Author: Nick Jones

Daily life in High Barnet well over a century ago has been re-imagined for a new play which looks back even further in time to the years when the Victorian explorer Dr David Livingstone and his wife Mary lived on Hadley Green.

A plaque on the front wall of what is now known as Livingstone Cottage records that he lived there in the year 1857.

Mary Livingstone, I Presume? has been written by local dramatist Claire Fisher who has lived in the cottage for the last 11 years and who believes Mary Livingstone has not had all the recognition she deserves.

Very little has been published about Mary’s life. She was the daughter of missionaries, became a missionary herself and was accomplished African linguist.

Her knowledge of African people and languages was considered crucial to the success of Dr Livingstone’s travels.

Rehearsals by members of the High Barnet drama group the Blue Door Theatre Company are well underway for a production which is to be staged at the Bull Theatre with four performances at the end of February. (see full details below)

The play recreates events in 1913 when some of High Barnet’s well-connected residents decided the town should install a commemorative plaque at Dr Livingstone’s home on Hadley Green.

A grieving widow living in the house, Mrs Isabelle Harrington, played by Brigid Hekster (left), takes an interest in the life of Mary Livingstone, played by Sarah Munford (right).

Isabelle finds herself in conversation with Mary – a storyline which explores the lives of women in different times and places, and which presents a “feminist look at women’s hidden voices”.

Cast members take on the role of residents of the town including a butcher’s daughter, schoolboy and other local characters living on Hadley Green and at Monken Hadley.

A vital prop in the drama is a magnificent Victorian phonograph, a model of which was made by sculptor and artist Cos Gerolemou, seen here with writer and director, Claire Fisher (left).

Cos said he had studied illustrations of phonographs of the era and was impressed by the way they were decorated with acanthus leaves, an effect which he was anxious to recreate.

Claire acknowledged the challenge she has in getting Mary Livingstone, I Presume? ready for its premiere at the end of February.

“This is the first play I have written and directed, and I am so in awe of the cast in giving it their all.

“Many of our drama group have full time jobs and here they are at rehearsals, giving their time to help bring the play to life.”

Livingstone Cottage is a regular stopping point for guided walks and people visiting Hadley Green and Monken Hadley.

Since moving in Claire has been busying researching the history of both the house and the Livingstone family.

She was fascinated by what happened in 1913 when the high and mighty of Barnet decided to put up the plaque to mark the centenary of Dr Livingstone’s birth and record that he lived in the house in 1857.

Claire says she is indebted to the advice and support of Susi Earnshaw at the Bull Theatre and artistic director Siobhan Dunne. 

There will be four performances at the end of February at the Bull Theatre, High Barnet – on Thursday and Friday, 27 and 28 February, at 7.30pm and two performances on Saturday 1 March at 2pm and 7.30pm. For tickets and more information: www.thebulltheatre.com

Sarah Parish, well known for her role in tv series such as Peak Practice and Pillars of the Earth, and her husband, actor James Murray, are supporting drama therapy sessions at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet.

Through the Murray Parish Trust, established after the death of their daughter, they help to fund children’s mental health care projects.

On a visit to Noah’s Ark the couple met Christina and her two sons, Arthur aged one, and nine-year-old Joseph, (see above), who both attend drama and music sessions at the hospice.

The trust is to fund a total of 300 drama therapy sessions — the latest initiative to get their backing since they started raising money in memory of their daughter Ella-Jayne who died in 2019 at the age of eight from a congenital heart defect.

Sarah said their trust – which has directed over £4 million to healthcare projects since it was established in 2014 – was there to help families at their darkest hours.

“When our daughter was in intensive care for four months, we witnessed at first hand the unmet need for emotional and psychological support.

“If the mounting trauma of having or being a seriously ill child isn’t properly processed with professional help, it can have devastating consequences.”

Sarah met Pasha Wild (above left), drama and movement therapist at Noah’s Ark, who stressed the value of therapy in helping children explore different parts of themselves and untangle and unpick things in a way which is helpful for them.

