News from The Barnet Society

After almost a decade spent planning, campaigning and fund-raising, the Bishop of Stepney, the Right Reverend Adrian Newman, led the celebrations to mark the completion of a £1.3 million drop-in and activity centre at Christ Church, in St Albans Road, Barnet.

On his first visit to Barnet, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was on the warpath at the 1471 Battle of Barnet – five centuries later his namesake was back in the town joining the fight to preserve Barnet’s historic legacy.

Three Barnet war memorials – at Arkley, East Barnet and Monken Hadley Common – have been given the added protection of listed building status after a review conducted by Historic England. They were each considered of sufficient special architectural or historic interest to secure Grade II listing from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Transport for London is facing concerted opposition to a proposed reduction from 15 minutes to 20 minutes in the frequency of the 384 bus from Quinta Drive, Barnet, to Cockfosters.

Helen Giles, who has wide experience as a museum curator and consultant for numerous heritage projects, has been appointed project co-ordinator for the programme to promote and explain the Battle of Barnet of 1471. Her appointment by the Battle of Barnet Project has been made possible by a grant of £98,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Preserving two massive jaw bones from a ninety-foot-long blue whale is just one of the challenges facing the new owners of Barnet’s historic Whalebones House, one of the town’s oldest residences surrounded by woods and fields that are now threatened with redevelopment.

A two-hour session of play and activities once a month at the Sense Touch Base, just off Barnet High Street, is a lifeline for children who are often isolated at home caring for sick or disabled parents.

Another of Barnet’s historic public houses, the White Lion in St Albans Road, has closed, and local residents fear that it might be converted into flats or even demolished to make way for a new housing development.

Chipping Barnet library will operate on a partial self-service basis during April and May before closing again on Monday 5 June for extensive internal construction work over the summer months to convert some of the building into commercial office space.

Barnet's WEA* is launching its first-ever one-day Summer Saturday courses in May, 2017.;They are being held at the recently-opened Hope Corner Community Centre in Mays Lane (185 Mays Lane, EN5 2DY) On Saturday 6th May the topic is “The Power of the Petticoat: The history of women in politics 1700 – 1930”.

Celebrations for the Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65 years on the throne, brought back fond memories for former Buckingham Palace pastry chef, George O’Connor, who lives in sheltered housing in Barnet.

A ready supply of lively and forthright questions kept the politics and views of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers firmly under the spotlight at her annual question and answer session with members of the Barnet Society and other local associations.

The job of promoting and explaining the Battle of Barnet of 1471 is to be undertaken by a project co-ordinator whose appointment has been made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

After years of uncertainty answers have finally been found to questions about the identity and motives of an early pioneer in the continuing task of defending the footpaths and green spaces that mean so much to members of the Barnet Society.

After what for her personally – and for the rest of the country – has been a momentous political year, the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers, will be the guest of the Barnet Society at our annual question and answer session at 3pm on Friday 20 January.

Two sculptures by the noted Barnet sculptor John Brown are due to appear in Steven Spielberg’s most recent science fiction adventure, Ready Player One, which is being filmed in Birmingham and at the Warner Studios in Leavesden.

There has been another indication of the growing commercial interest in, and rising value of Barnet’s Green Belt land – just as Arkley residents step up their campaign against local farmland being developed as a natural burial site.

Outraged Barnet book lovers staged a mass read-in outside the closed front doors of Chipping Barnet Library to demonstrate their dismay and anger at the downgrading of a much-loved community asset.

The Barnet Society is taking full advantage of an opportunity to influence the re-drafting of the London Plan by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan – and local residents are being urged to add their voice to the case we are making.

If residents are prepared to back a mass campaign of objection, the Barnet Society believes there might still be a chance to limit, if not prevent, the downgrading of Chipping Barnet Library.