The depth of local anger, frustration and even despair at the damage being inflicted on Barnet’s shopping centre is highlighted yet again in comments in support of the Barnet Society’s petition calling on Barnet Council to allow an hour’s free parking.
A packed programme has been arranged for this year’s Barnet Christmas Fair on Sunday 7 December when, instead of traffic, there will be music and dancing in the High Street and a vast array of stalls and attractions in nearby venues.
Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, who is Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, admits that that even her police protection officers cannot work out where it is possible to park in High Barnet town centre.
The Barnet Society is launching a Save Our High Street appeal: our town centre desperately needs more shoppers and we hope local businesses and other organisations, as well as local residents will join our campaign.
Once again the communities of Barnet come together on the first Sunday in December, to celebrate the huge diversity of what we have to offer in our high street and surrounding area.
Saturday shoppers queued up in disbelief to read a bailiff’s notice posted on the front door of the Oasis coffee shop in the Spires shopping centre – the seventh business to have closed within the complex in recent months.
Love Barnet’s pop-up shop at 89 High Street promoting locally produced crafts and goods had what the staff said was a “fantastic” first week’s trading.
“Four candles please” – a regular request at Bargain Buys
Bargain Buys is High Barnet’s answer to the decline of the High Street.
Facelift for the Spires to be finished by the spring ready for Carluccio’s restaurant to open next summer. Building work is due to start in August constructing a new entrance to the Spires shopping centre, together with premises for a new branch of the Italian restaurant chain Carluccio’s that will have its frontage opening on to Barnet High Street.
Just imagine the bustle and activity of 1898 when such was the competition in the High Street of Barnet that shoppers had the choice of eleven butchers, including one pork butcher and two poultry dealers! Today only one shop remains, the Butcher’s Hook.
When customer satisfaction is the only protection against the tsunami of change that is sweeping through so many of Britain’s high streets, few Barnet traders can match the long-standing loyalty of local residents for the refreshments served at Dory’s cafe, still going strong and now in the hands of the third generation of an Italian family.
One of the many vacant frontages along Barnet High Street is about to get a new lease of life as a pop-up shop where aspiring independent traders, artists and voluntary groups can display samples of their work, goods and crafts.
New look for Spires shopping centre: a continental cafe-style culture for Barnet High Street?
A restaurant with an outside seating area will become part of the High Street frontage of the Spires’ shopping centre if Barnet Council gives its approval.
An imaginative array of ideas for reviving Barnet’s shopping centre was outlined at the Barnet Society’s annual question and answer session with the Chipping Barnet MP Mrs Theresa Villiers.
A controversial plan to demolish the twin spires to provide a new entrance to the Spires shopping centre has been dropped after overwhelming opposition from Barnet residents and shoppers.
Two designs for a new High Street entrance to the Spires shopping centre – one of which would be without the two original spires of Barnet Methodist Church – are now on public display and open for consultation.
The Spires’ new owner wants to create a more ‘enticing’ entrance from the High Street that would attract more shoppers – and that may include the removal of the twin spires.
Continue reading The Spires shopping centre: will the twin spires have to go?
A fresh start for retailing in Chipping Barnet: the Spires shopping centre has been purchased by the William Pears Group, one of Britain’s biggest privately-owned property groups which keeps a low profile but has its roots in north London. Contracts have been exchanged and the sale of the shopping centre by UBS Triton is due to be completed by late April.
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