Preserving two massive jaw bones from a ninety-foot-long blue whale is just one of the challenges facing the new owners of Barnet’s historic Whalebones House, one of the town’s oldest residences surrounded by woods and fields that are now threatened with redevelopment.
Continue reading Wanted: Advice on protecting Barnet’s whalebones
A two-hour session of play and activities once a month at the Sense Touch Base, just off Barnet High Street, is a lifeline for children who are often isolated at home caring for sick or disabled parents.
Another of Barnet’s historic public houses, the White Lion in St Albans Road, has closed, and local residents fear that it might be converted into flats or even demolished to make way for a new housing development.
Chipping Barnet library will operate on a partial self-service basis during April and May before closing again on Monday 5 June for extensive internal construction work over the summer months to convert some of the building into commercial office space.
Barnet’s WEA* is launching its first-ever one-day Summer Saturday courses in May, 2017.;They are being held at the recently-opened Hope Corner Community Centre in Mays Lane (185 Mays Lane, EN5 2DY)
Celebrations for the Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65 years on the throne, brought back fond memories for former Buckingham Palace pastry chef, George O’Connor, who lives in sheltered housing in Barnet.
A ready supply of lively and forthright questions kept the politics and views of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers firmly under the spotlight at her annual question and answer session with members of the Barnet Society and other local associations.
The job of promoting and explaining the Battle of Barnet of 1471 is to be undertaken by a project co-ordinator whose appointment has been made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
After years of uncertainty answers have finally been found to questions about the identity and motives of an early pioneer in the continuing task of defending the footpaths and green spaces that mean so much to members of the Barnet Society.
After what for her personally – and for the rest of the country – has been a momentous political year, the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers, will be the guest of the Barnet Society at our annual question and answer session at 3pm on Friday 20 January.
Two sculptures by the noted Barnet sculptor John Brown are due to appear in Steven Spielberg’s most recent science fiction adventure, Ready Player One, which is being filmed in Birmingham and at the Warner Studios in Leavesden.
There has been another indication of the growing commercial interest in, and rising value of Barnet’s Green Belt land – just as Arkley residents step up their campaign against local farmland being developed as a natural burial site.
Outraged Barnet book lovers staged a mass read-in outside the closed front doors of Chipping Barnet Library to demonstrate their dismay and anger at the downgrading of a much-loved community asset.
The Barnet Society is taking full advantage of an opportunity to influence the re-drafting of the London Plan by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan – and local residents are being urged to add their voice to the case we are making.
If residents are prepared to back a mass campaign of objection, the Barnet Society believes there might still be a chance to limit, if not prevent, the downgrading of Chipping Barnet Library.
Continue reading Can planning objections save Chipping Barnet Library?
A grant of almost £100,000 has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the cost of promoting and celebrating the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Barnet Council is being urged by the Barnet Society to postpone the two-month temporary closure of Chipping Barnet Library planned to take effect as from Monday 5 December in order to allow time for further consultation on the building alterations and redundancies that have been proposed.
“Well-behaved dogs welcome” is the message that dog lovers are hoping they will hear from more and more of the cafes, restaurants and public houses along the High Street in High Barnet.
When a group of 26 women move into their new homes in Union Street, Barnet, at the end of November they will be making a small, but truly historic contribution towards alleviating the country’s chronic housing shortage.
After facing a barrage of complaints and criticism over proposal to build a new school for almost 2,000 pupils on what was formerly the Barnet Football Club stadium, the Ark Academy network admitted its plans were “not yet a done deal”.
In the feline appreciation stakes there is currently no contest in determining High Barnet’s most sociable – and safety conscious – cat.
After months of construction work, the last remaining scaffolding and hoardings are about to be removed from 25 new flats in Union Street, Barnet – the UK’s first purpose-built co-housing project for seniors.
Nine pupils from Totteridge Academy have been awarded special commendations by the educational charity TalentEd which enlists retired teachers to help pupils from low-income households to develop self-awareness and study skills.
Well over 300 members, friends and supporters attended the preview of the Barnet Guild of Artists’ 68th annual exhibition which continues at Christ Church, St Albans Road, until Saturday 6 August.
Continue reading Harbour scenes capture attention at artists’ exhibition
After a career switch from his previous job as a political researcher, an aspiring High Barnet furniture and cabinet maker is gaining recognition at a series of craft and design shows.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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