News from The Barnet Society

Saving rainwater is becoming ever more important in the face of global warming and our unusually dry summers...so Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road has installed a giant water butt to capture and store all it can.

A recital is to be held at St Mark's Church, Barnet Vale, in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of a celebrated organist and composer who lived in Barnet and whose organ and piano scores reflected the musical fashions of the Victorian era.

Eighteen months ago, the Barnet Society wrote that flouting of planning laws at 1 Sunset View and 70 High Street would be tests of Barnet Council’s will to enforce its planning decisions. Both owners appealed against Enforcement Orders, and both have lost. The decisions are significant victories over the degradation of Barnet’s Conservation Areas.

After the go ahead was given last month for controversial plans to build tower blocks of flats on the two car parks at Cockfosters tube station the government has intervened at the last minute to halt the project.

Volunteer working parties have managed to clear fallen branches and mark with hazard tape some of the twenty or so trees on Monken Hadley Common which were brought down in Storm Eunice.

To celebrate women's history month two guided walks are being held to raise awareness of the buildings and places that are associated with inspirational women from Barnet's past.

Sheila Hunt, who for almost fifty years was an inspirational leader for the Girl Guides movement in High Barnet, has died at the age of 93.

Pieces of medieval pottery and broken roof tiles have been discovered during a three-day archaeological dig at the rear of traditional sweet shop Hopscotch at 88 Barnet High Street. Significant finds that dated from later centuries included clay pipes from the 1600s and various bottles from the Victorian era.

Family history enthusiasts might be able to help in the search for memories, reflections or even photographs of school days in Barnet in the 1920s and 1930s. Marion Griffin is researching the life of her father John Samuel who was one of three boys and a girl born to a domestic servant at Barnet Workhouse.

A second attempt to get approval for an enlarged development of blocks of flats on the former gas works site at New Barnet has been refused -- and for now Barnet's largest brownfield site will continue to remain unused.

Of all the curiosities in High Barnet, perhaps the one which evokes the greatest pleasure is a collection of intricate tiny houses which decorate a tree stump in St Albans Road.

New premises are to be found for the neighbourhood police teams serving the wards in and around High Barnet before the Metropolitan Police goes ahead with the sale of the police station in the High Street.

A day's work pruning some of the trees which produce fruit for Barnet's foodbanks was the latest initiative for volunteers of Barnet Community Harvesters. Last autumn they collected not far short of 900 kilos of apples and pears which would otherwise have gone to waste, and they were distributed to food banks across the borough.

Hertfordshire County Council has stepped in to save much of the 84 bus service between St Albans and New Barnet station -- but a rescue deal only applies to the St Albans to Potters Bar section of the route and it looks like leaving Barnet residents without a vital service.

Tree planting and litter picking were two initiatives in what became a weekend of community action organised by the Barnet Society and the Barnet Residents Association.  Volunteers assembled on Barnet Hill to plant hawthorn saplings in the continuing effort to add trees and greenery alongside the main A1000 approach to High Barnet.

Brewer and pub retailer Greene King have given an assurance that a proposed refurbishment of the Mitre Inn in Barnet High Street will be carried out with the "utmost respect" for an historic 17th century coaching inn.

"Dogs and cats welcome" is the invitation that awaits customers at Nika, an innovative pet cafe which has opened on Barnet High Street.

Passengers who use the 84 bus service between New Barnet station and St Albans have launched a petition because of the threatened withdrawal of the route from the Metroline schedule.

Hertsmere Borough Council has withdrawn plans for housing and other development across vast tracts of Green Belt land to the north and west of Barnet following an outcry from residents about the loss of countryside.

An iconic building in Barnet High Street -- the much admired art deco frontage of what was once a Montague Burton menswear shop -- is about to get a new lease of life when the upper floor is converted into a soft-play area for toddlers and small children.