News from The Barnet Society

An education programme aimed at widening public understanding of dementia and palliative care is being offered by the North London Hospice over the next 12 months and includes a summer school for teenagers who might be thinking of a career in medicine, nursing or health and social care.

Working together with other local primary and secondary schools and welcoming the involvement of community groups are among the key objectives of Aishling Ryan, newly-appointed principal of Barnet Ark Pioneer Academy which opens in September with its first intake of 180 pupils.

Several visitors at the first open day of the refurbished Barnet Physic Well fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition to descend the steps to see how the underground well chamber might have appeared when the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys drank its water in the 1660s.

After-school drama classes at the Bull Theatre provided an all-important source of inspiration for a Barnet schoolgirl who is now starring in musical comedy productions that have regularly sold out at the annual Edinburgh Festival.

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.

Thames Water are warning that it will probably be the end of July before there is a final end to the roadworks that have led to road closures and restrictions on traffic passing through the historic village of Monken Hadley.

An alcove in front of Chipping Barnet library has been chosen as the potential site of a large granite sculpture, depicting a family of four, by Finchley sculptor Drew Edwards.

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.

Twice as many Wars of the Roses heraldic banners will be hung from lamp standards along Barnet High Street this summer – just one of the attractions planned to commemorate the Battle of Barnet, and to promote a repeat of last year’s highly-successful Barnet Medieval Festival.

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.

Barnet Hospital’s first nurses’ home, now used for offices, is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its opening – just as work is underway to provide new accommodation for key nursing staff.

Plans for a spring clean-up of litter has attracted hundreds of promises of support after mother-of-three Nanna Blomquist launched a Green Beings High Barnet community organisation to campaign for greater environmental awareness.

Barnet Council’s latest cost-cutting proposal is to end the long-standing practice of locking up gates to parks, gardens and car parks at nightfall. Abandoning this safeguard – which was introduced to prevent anti-social behaviour and vandalism – could eventually save the council £75,000 a year.

Chipping Barnet is surrounded on three sides by Green Belt – virtually unspoiled open countryside from Hadley Wood in the east to Whitings Hill in the west and south along the valley of the Dollis Brook.

Ark Pioneer Academy, built on the site of the Underhill football stadium, opens in September Ark Pioneer Academy, High Barnet’s new secondary school opening in September, has started holding drop in sessions for potential parents and pupils – heightening the debate about its impact on other nearby schools.

Staff and sales assistants at the Spires shopping centre are keen to publicise the location of a defibrillator that has been installed at the High Street entrance with the help of a £500 donation from the Barnet Residents Association.

Resident guardians who have had temporary homes in the former Marie Foster Centre in Wood Street, Barnet, are moving out following the approval of plans to build a 100-room care home on the site.

Darlands Conservation Trust The previous update of 20th December 2018 referred to the Trust that had been set up on 4th September 2017 by the London Borough of Barnet. The trustees included representatives of some local Residents Associations, The London Wildlife Trust and 2 local councillors.

Plans are afoot – if funding can be obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund – to re-start an archaeological investigation in a renewed attempt to find the precise site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet.

On 29 March the UK is likely to withdraw from the EU. What impact will this have on High Barnet, New Barnet, Arkley, Underhill and other parts of our Borough?