Christina Lucas-Dodsworth, whose son Arthur was referred to Noah’s Ark, was full of praise for Pasha’s support.

Arthur, who has severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy had to be transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit, and it was thought unlikely he would survive coming off a ventilator.

He was referred to Noah’s Ark, became less critical, and now attends a drama and music group, Tunes and Tales.

His brother Joseph also has drama therapy with Pasha to help him deal with the issues which can affect siblings of seriously unwell children.

Christina said Joseph was now much happier at school.

“When we told Joseph his little brother might not be here that long, it was a very difficult conversation to have. 

“Now, he is able to start opening up to his teachers and tell them what is on his mind, saying things like Arthur is in hospital today and that he’s feeling a bit worried.

“After the session with Pasha he’s much more comfortable talking about these things.

“I think the drama therapy is good at tackling the prospect of loss and it is definitely helpful for a child who doesn’t want to do the talking at that age and for whom it’s probably just far too much.”   

During their visit, Sarah and James were briefed on the challenges facing the children’s palliative care sector.

Only 17 per cent of Noah’s Ark’s income is funded centrally through the Children’s Hospice Grant and the rest is raised through voluntary donations.

Currently the hospice’s running costs stand at approximately £18,000 a day.    

Regular customers at The Queens Arms, Barnet, have been fearing the worst with the doors remaining locked and no sign of life inside. However, they have been assured that the closure — and also the closure of the Kings Head in Barnet High Street — are both only temporary.

Hertford brewers McMullen and Sons say they have recruited a  new tenants for the Kings Head but are still in the process of lining up a new tenant for the Queens Arms.

The Kings Head has been closed since September. McMullens told the Barnet Society the company hopes to re-open the pub by late spring or early summer.

Several potential tenants have expressed an interest in taking on the Queens Arms and the aim is to have it re-opened at the latest by the spring.

The Queens Arms, with the Everyman cinema on one side and a BP petrol station on the other, is mid-way between the Northern Line and the Great North Road.

There has been speculation on social media that this large site, which includes a car park, might be sold off for redevelopment as flats.

But McMullens stressed that the closure was only temporary.

Local concern about the future of the Queens Arms has been heightened by the grim statistics about the difficulties facing the licensed trade with reports from across the country of an average of 34 pubs closing every month.

Another McMullen pub just a few hundred yards away, The Old Red Lion at the bottom of Barnet Hill, was closed in 2015 and replaced with a group of town houses.

East Barnet village has been without a pub for almost a year since the Stonegate group closed the Prince of Wales – but locals have been encouraged to see that work has started on refurbishing the premises.

The prospect of losing the last pub in the village was such a blow, that campaigners succeeded in registering The Prince of Wales as an asset of community value – only to find that there was a last-minute reprieve. 

Stonegate Group finally confirmed that the pub had been to the sold to another pub company, Heartwood Collection, a hospitality group which runs upmarket inns and restaurants across southern England.

Heartwood have promised a “multi-million-pound refurbishment” with the bar and dining room enhanced to provide a combined capacity of 150 covers. In the rear garden there would be a terrace for up to 55 covers.  

Plans to demolish a group of workshops and other industrial premises mid-way between Barnet and Whetstone has revived family memories of how it was once the site of a well-regarded laundry serving customers in and around North London.

Meadow Works, just off the Great North Road, was established as a hand laundry by Sidney Morris early in the 1900s and his descendants have compiled a history of what became a flourishing local business.

An application to build a new self-storage depot on the site – see aerial view above — is to be submitted to Barnet Council in mid-February by Compound, a development company, which is opening self-storage facilities around London and the south-east.

Currently the site is occupied by a range of workshops, small garages, and vehicle repair firms many of which would be displaced.

Co-working spaces will be provided as part of the redevelopment and the application proposes new premises, fronting on to the A1000, for the well-known Hole in the Wall Cafe.

