High Barnet’s most precocious feline – Millie, the 17-year-old tabby that has made a name for herself at the Spires shopping centre – is clocking up ever more online fans.
Sociable feline stars on social media
Category: High Street The Spires
Boost for High Street
SaveTheHighStreet.org – which is campaigning to help shopping centres that are facing challenging times – is to hold a series of advice sessions in High Barnet on Wednesday 12 December.
Reviving Barnet High Street with a children’s play area
Creating a play area for children combined with space for community activities in the centre of High Barnet is the aim of local resident Joanne Merchant, mother of two small boys.
Continue reading Reviving Barnet High Street with a children’s play area
Shopkeeper’s victory in council tax row
Barnet Council has backed down from its decision to charge a High Street newsagent an extra £1,800 a year in council tax for having a free-to-use cash machine installed in the shop window.
Unruly street drinkers troubling High Street shoppers
Problems caused by uncontrolled street drinking in High Barnet and rough sleeping in shop doorways along the High Street topped the issues raised at an Engage Barnet question time.
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Hefty council tax bill for High Street cash machine
Offering High Barnet residents and shoppers a free-to-use cash machine is proving an expensive nightmare for the Paper Shop in the High Street.
Continue reading Hefty council tax bill for High Street cash machine
Shop closures and conversions changing town centre
High Barnet’s struggling High Street shopping centre is facing fresh challenges: another two national chains are pulling out just as plans are announced to convert empty retail premises on the corner with St Albans Road into a house in multiple occupation.
Continue reading Shop closures and conversions changing town centre
Best ever Barnet Classic Car show
A joint display of classic cars and vintage armoured vehicles drew record crowds to the fifth annual Barnet Classic Car show at the Army Reserve Centre in St Albans Road, Barnet.
Barnet’s classic cars joined by vintage armoured vehicles
Barnet’s annual Classic Car Show on Saturday (30 June) is to be a joint display alongside vintage armoured vehicles to mark National Armed Forces Day.
Continue reading Barnet’s classic cars joined by vintage armoured vehicles
A makeover for Chipping Barnet High Street
A three-week public consultation has opened on a new scheme of improvements to the High Street – and it’s vital that residents support this chance-in-a-generation to rejuvenate it.
Wars of the Roses banners for Barnet High Street
If Barnet Council gives approval, 26 hand-painted heraldic banners are to be hung along Barnet High Street to promote the Barnet Medieval Festival – a weekend of medieval displays and re-enactments of scenes from the battles of St Albans (1461) and Barnet (1471) to be held at the Byng Road playing fields on Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10.
Continue reading Wars of the Roses banners for Barnet High Street
Barnet’s classic cars sign up for Armed Forces Day
Barnet’s annual Classic Car Show on Saturday 30 June is to be bigger and better than ever before – and will be held at a new venue, the Army Reserve Centre, in St Albans Road, Barnet, as part of the celebrations to mark National Armed Forces Day.
Continue reading Barnet’s classic cars sign up for Armed Forces Day
Spires to host press ups endurance event
An attempt to set a new world record for endurance in performing press ups is to be the highlight of a fun day at the Spires shopping centre in Barnet, which is being organised to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and Noah’s Ark Hospice.
Heraldic banners for High Street
The coat of arms of Henry VI is the latest to be painted as part of the Battle of Barnet Project – and it is one of 30 heraldic banners that it is hoped will be hung along the High Street to celebrate Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses.
Busy start for Barnet’s teenage market
A bumper crowd of well-wishers and Easter Saturday shoppers turned out for the opening of the first Barnet Teenage Market.
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.
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