News from The Barnet Society

After months of uncertainty a deal has finally been agreed: High Barnet's historic Tudor Hall in the middle of the Barnet College campus has been saved for community use. A bid by the trustees of Barnet Museum has been accepted by the board of governors of Barnet and Southgate College.

Barnet Council is to take on the task of helping to promote and support arts and cultural events across the borough -- a role previously performed by a network of volunteers. An online guide is to be published by the council listing a wide range of arts, leisure and sports events.

Answering questions from Barnet Friends of the Earth was a chance for the Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson to say more about his plans to encourage initiatives such as helping to finance the installation of solar panels on community buildings.

A plan to introduce bus lanes along both sides of the busiest section of Barnet High Street -- between the Wood Street junction at the Barnet parish church and Meadway -- has been approved by Barnet Council and Transport for London. Only six objections were registered after 456 letters were sent to nearby residents and businesses.

Daily life in High Barnet well over a century ago has been re-imagined for a new play which looks back even further in time to the years when the Victorian explorer Dr David Livingstone and his wife Mary lived on Hadley Green.

Sarah Parish, well known for her role in tv series such as Peak Practice and Pillars of the Earth, and her husband, actor James Murray, are supporting drama therapy sessions at the Noah's Ark Children's Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet.

Regular customers at The Queens Arms, Barnet, have been fearing the worst with the doors remaining locked and no sign of life inside. However, they have been assured that the closure -- and also the closure of the Kings Head in Barnet High Street -- are both only temporary.

Plans to demolish a group of workshops and other industrial premises mid-way between Barnet and Whetstone has revived family memories of how it was once the site of a well-regarded laundry serving customers in and around North London.

Pioneering work by Chipping Barnet Foodbank is highlighting Barnet Council's shortcomings in tackling hardship resulting from food shortages and inadequate advice for needy families.

Barnet residents should know by late February the full extent of the expenditure cuts which will have to be imposed by the borough council to reduce a looming budget deficit which could still top £50million.

Whitings Hill Primary School is among the recent beneficiaries of a borough-wide Digital Inclusion project to repurpose surplus computer chrome books and laptops for use in schools across Barnet.  Such is the shortage computer hardware that in some schools two or even three pupils have to share a keyboard and computer screen when completing online class

Barnet Football Club has chosen a new site within the Green Belt at Underhill for a proposed £14 million new football stadium.

An exceptionally long festive decoration extending over 14 separate windowpanes at the Mama Fifi restaurant has won High Barnet's competition for the most imaginative Christmas window presentation. Proprietor Ali Karakas (see above) commissioned the mural even before he knew there was going to be a competition.

Behind an unassuming front door just off Barnet High Street is the hustle and bustle of a café which for the last 70 years has been producing a constant supply of full English breakfasts, hot meals, snacks, sandwiches and an endless supply of teas and coffees.

Higher charges for car parking and residential parking permits have been announced by Barnet Council and will apply as from the start of the New Year.  Future increases will be far greater if the council goes ahead with a wide-ranging policy review designed to drive down car use across the borough.

Events surrounding the history of a house on Hadley Green which for a few years was the home of the Victorian explorer Dr David Livingstone is the inspiration for a new play to be performed by a High Barnet drama group.

A 90-year-old cast iron framework which used to house a gasometer is to be demolished as part of a Berkeley Homes development in the northern half of the former gas works site in New Barnet.

A 12-acre field off Galley Lane will be the setting next June for what seems likely to be the largest medieval camp and re-enactment site staged by the town since the start of the recent run of events to commemorate the 1471 Battle of Barnet.

Braving the rain, the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou, opened the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre, cutting a red ribbon stretched across the High Street. He congratulated the organisers on continuing to stage an event which had always been a traditional and popular curtain raiser to the town’s Christmas festivities.

Barnet's credentials as a green borough have been strengthened enormously by the dedication of volunteers who maintain the seven-and-a-half-acre nature reserve and environment centre off Byng Road. Councillor Tony Vourou, Mayor of Barnet, paid tribute to their work at an event to celebrate the centre’s 50th anniversary.