News from The Barnet Society

A deep, sometimes noisy divide opened up at the Barnet Society’s election hustings over a wide range of contentious local issues including the need for affordable housing, concern over an increasing number of empty homes, the outsourcing of services to Capita and the demand for free town centre parking.

A campaign has been launched to restore to full use Hadley Green’s historic water fountain, an ornate structure built of pink marble, and once resplendent with a set of brass drinking cups.

Years of uncertainty about the ownership of Barnet Museum and the future of Barnet’s historic physic well have both been successfully resolved after sustained efforts by volunteers and well-wishers.

Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet, played its part in the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Representation of People Act giving women the right to vote.

Sitting right in the middle of a typical Barnet street of Edwardian homes is an eye-catching 1960s modern house that is still lived in by the architect who had to fight long and hard against town planners reluctant to give their approval.

Leading Barnet councillors and candidates will be lining up to answer residents’ questions at the Barnet Society’s Open Forum on Thursday 22 February.

Young mums and their babies were out in force at a protest meeting to try to force Barnet Council to abandon its decision to close the Barnet Breastfeeding Support Service – at an annual saving to the council of £75,000.

A group of residents campaigning to stop housing development on the Whalebones farmland are investigating several options for safeguarding one of High Barnet’s much-loved green spaces.

A replica of a late medieval helmet of a kind worn by a knight or man-at-arms at the 1471 Battle of Barnet is the latest acquisition for an exhibition that is being planned at Barnet Museum to celebrate Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses.

Two historic cottages at the corner of Wood Street and Manor Road have revealed a secret that has been hidden for 150 years or more – and it gives a glimpse of the fashionable interior of the fine houses that once graced High Barnet.

Local residents are being urged by the Barnet Society to support a campaign to make sure historic footpaths are properly registered so as to ensure they are protected for the future as public rights of way. Unless favourite footpaths and walks are included in the new 2026 definitive map they might be lost forever.

A sing song going through favourites of yester-year is a highlight at a Barnet hairdressing salon when 102-year-old Greta Nellie Druce pays her weekly visit to have her hair done.

Parents of children at Cromer Road Primary School, New Barnet, are launching a last-minute campaign to get votes in support of a money-raising appeal for the cost of a new roof for the school’s swimming pool.

Unthinking council planners and contractors are being blamed by local tree lovers for hacking through the roots of 250-year-old oak by excavating a trench and building two concrete bases for broadband telephone boxes.

Workshop where students shared their experiences as part of a theatrical project to tackle cyber-bullying Two students who took part in a workshop at the Wood Street campus of  Barnet and Southgate College are to appear in a new play, Cookies, that explores the challenging world of cyber-bullying.

Record GCSE and A-level results for the second consecutive year have now been topped by the news that Queen Elizabeth Girls’ School, Barnet, has been ranked in the top 2 per cent of all secondary schools by the Department of Education.

Barnet Old People’s Welfare committee fears that the demolition of the Fern Room, its day centre in Salisbury Road, to make way for a block of ten flats might well force the closure of a group that has been providing activities for Barnet’s elderly resident for the last 75 years.

Michael Portillo, presenter of the tv series Great Railway Journeys, unveiled a plaque at Hadley Wood station to commemorate the great steam locomotive engineer Sir Nigel Gresley, who was a former Hadley Wood resident.

Plans have been announced by a developer to demolish the Fern Room in Salisbury Road, Barnet, and replace it with a new building containing ten flats as well as new ground-floor community facilities.

Barnet market stall holders are delighted by the news that the managing agents for the Spires shopping centre are planning to move the twice-weekly stalls market to the paved area between Waitrose and the bandstand.