Separate cycle lanes up and down Barnet Hill – an ambition ridiculed for so long by Barnet councillors – may have become a step closer as a result of the government’s decision to pump £2 billion into schemes to encourage cycling and walking as a way of fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading Pressure for new A1000 cycle lanes to reach High Barnet
In a dramatic U-turn, Barnet Council has dropped its plan to temporarily close Barnet High Street to through traffic as a way of ensuring safe social distancing for pedestrians and shoppers.
Continue reading Barnet Council retreats: High Street to remain open to traffic
Barnet High Street is to be closed temporarily to all through traffic from the last week of August to ensure there is safe social distancing on the narrow pavement beside the parish church of St John the Baptist.
Continue reading Temporary ban on through traffic in Barnet High Street
Ambitious plans are being drawn up to celebrate the 550th anniversary next year of the Battle of Barnet.
Continue reading Looking ahead to 2021 and 550th anniversary of Battle of Barnet
By installing two male mannequins dressed in white in the Old Courthouse Recreation Ground, Barnet Lawns Bowls Club has managed to frighten off crows that have been digging holes in the fine turf of their two bowling greens.
Continue reading Crows beware – mannequins on parade at Barnet’s bowling greens
Work has started clearing the site off Rowley Lane, Boreham Wood, for the construction of the new Sky Studios Elstree, which were granted planning approval by Hertsmere Borough Council earlier this month.
Continue reading Elstree predicted to be a new “British Hollywood”
By shortening its route through New Barnet and High Barnet, Transport for London is hoping to give “a new lease of life” to the 384 bus service, by ensuring faster travelling times and by providing a new direct connection to Edgware.
Continue reading Faster times from High Barnet to Cockfosters and Edgware
Swift awareness week has been judged a success by admirers of High Barnet’s rare, elusive summer visitors who have again take up residence under the eaves of houses or in nest boxes.
Continue reading Bird lovers delighted to see swifts swooping over High Barnet
Barnet Council is appealing for volunteers to give advice and support to shoppers and the public on safe social distancing as lockdown is eased in High Barnet and other town centres across the borough.
Continue reading Appeal for volunteer advisers on lockdown easing guidance
Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s most celebrated trade union leader – and a New Barnet resident for well over 60 years – has died at the age of 95. He lived in Hadley Road and his wife, the late Anne Jarvis, was a teacher in Finchley for 30 years and spent eight years chairing Barnet Council’s education committee.
Customers were welcomed back in Barnet High Street and the Spires shopping centre on the first day of the easing of lockdown restrictions on shopping. Most of the leading chains were open for business.
Continue reading Lockdown easing a much welcome boost for town centre shops
Last month the Barnet Society launched an email consultation of its members about the current planning application to build 652 flats in the Victoria Quarter. 100% of our respondents so far are opposed to it.
Continue reading Barnet Society members overwhelmingly oppose Victoria Quarter proposals
For the first time since the start of the coronavirus lockdown at the end of March, High Barnet’s stalls market is back in business, leading the way for the re-opening of shops in the Spires shopping centre on Monday 15 June.
Continue reading Barnet Market leads way in reviving town centre trade
Barnet Gate Wood is one of Chipping Barnet’s extraordinary but under-visited green assets – and if you go now you’ll find an incredible froth of purple rhododendron bloom.
Transport for London’s plan to extend the route of the 384 Cockfosters to High Barnet bus service to Edgware, via Arkley and Mill Hill (Apex Corner), is meeting strong opposition because it would take a more direct route and serve far fewer streets.
Swifts have again been seen swooping and squealing high overhead in High Barnet — aerial summer visitors that are an especially welcome sight in Fitzjohn Avenue where at least two pairs are thought to have chosen sites for nests.
Continue reading High Barnet welcomes its much-loved summer squealers
After almost a year’s trial and error, local sculptor John Somerville finally feels ready to display his clay model of High Barnet’s feline celebrity, Millie the Waitrose Cat, before she is cast into a small bronze statue.
Neve Mayes,star trumpet player at Dame Alice Owen’s School, marked the start and finish of the Victory in Europe Day two minute silence for residents in Fitzjohn Avenue, with her mother making sure the timings were correct. Ceremonies were held across High Barnet with Neve’s teacher, trumpet player John Young marking the start of the silence in Byng Road.
Continue reading Last Post starts two-minute silence in Fitzjohn Avenue
Church services streamed live online have become a regular Sunday morning point of contact for worshippers staying at home under lockdown. Christ Church, High Barnet, is trying to widen its reach by inviting the public to post requests for prayers.
A pub on wheels offering a freshly pulled pint of stout delivered straight to the door is proving to be a popular lockdown innovation for a High Barnet landlord. Jason Bourke, licensee of the Sebright Arms in Alston Road, has converted his pick-up truck into a mini-bar complete with a pump and two barrels of Guinness.
