Pam Edwards, who for over 60 years was a tireless supporter of the local arts scene and a founder member of what is now The Bull Theatre, has died at the age of 98.
She helped to initiate a range of well-established and much-loved artistic and community events which are now an established part of Barnet’s social calendar.
Through her work as the indefatigable and long-standing secretary of the Barnet Borough Arts Council and its magazine Barnet Arts she did all she could to co-ordinate and promote a wide range of activities.
By far the most ambitious of all the challenges she faced was her role as a founder and organiser of the original Old Bull Arts Centre which expanded to become the Bull Theatre – Pam photographed above, far left, at a foundation laying ceremony in the 1980s.
Among the many successful ventures which she helped to develop through her drive and initiative are the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre, the East Barnet Community Festival and Theatre in the Park at Oak Hill Park.
Pamela Edwards lived in East Barnet for almost all her married life and until a few weeks before her death in late July had carried on her organising work through the arts council and its listing of events in Barnet Arts.
A theatregoer from a young age, with an uncle who was a Shakespearean actor, she joined the Friern Barnet Operatic and Dramatic Society in 1953 and became a founder member of the local arts council in 1965.
Looking back on her life, perhaps the most remarkable – and long lasting -- contribution to the Barnet arts scene was her dogged determination in helping to establish what is now the Bull Theatre with its 148-seat auditorium.
This dates from the early 1970s and the formation of the Barnet Centre Action Group which was one of the local initiatives which flowed from the creation in 1965 of an arts council for the newly established London Borough of Barnet.
To support the 1972 Festival of London, plans were mooted for arts festivals in High Barnet, Finchley, Hendon and Edgware.
High Barnet’s art lovers responded with alacrity. Pam Edwards and Luke Dixon organised the first meeting of the Barnet Centre Action Group; they invited the orchestral conductor Norman del Mar to become President; and launched their campaign to find a suitable building for a community arts centre.
To stimulate interest the group arranged an impressive line-up of events for the 1973 Barnet Festival including a folk concert in Ewen Hall, an art exhibition at the Tudor Hall, drama in the Wood Street council chamber, puppets at Church House and supper at the now demolished Salisbury Hotel.
Such was the enthusiasm and strength of support for what was now the Barnet Centre Association – under the chairmanship of folk singer Dennis O’Brien – that as soon as the Old Bull became available the association set about securing a monthly lease, and in November 1975 the unoccupied building was re-opened as a venue for weekly craft fairs and then a craft shop and art gallery.
Slowly but surely the Old Bull was being transformed. Space was found for six craft studios. The first floor was strengthened as part of a job creation scheme for unemployed youngsters sponsored by the Manpower Services Commission.
A room overlooking the High Street was turned into a 30-seat theatre which became a popular venue for children’s and youth drama classes and rehearsals for local music groups.
Second-hand book fairs and jumble sales helped with fund raising and by 1980 the association was ready to expand.
Initially there were plans for a dome shaped 500-seat theatre behind the Old Bull, but this was scaled down to a 180-seat theatre. When this application was rejected by Barnet Council the project was revised again and approval was finally obtained in 1981.
In her monthly committee reports, written in her inimitable style, Pam Edwards captured the real-life drama behind the project: “All fall down. Our house of cards has collapsed”, she wrote in May 1981 when the council rejected the revised plan because of a lack of funding. In July she declared: “Eureka. We found it! The magic formula for the new theatre.”
At a fund-raising crafts sale that year in Ewen Hall, the guest of honour was the famous band leader Humphrey Lyttleton, who lived at Arkley, and was determined to lend a hand.
Privately he thought the possibility of building a theatre behind the Old Bull’s “modest shopfront” in the High Street was so remote, that he promised his band would appear free of charge on the opening night – a “debt of honour” that he had the greatest satisfaction in redeeming seven years later.
Press cuttings, photographs and heaps of correspondence from the 1980s bring to life a decade long roller coaster ride of ups and downs, a daunting struggle by hard-bitten volunteers who never wavered in their commitment to provide a community arts centre.
By the late 1980s the former High Street public house had been transformed into a thriving artistic and cultural centre – a recognised go-to destination for art lovers and theatre goers across north London.
Such was the success of the venture that Barnet Council decided to switch its support and funding from the Bull Theatre towards the cost of constructing and operating the much larger artsdepot at Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley – a new purpose built “multi-functional arts facility” which opened in 2004 and became the borough’s focal point for theatrical and artistic endeavour.
Inevitably there was concern that High Barnet was about to lose its only arts centre.
A Save the Bull group was launched with Pam taking on the role of chair. When the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School was finally assigned the lease there was a sense of relief that High Barnet would continue to have an auditorium for budding actors and actresses.
The Bull’s 148-seat theatre was opened with great fanfare in 1988 and in 2020 – the 45th anniversary year of the original opening of Old Bull as a craft fair and art gallery -- there were many tributes to Pam’s dedication in seeing through to completion the aim to provide High Barnet with a venue for public entertainment, ideally placed, just across the High Street from Barnet College.
Boxes of files and records kept by Pam gave a fascinating insight into the struggle to create the arts centre.
Fading press clippings from the Barnet Press and numerous financial appeals highlighted a dramatic story of repeated threats of closure and near demolition.
Aubrey Rose, President of the Barnet Society, worked with Pam on fund-raising.
“Pam was devoted to the cause in those critical years. We were all so delighted when the theatre opened. Humphrey Lyttleton had given us so much support and he and Pam had done so much to encourage a great effort by local artists and creative people.”
Jenny Remfry, vice president of the society, said Barnet owed Pam a great debt of gratitude. Throughout the 1970s she had done so much to fund raise and encourage events at the Old Bull.
“All orchestrated by the smiling and ever-optimistic Pam. She may have looked modest and unassuming, and even rather disorganised with her carrier bags stuffed full of multi-coloured sheets of A4 annotated in green ink, but she knew what she was doing.”
Pam’s contribution to the 45th anniversary celebration was to come up with suggestions to strengthen still further Barnet’s annual programme of events and activities.
In her 95th year her grasp of the local arts scene was as strong, and imaginative, as ever.
She thought the success of the Barnet Medieval Festival might be strengthened with more artistic themes to celebrate the 1471 Battle of Barnet such as specially commissioned music or dance and the design of battle-related souvenirs.
Other ideas to explore were to see if occasional book signings at The Bull and Waterstones might be expanded into a High Barnet literary festival; perhaps the many cyclists who pass through High Barnet on weekend rides might be attracted by an annual Barnet Saturday or Sunday cycle race; and she wondered whether there might be openings for night-time dance and music events in the square of The Spires shopping centre.
Pam Edwards’ funeral will be held at New Southgate Crematorium on Tuesday 20 August at 2pm.
