! 🎟️
Come down and cheer on the Bees on Tuesday the 21st, for our final group stage fixture! ⚽️
Secure your tickets below! 👇
#BarnetFC🐝
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