A sales brochure for the Meadow Hand Laundry shows how it looked soon after the business was opened by Sidney Morris who bought the site in 1901.

Laundry was hung out to dry in the surrounding meadows. Hampers of washed and ironed laundry were delivered by horse-drawn carts to customers in London and nearby towns and villages in Hertfordshire.

A photograph of the laundry staff indicates the scale of the business.

Much of what has since become the Meadow Works industrial estate is hidden behind large hoardings alongside the Great North Road.

These were erected by the Finchley Bill Posting Company to serve as advertising space, and they had the added advantage of preventing dust blowing from the road onto the laundry drying in the meadows.

Sidney Morris – seen above, standing far right – was born in Finchley. He was one of five brothers and a blacksmith and mechanical engineer by trade.

The photograph, which was taken outside the laundry, shows the rural nature of the land around Meadow Works as it was in 1910.

After first purchasing land for a laundry business at New Southgate, Sidney opted instead for the Great North Road and bought a meadow and house then known as Whelm Villa.

After the property was destroyed in a fire in 1910, he built the Meadow Works main building which was completed in 1914 together with a family home.

He created extra space by rebuilding and converting a former green tin church moved from its site in Athenaeum Road, Whetstone.

Buildings on the site were requisitioned by the Army during first and second World Wars and as the laundry business declined, Sidney encouraged his sons to build up an alternative enterprise as bakery engineers.

For a time, the factory was let out to a tailoring firm called Taylors but by the early 1970s Morris Brothers (Bakery Engineers) was well established by brothers Jack and Dan Morris (Jack is second from the right, above).

When Sidney Morris purchased Whelm Villa it was the only building on the Great North Road between Barnet and Whetstone and it was thought originally to have been a coaching inn or hotel.

Traffic along the main road has continued down the years to offer plenty of business opportunities.

In the 1920s there was a coffee stall at the corner with Lyonsdown Road which was owned by a Mr and Mrs Francis.

After criticism from local councillors about the appearance of their stall, which was a caravan on wheels, they rented space from the laundry and opened what became the Hole in the Wall Cafe – named because it was hidden behind the advertising hoardings.

Recollections about the history of Meadow Works, and those who lived and worked there, have been collected from members of the wider Morris family by Jane Polledri (left) and Barbara Vallé, great granddaughter, and granddaughter of Sidney Morris. 

Jane said the demolition of buildings on the site, including The Whelm, which was the original home of the Morris family, had prompted her to start compiling a record of what they could all remember.

“It is sad to think that a place which holds so many happy family memories is about to be demolished.

 “I have learned so much about the history of the place. The original building, Whelm Villa, was thought to have been a coaching inn or hotel on the Great North Road.

“Family legend has it that Dick Turpin or even Charles Dickens stopped off there.

“We know there was stabling for horses and one of my uncles remembers seeing bricks on the porch floor which outlined the name ‘Whelm Hotel’.

“We are not sure where the name Whelm came from. It could be a corruption of the word elm, after the elm trees alongside the Great North Road, and well – after the well behind the house.

“Between the wars a man stored a small aeroplane in the field at the back of the house and used take off flying in the direction of the Odeon cinema.”

Jane’s mother Barbara, who is 85, says she spent her school days visiting with her mother Doris and grandmother Kate Morris at Meadow Works.

“My mother worked in the laundry with her two sisters. There was always so much to do and see.

“There was a large greenhouse, stables for horses and carts, styes for four pigs, chickens and fields with a large pond where grandfather’s children used to swim.”

After buildings were requisitioned by the Army requisitioned during the Second World War – and used to store furniture for people whose homes had been bombed – Barbara remembers seeing soldiers there and sometimes sitting on their knees.

After the war German prisoners of war were assigned to work at Meadow Works before returning home. They helped feeding the horses, pigs and chickens.

“Now the fields and meadows that I remember – and a house where I spent such a happy time – is about to become a distant memory,” said Barbara.