News from The Barnet Society

Butternut squash soup was just one of the tasty choices on offer at an open evening when the High Barnet Islamic Centre welcomed low incomes families, homeless and lonely people to enjoy a hot meal and some company.

Stall holders, traders and community groups are all booked in for this year’s Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 7 December, the traditional and popular curtain raiser to the town’s Christmas festivities.

Barnet Council has contributed to the upgrading of the rugby pitches at the Byng Road playing fields by paying for the installation of six new floodlights.

Pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet, held their own Remembrance Day ceremony on Armistice Day as part of an initiative to remind a younger generation of wartime sacrifices. At a short service on the lawn outside the school, two pupils who are Air Cadets laid flowers beside two British Legion “Time to Reflect” silhouettes.

High Barnet’s Remembrance Sunday service at the war memorial at the parish church was exceptionally well attended. The first wreath was laid on behalf of the King by the Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Barnet, Martin Russell.

Quinta Village Green and the abandoned former Quinta Youth Club are one step closer to being brought under the control of a group of residents living in and around Mays Lane, Barnet, who have been campaigning for years to safeguard their open space and reopen a derelict clubhouse.

After a seven-year campaign New Barnet community activist Ros Howarth finally says farewell to the last remnants of the abandoned public house The Jester which was left wrecked after a fire in 2018.

Such is the depth of local concern over the continued closure of the Black Horse public house that a petition has been launched to gather support for its future to be safeguarded by Barnet Council with an order to declare it an asset of community value.

After being closed for three months over the summer the former Dory’s Cafe has re-opened as the Corner Cafe at the junction of St Albans Road and Barnet High Street.

High Barnet Islamic Centre, which opened last year, extended its outreach programme of community events with volunteers welcoming over 30 asylum seekers and refugees with a full spread of snacks and refreshments.

Barnet Parish Church was host to family, friends and neighbours – as well as numerous eminent lawyers – for a service of thanksgiving to celebrate the life of former Treasury Solicitor Sir Gerald Hosker who gave Margaret Thatcher critical legal advice at key points during her Premiership.

Access for contractors’ heavy equipment has been established at the site of the former Whalebones smallholding and farmland off Wood Street, Barnet, where Hill Residential are to build 115 new homes.

Local views painted by members of the Barnet Guild of Artists caught the eye of art critic Estelle Lovatt and former guild chair Nichola Hunt on the opening night of the guild’s annual exhibition at the Wesley Hall in Stapylton Road.

This peaceful spinney in Christchurch Lane is a haven of wildlife less than 200 metres from Barnet High Street – but it’s threatened by new building. How can that be? Barnet Council declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency in 2022. Its recently-adopted Local Plan contains policies and supplementary planning documents specifically to protect green spaces of all kinds. Mayor Khan has similar planning policies and is currently consulting on London’s first Nature Recovery Plan (LNRS) to reverse biodiversity loss. Surely the spinney’s future is safe? Worryingly, the answer is no.

Artistic director Siobhan Dunne takes the applause at the final performance of Macbeth at The Bull Theatre...and already she is planning the next production by the Blue Door Company, High Barnet’s highly acclaimed drama group.

Despite the widening public provision of defibrillators, the Barnet branch of St John Ambulance is keen to do more to increase people’s confidence in responding to cardiac arrests by embarking on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation treatment.

After several ongoing local disputes about the height and density of new blocks of flats residents’ associations have welcomed plans to build 80 family homes on the remainder of the gas works site in Albert Road, New Barnet.

Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, called in at the brightly lit sensory playroom at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet, when he met staff and parents. During his visit he confirmed the financial settlement for the next three years for children and young people’s hospices under government funding from NHS England.

A community grocery store where needy residents and families can purchase a shopping basket of items for a minimum payment has opened in North Finchley as part of a growing initiative to provide affordable food.

Delihouse might be the smallest shop in The Spires – and only opened in the summer – but proprietor Jonathan Beecham is already expanding a delicatessen business which started with a Saturday stall at Barnet Market.