A bumper crowd of well-wishers and Easter Saturday shoppers turned out for the opening of the first Barnet Teenage Market.
Busy start for Barnet’s teenage market
Category: High Street The Spires
High Street’s “ghost advertisement”
High Barnet’s most prominent “ghost advertisement” – high up on a side wall in the High Street – is creating quite a flurry of interest and might well be up for listing as being of historical interest.
Take off for teenage market
The launch of Barnet’s teenage market – planned for Easter Saturday – is a step closer with the purchase of twenty stalls that will fill the bandstand area in front of the Waitrose supermarket at the Spires shopping centre.
Artists launch Nightingales Emporium
After remaining empty and abandoned for over a year, High Barnet’s historic Brake Shear House, just off the High Street, has been brought back to life as Nightingales Emporium, a collaborative selling point for a group of artists and entrepreneurs.
Millie the cat: online sensation
Millie the Waitrose cat, already dubbed High Barnet’s most sociable feline, has been inundated with good will messages after shoppers at the Spires were told she had recently had a pre-Christmas tummy upset after being given too much unwanted food.
A fun day for Barnet children
A damp Sunday afternoon did little to dampen the excitement for countless children who enjoyed the traditional fun fair that has become such a popular attraction at Barnet’s annual Christmas Fayre.
Medieval conflict at church
A re-enactment of armed combat from the time of the Battle of Barnet of 1471 filled the garden in front of the parish church of St John the Baptist to promote Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses, as the launch of the Barnet 1471 Battlefields Society and to encourage efforts to discover more about the battlefield site.
Members of the Medieval Siege Society wearing armour and livery of the period laid on their display while inside the church there were talks on the history of the wider conflict – a confrontation that involved three kings, Edward IV, Henry VI and (the future) Richard III, two armies and one crown.
Isabella Henman, dressed in medieval clothing, was on hand to describe the role of the women camp followers who looked the noblemen and their armed soldiers.
Helping prepare a soldier for the battlefield requires the camp follower to know what they’re doing. It’s rather like changing a baby’s nappy….
She said the women would have done the cooking, cleaned the armour and livery, and then helped the men prepare for battle.
Her husband Kevin Henman – another member of the society – was in full armour and livery for the re-enactment.
“Helping prepare a soldier for the battlefield requires the camp follower to know what they’re doing. It’s rather like changing a baby’s nappy – there is a process to be followed,” said Ms Henman.
“So when helping put on the armour, you have to start from the feet and then go upwards, in order to make sure everything is properly in place and the livery is correct.”
Ben Godden, another member of the society, said that the noblemen often tried to reduce the number of women camp followers because they could be a drain on an army’s resources, but they did have a vital role.
He said the society was only too pleased to be helping raise awareness of the Battle of Barnet and they were looking forward to taking part in other events connected with the Battle of Barnet Project, including a medieval festival that is to be held in Barnet over the weekend of June 9 and 10, 2018.
Inside the parish church there were talks by the historian, Mike Ingram, on the “Overmighty subjects of the Wars of the Roses” and by author Nathen Amin on his recent book on the House of Beaufort.
High Barnet’s budding food court
A van producing and selling authentic Roman pizzas is helping to kick start the development of what is fast becoming a popular food court outside the Stapylton Road entrance to the Spires shopping centre.
Rehearsing for Christmas Fayre
Preparations are well underway for the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 3 December – including elves rehearsing their dance routines for their production, Twas the Night Before Christmas, to be staged at the Bull Theatre.
Last butcher’s shop closes
End of an era. Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.
Delay to High Street redevelopment
Barnet High Street’s historic Brake Shear House complex, which is boarded up ready for demolition, has gained a temporary reprieve, and former tenants of workshops and offices are being offered fresh short-term leases.
Barnet’s classic cars on parade again
Cameras, smart phones and tablets will be out in force to capture images of the many much-admired and much-loved models that will be on display at the fourth annual Barnet Market classic car show on Saturday 10 June.
