Swifts swooping and squealing high overhead have always been a regular sight in parts of High Barnet, but some local ornithologists fear these summer visitors are diminishing in numbers because of a lack of suitable nesting places.
It’s 6pm on a Friday evening, the week has been a challenge, I’m tired and looking forward to the calm of the weekend and my wife asks if I would like to go for a walk in the woods.
After years of fund raising, office and care staff have moved into The Ark – the new, purpose-built home of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice which is rapidly nearing completion at the Byng Road nature reserve.
Continue reading Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice to offer state-of-the-art care
The Barnet Society invites you to sign the Change.org petition below. Although the subject may seem outside our normal area of interest, it is important that we should be able to voice our concerns fully to the Council when necessary.
Business advice, digital training, even possible mentoring, were all on offer at the first Barnet Business Expo which attracted a wide range of potential entrepreneurs anxious for guidance on how to start up on their own.
Continue reading Kick starting High Barnet’s budding entrepreneurs
Customers queuing out into the street, a free donut with every purchase and champagne for the staff – a great finale for the last day of trading at Victoria Bakery, a High Barnet institution for the last 50 years.
Continue reading A fond farewell from generations of loyal customers
High Barnet publican Gary Murphy, landlord of The Mitre for the last ten years, has won a significant victory over the Pubs Code Adjudicator that he hopes will ease the financial difficulties facing many of the 15,000 landlords in England and Wales.
Continue reading “Tenacity” of local publican helps other landlords
Well over 100 residents attended a meeting at St Mark’s Church to launch a campaign to oppose Transport for London’s plans to build up to seven blocks of flats providing 450 new homes on land around High Barnet tube station.
Barnet’s second medieval festival proved such a success that the organisers are confident they have laid the foundations for an annual event that could become London’s top attraction for Wars of the Roses military re-enactors and enthusiasts.
Continue reading Barnet is now London’s go-to medieval festival
A new oil painting depicting the 1471 Battle of Barnet by local painter Keith West was unveiled in the Barnet Museum shop in the Spires – one of the events being held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of High Barnet’s shopping centre.
Continue reading Battle painting unveiled at Spires’ celebration
A pioneering New Barnet project for re-using supermarket flowers that have passed their sell-by dates is hoping to secure Lottery funding to expand its work teaching flower arranging to young offenders and residents at care homes.
A school farm to be established in a 5.8 acre-field next to Totteridge Academy, in Barnet Lane, is to start off with a mini flock of Shetland sheep and several beehives.
Among the highlights at the annual commemoration day service for Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School were vocals by one of the youngest pupils and another by a past student whose musical training in Barnet inspired her to become an accomplished soprano.
Continue reading Soloists past and present at QE Girls’ service
Residents of the New Bevan housing estate in New Barnet face a daunting race against time to try to raise enough money to save a much-used meeting room and children’s play area.
An education programme aimed at widening public understanding of dementia and palliative care is being offered by the North London Hospice over the next 12 months and includes a summer school for teenagers who might be thinking of a career in medicine, nursing or health and social care.
Continue reading Learning more about dementia and palliative care
Working together with other local primary and secondary schools and welcoming the involvement of community groups are among the key objectives of Aishling Ryan, newly-appointed principal of Barnet Ark Pioneer Academy which opens in September with its first intake of 180 pupils.
Continue reading Greater choice for High Barnet school children
Several visitors at the first open day of the refurbished Barnet Physic Well fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition to descend the steps to see how the underground well chamber might have appeared when the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys drank its water in the 1660s.
Continue reading Physic Well visitors rekindle childhood memories
After-school drama classes at the Bull Theatre provided an all-important source of inspiration for a Barnet schoolgirl who is now starring in musical comedy productions that have regularly sold out at the annual Edinburgh Festival.
Continue reading Starring roles for former Barnet schoolgirl
Thames Water are warning that it will probably be the end of July before there is a final end to the roadworks that have led to road closures and restrictions on traffic passing through the historic village of Monken Hadley.
Continue reading Months more traffic disruption at Monken Hadley
An alcove in front of Chipping Barnet library has been chosen as the potential site of a large granite sculpture, depicting a family of four, by Finchley sculptor Drew Edwards.
A business plan for opening a combined space for a children’s play area and community activities in Barnet High Street has won this year’s Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition.
Twice as many Wars of the Roses heraldic banners will be hung from lamp standards along Barnet High Street this summer – just one of the attractions planned to commemorate the Battle of Barnet, and to promote a repeat of last year’s highly-successful Barnet Medieval Festival.
Continue reading Coats of arms the length of Barnet High Street
Barnet Hospital’s first nurses’ home, now used for offices, is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its opening – just as work is underway to provide new accommodation for key nursing staff.
Plans for a spring clean-up of litter has attracted hundreds of promises of support after mother-of-three Nanna Blomquist launched a Green Beings High Barnet community organisation to campaign for greater environmental awareness.
Barnet Council’s latest cost-cutting proposal is to end the long-standing practice of locking up gates to parks, gardens and car parks at nightfall.
Continue reading Security to be withdrawn from some parks & gardens
Staff and sales assistants at the Spires shopping centre are keen to publicise the location of a defibrillator that has been installed at the High Street entrance with the help of a £500 donation from the Barnet Residents Association.
Resident guardians who have had temporary homes in the former Marie Foster Centre in Wood Street, Barnet, are moving out following the approval of plans to build a 100-room care home on the site.
Continue reading Demolition to start soon at Marie Foster site
Plans are afoot – if funding can be obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund – to re-start an archaeological investigation in a renewed attempt to find the precise site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Continue reading Bid to resume Battle of Barnet archaeological dig
On 29 March the UK is likely to withdraw from the EU. What impact will this have on High Barnet, New Barnet, Arkley, Underhill and other parts of our Borough?
David and Tyler Bone are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the opening of the family’s fruit and vegetable stall at Barnet Market.
Continue reading Fourth-generation family pitch at Barnet Market
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NEW: Construction work at Whalebones is about to begin
NEW: Barnet Guild of Artists’ exhibition runs at Wesley Hall until this Saturday, 1st Nov
Northern line briefing
⚠️ Travel news: there is a 27 minute interval between trains on the Northern line this morning ⚠️
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