News from The Barnet Society

A packed programme of productions has been lined up for the coming months at the Bull Theatre, High Street, Barnet, to help raise £8,000 that is still outstanding for the cost of new seating.

Construction work has started on the pavement build outs in Barnet High Street – an improvement which community groups have campaigned for and which could be backed up by other measures proposed in Barnet Council’s draft growth strategy plan for the borough.

Barnet’s annual classic car show has a new venue this year – the vast open top deck of the NCP car park at the Spires shopping centre.

A large bin for the safe disposal of all bladed weapons and instruments has been installed in Union Street, High Barnet, in support of the drive to curb the rise in knife crime. “Collecting knives, saving lives” is the slogan of Word 4 Weapons, which says it is the UK’s leading weapons surrender charity.

A plan to convert a three-storey commercial warehouse in Moxon Street, High Barnet, into a complex of 107 self-contained studio flats has attracted a flood of hostile criticism from neighbours and nearby residents. Barnet Council’s website for planning applications registered a total of 34 objections by the closing date (27.6.2019).

Customers queuing out into the street, a free donut with every purchase and champagne for the staff – a great finale for the last day of trading at Victoria Bakery, a High Barnet institution for the last 50 years.

Victoria Bakery, a High Barnet institution for well over half a century, is closing down after the retirement of its owner James Freeman, a fifth-generation baker. Bread was first recorded as being baked at 83 High Street, Barnet, in 1884, and the Freeman family have been baking in north London since the 1820s.

After 18 years of hard graft building up custom for her Barnet High Street gift shop, former actress Louise Rolfe has won a top accolade for highly rated independent retailers.

Yet another change of owner of a Barnet High Street shop with a distinctly checkered history, has evoked memories of the day the premises were destroyed in what become known as the “Great Fire of Barnet” of August 1908.

A business plan for opening a combined space for a children’s play area and community activities in Barnet High Street has won this year’s Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition. Joanne Merchant, a High Barnet mother of two, scooped up the top prize of £3,500 in financial backing plus business mentoring advice.

Injecting fresh life into High Barnet’s distressed High Street is a challenge for retailers, but two women entrepreneurs believe that their offer of a frequently-changing range of craft goods and products is proving popular.

From its new call centre at Bowes Park, volunteers from the North London Samaritans are stepping up their efforts to reach out to help anyone troubled by personal or emotional problems and to advise those most at risk of suicide.

Every Sunday this winter St Mark’s Church, Barnet Vale, becomes a night shelter for the homeless – “our contribution to helping the weakest”, says the Vicar, the Reverend Tristan Chapman.

Gary Murphy, landlord at one of High Barnet’s highly-rated real ale pubs, the Mitre, is preparing for the next round of an ongoing campaign to force the pub owners to give publicans of tied houses a fairer deal on rents and the price and choice of beers.

Many of the Royal Mail post boxes around Barnet, Potters Bar and Brookmans Park have been decorated for Christmas with a seasonal display of knitted animals in order to raise money for the RSCPA rescue centre at Southridge.

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.

Barnet’s annual Christmas fayre broke with tradition this year. Instead of being opened by the Mayor of Barnet, the ceremony was conducted by the “Lord Mayor of London, Councillor Richard Whittington” – star of the Christmas pantomime at the The Bull Theatre.

Volunteers hoping to organise a repeat of this summer’s Barnet Medieval Festival are rallying support for pledges of a minimum of £2 per person in this year’s Mayor of London crowdfunding appeal. Organisers have set a target of £35,000 for a festival next year over the weekend of June 8-9, 2019.

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.

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.