High Street – proposed improvements
CHIPPING BARNET HIGH STREET – PROPOSED PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS:
BARNET COUNCIL PUBLIC CONSULTATION, 28 MARCH – 20 APRIL 2017
Comments by the Barnet Society, April 2017
For and against wider High Street pavement
Members of Chipping Barnet Town Team have given their backing to Barnet Council’s plans to widen one side of the High Street pavement – from the Post Office to just beyond the entrance to the Spires shopping centre – despite criticism from some residents in nearby streets.
Graffiti artists’ head for heights
Graffiti daubed on walls and the sides of buildings in and around High Barnet has become an increasing eyesore in the opinion of residents who ask the Barnet Society why there has been no attempt in recent months to mount a clean-up.
Tardis sparks fury
Plans to improve one of the busiest stretches of Barnet High Street by planting trees, and providing benches and cycle hoops, have been upstaged by the arrival of a super-size black kiosk for a new smart telephone.
New Year’s Day parade success
Pupils of the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School from the Old Bull, High Barnet, were guests of the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor David Longstaff, when he presented them with medals for winning sixth place in the awards for London’s New Year’s Day parade.
Red Lion re-opens
Mitchells and Butlers say they have created ten new jobs following the conversion of the Red Lion public house into a Stonehouse pizza and carvery.
Widening High Street pavement
A plan to widen the pavement on one side of Barnet High Street, from the Post Office to just beyond the entrance to the Spires shopping centre, is about to go out for public consultation.
High Street packed for Christmas Fayre
Brilliant sunshine and crystal blue skies put some added sparkle into the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre which filled the High Street with a wide variety of stalls and plenty of seasonal cheer.
Dom puts Barnet’s parking wars on the spot!
The Barnet Society’s long-running campaign to try to secure a short period of free parking at the 63 parking meter spaces along the High Street featured prominently in Dom on the Spot, BBC television’s latest series about the people whose job it is to hand out on-the-spot fines.
Continue reading Dom puts Barnet’s parking wars on the spot!
Barnet’s two oldest shops
Years of friendly rivalry over which shop in Barnet High Street has the longest record of continuous service seems to have been finally resolved.
H&M fashion store to open in spring 2017
After mounting concern about the recent loss of leading retailers, High Barnet’s shopping centre has received a shot in the arm: H&M, the leading Swedish fashion chain, has finally signed up to take the lease of a brand new store in the Spires shopping centre.
Spires upgrade a Brexit casualty?
An announcement that had been expected in early June about a go-ahead for the Spires shopping centre redevelopment has still not materialised, and there is still no date when work might start.
Parking wars returns
High Barnet’s notoriety as a hot spot for parking fines is to be featured yet again on national television. Footage for a new series of Dom on the Spot was filmed in the High Street highlighting Barnet Council’s refusal to even consider a short period of free parking in order to help local traders.
Still no news on major fashion store for Spires
A final go-ahead for construction work on a £7 million upgrade for the Spires shopping centre continues to depend on signing up an “international fashion brand”.
Continue reading Still no news on major fashion store for Spires
Bench done. Now tackle the graffiti!
“The boys dun good” was the general consensus of passers-by as three High Barnet seniors spent 16 man hours giving the Church Passage bench a much-needed wash and brush-up.
Barnet still a cut above
Barnet is living up to its fame in Cockney rhyming slang: a survey shows there are more hairdressing salons in the London borough Barnet than in any other part of capital, except for the West End.
What future for café gardens?
A guarded welcome has been given by the Barnet Society to plans for a £7 million upgrade for the Spires shopping centre. Barnet Council is to be asked to give planning permission for a two-storey fashion store and three new restaurants.
Spires £7 million upgrade
A two-storey, 24,000-square-foot new fashion store – replacing four existing shop units – will become the centrepiece of a new-look Spires shopping centre if planning permission is obtained from Barnet Council.
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