News from The Barnet Society

Family historians keen to research the lives of people living in Barnet in the 1920s have only twelve months to wait before the release of the much-anticipated 1921 census and its wealth of information about life in the aftermath of the First World War.

Just as the New Year lockdown was announced, the proprietors of High Barnet's newest brasserie, Botannika, went ahead with their planned opening -- offering a take-away menu and a range of bread and cakes.

Lockdown and self-isolation have imposed few significant changes in the daily life of the nuns of the enclosed order of Barnet Poor Clares who this year are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of their monastery in Galley Lane, Arkley.

A New Barnet institution, the French restaurant Chez Tonton has closed after 37 years -- an emotional farewell for proprietors Eric and Claudine Michel, who are known to legions of loyal customers, and who are looking forward to fresh challenges in their retirement.

At the close of 2020, after one of the bleakest years for High Barnet in recent living memory, the long wait for spring should be relieved by the recognition that the local community enjoys perhaps the greenest surroundings of any comparable north London community.

Boxes of chocolates, gift bags - and volunteering to have on-line chats with lonely dementia patients - are just some of the many ways in which residents have been showing support and solidarity with the medical and ancilliary staff at Barnet Hospital coping with the added pressures of the covid.19 emergency.

With their performances for Barnet's Christmas Fayre and their annual pantomime at the Bull Theatre all having to be cancelled because of the covid.19 pandemic, pupils at the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School were still determined that 'the show must go on'.

Tree planting to sustain Hadley Woods is proving a far simpler task than updating the archaic laws that have governed Monken Hadley Common since the reign of King George III.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has backed Barnet Council's decision to reject planning permission for the construction of blocks of flats of up to ten storeys high on the former gas works site at New Barnet.

Increased unemployment and rising hardship due to covid-19 are putting pressure on food banks across the country: 15 new food banks have opened across the London Borough of Barnet since the start of the pandemic.

A two-month delay in opening a purpose-built new ward for covid-19 patients increased pressure at Barnet Hospital as medical staff struggled to cope with the start of the second wave of the pandemic in the first weeks of the autumn.

National Grid has applied to Barnet Council for permission to demolish New Barnet's redundant gasholder saying it is a safety risk and wants to free up the land for residential development.

A medieval timber roof discovered above a vacant shop in Barnet High Street might be as old or even older than the famous hammer-beam roof at Westminster Hall, the oldest building at the Houses of Parliament.

  Friends of Barnet Market are welcoming the continued presence of the twice-weekly market during the second lockdown -- and are especially pleased with the success of a new fresh fish stall from Ipswich.

Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School is helping to promote National Road Safety Week with a large banner close to the school entrance at the busy road junction of Barnet Hill and Meadway.

Women are increasingly taking over from men in cultivating allotments - a national trend which is certainly being reflected at the popular Byng Road allotments in High Barnet.

A socially distanced two-minute silence was observed at the war memorial at Barnet parish church to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Without him knowing what was happening, past and present pupils at Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School, Barnet, were voting secretly for their popular history teacher and sixth form tutor, Marc Fielder, to become the 2020 London Secondary School Teacher of the Year.

Going to the pictures once or even several times a week used to be commonplace among the older generation...but with the closure of numerous cinemas across the London Borough of Barnet memories are fading fast.

An application has been made for planning permission to build three flats on the site of the former Victoria Bakery in Barnet High Street -- the shop doorway that was said to have been the location where Charles Dickens imagined Oliver Twist meeting the Artful Dodger.