News from The Barnet Society

High Barnet police station is one of 30 or so across London where a front counter service to the public is likely to be withdrawn under a cost-cutting plan announced by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Neil Kinnock led the tributes at a party to celebrate the 93rd birthday party for Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s most celebrated trade unionist – and a New Barnet resident for over 60 years.

Reaching out to local schools to explain and promote Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses is one of the key objectives of the lottery-funded Battle of Barnet project.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, re-opened High Barnet’s Roman Catholic church after the completion of a 100-seat extension and extensive refurbishment.

New Ground co-housing, the innovative flats for older women in Union Street, High Barnet, have been declared overall winner of the prestigious 2017 Housing Design Awards – and are now up for another accolade. The Barnet Society is nominating the development for recognition in Barnet Council’s newly-launched 2017 Architecture Awards.

After failing its first public examination, Ark Pioneer Academy (APA) is back for a re-sit – this time a planning application for a new 1,200-place secondary school and 6th form.

A survey is to be undertaken to discover the extent of local interest and reaction to the prospect of housing development on the Whalebones green space, between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street.

A £10,000 pledge of support from the Spires shopping centre has given an all-important boost to the crowd-funding campaign to raise £56,000 to stage a monthly teenage market in Barnet from Easter next year.

Internal fixtures and fittings are being added to a 100-seat extension to the Roman Catholic Church in Union Street, ready for its re-consecration by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, on Sunday 3 September. Seating capacity at the Church of Mary Immaculate and St Gregory the Great is being increased from 240 to 340.

Roads running between High Barnet and New Barnet merge together almost seamlessly today, but in the 1930s, when farmland still separated the two towns, the footpath up to the shops in the High Street was through fields filled with cows.

To the dismay of its owner, Barnet Council has refused planning permission for a semi-derelict shop in Union Street, High Barnet, to be demolished and replaced with either a two-bedroom house or two one-bedroom flats.

The Barnet Press, once one of the most respected weekly newspapers in North London, has ceased publication after steadily losing circulation and struggling financially. Established in 1859 by the Cowing family, the Barnet Press was originally published and printed at its premises in Barnet High Street.

Local ramblers who have followed the guiding notes in ‘Rambles Round Barnet’ Part 1 for Walk 1 may well be familiar with the changing fortunes of the footpath that leads from Totteridge Common to the Dollis Valley.

An unrivalled display of images of Richard III, from his role in the 1471 Battle of Barnet until his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, has been amassed by photographer Geoffrey Wheeler.

Generations of Barnet children have enjoyed a trip on the miniature railway that circles the Wood Street garden of Ian Johnson, a well-known retired doctor and skilled model engineer, famed his collection of model steam engines.

Six months to install a mini-roundabout – an entry perhaps for the Guinness Book of Records – but worth the wait if safety and traffic flow improves at one of High Barnet’s notorious traffic junctions. Work has finally been completed on road realignment and resurfacing at the junction of Wellhouse Lane and Wood Street.

A 120ft garden at a traditional Edwardian semi-detached house in Normandy Avenue, Barnet, has secured recognition from the National Garden Scheme – a long-held ambition for the owners. Derek Epstein and Jo Vargas will be welcoming visitors to their garden on Sunday 23 July to raise money for charity.

Enthusiasts and local residents gathered in their hundreds on Hadley Green for a picnic lunch and Sunday afternoon of music at the sixth annual Jazz on the Green, organised by Hadley Residents Association.

In recent years Barnet Market has been a shadow of what it once was, but a life-line is at hand.  Imaginative plans are being promoted to use the site for a monthly market place where teenagers can set up stalls and present live entertainment.

Plans to replace a semi-derelict vacant shop that has blighted Union Street for many years will go a long way towards finishing off a make-over for one of High Barnet’s historic thoroughfares.