Continue reading Pulling pints in lockdown: mobile pub is the answer
Professional singer Iain Mackenzie with his daughter Poppy lead a community sing song which has become part of the regular Thursday night clap for NHS workers held by residents of Carnarvon Road, High Barnet. Each week during the 8pm Thursday clap sisters Lois and Maggie stand with their parents outside Barnet Hospital waving their rainbow posters in support of medical staff tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading Imaginative community support for Barnet Hospital staff
High Barnet publican Gary Murphy, licensee of the Mitre, has gone viral in a campaign to force pub owners to back down and agree to a rent holiday while the coronavirus lockdown continues.
After attracting over 400,000 views of his tweet, #norentnopub, he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s programme You and Yours, was interviewed by the Daily Telegraph and then featured on BBC tv’s London News..
Continue reading Twitter boosts Mitre landlord’s plea to help pubs survive
Protective wooden boarding has been installed across the art deco windows of the Barnet Everyman — a sure sign that a trip to the cinema is out of the question for weeks, if not months to come.
At the front of the building, in place of the daily programme of films, there is a bold message of praise for front line staff tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
“Barnet Hospital and local key workers: You are amazing.”
Less than six months after its official opening the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet, is facing a financial crisis following a dramatic collapse in donations due to the cancellation of fund-raising events and activities during the coronavirus lockdown.
Hospices across the country are reporting a catastrophic drop in income. Noah’s Ark is facing a shortfall of more than £2 million, more than half its annual target of £3.5 million obtained through gifts and donations.
Continue reading Noah’s Ark plea for urgent lockdown fund raising
High Barnet volunteers who love to sew are joining the nationwide effort to produce protective clothing for hospital and care home staff tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Scrubs — the pyjama-style clothes worn by medics — face masks and laundry bags are among the items being sent to a hub in Kentish Town which then offers additional supplies to hospitals, care homes and hospices across north and north-west London.
Continue reading Sewing enthusiasts helping the NHS fight coronavirus
High Barnet publican Gary Murphy, licensee of the Mitre, is at the forefront of a campaign by landlords to force pub owners to back down and agree to a rent freeze while the coronavirus lockdown continues.
Greene King charge Mr Murphy £8,000 a month in rent. Unless it is suspended, he fears that he and other landlords will end up thousands of pounds in debt.
Continue reading High Street landlord backs demand for rent freeze for pubs
Specialist shops along Barnet High Street — as well as numerous take-away food outlets — are determined to try to continue trading in the wake of the continuing lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.
Three niche businesses — Hopscotch (sweets, loose tea and cake-making supplies), The Present (gifts and homeware) and Wanders Shoes — are mong the latest to offer collection and delivery services in response to telephone and online orders.
Continue reading Home deliveries offer lifeline to High Street traders
Locked and taped-off playgrounds are a poignant reminder of the impact that the coronavirus self-distancing restrictions are having on the opportunities for children to exercise and enjoy themselves.
High Barnet’s most popular parks and playing fields, including Ravenscroft Park, the Old Courthouse Recreation Ground, Byng Road playing fields and of course Hadley Green and Hadley Common, are all open and are being well used.
Continue reading Life in Barnet under lockdown: children losing out
Cultivating an allotment is one of the few outdoor activities that is still permitted during the coronavirus lockdown and thanks to the current run of fine, dry weather Barnet’s plots have never been busier or looked in better shape.
Strict rules on self-discipling and site hygeine apply and allotment holders are literally keeping themselves poles apart.
Continue reading Strict self-distancing and safety rules at Barnet’s allotments
Barnet householders and families were out in force to join the second nationwide Thursday evening clap for carers in support of NHS workers treating patients during the coronavirus pandemic.
The turnout was especially strong in the streets around Barnet Hospital — part of the Royal Free Hospital Foundation — where residents clapped on the doorsteps, blew whistles, banged saucepans and even at one house played a trumpet.
Continue reading Barnet Hospital staff get rousing round of applause
Why not become a member? Receive our latest newsletter hot off the press four times a year, and support our work with a membership.
If you have some local news, history or want to bring something to our attention please email us.
Nat Dawbarn posted a comment on Approval for new High Street retail premises and housing at junction with Moxon Street as demolition underway on two other nearby developments
Andrew posted a comment on Barnet Council and MP Dan Tomlinson are ready to take action on reports of shopkeepers selling illegal or counterfeit products
Andrew posted a comment on Approval for new High Street retail premises and housing at junction with Moxon Street as demolition underway on two other nearby developments
Graham Smith posted a comment on Approval for new High Street retail premises and housing at junction with Moxon Street as demolition underway on two other nearby developments