News from The Barnet Society

These are critical times for London’s Green Belt. But Barnet still has many open spaces where the illusion of countryside is remarkably unspoiled. Eight of them – all in Totteridge or Mill Hill – are on new videos that you can view on the website of the London Green Belt Council (LGBC).

A book of condolence for the death of Queen Elizabeth II has been opened at Barnet Parish Church and will be available for signing until the state funeral on Monday 19 September.

Having a wash down after a rugby match in Barnet can be quite a spectacle to behold. Mud-splattered players are still having to jump into one of two huge communal baths inside their dilapidated clubhouse at the Byng Road playing fields.

There could hardly have been a more poignant moment at Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School, Barnet. Within less than half an hour of the official announcement of the Queen's death, headteacher Violet Walker had to preside at the annual prize giving at a school which had an especially close association with her reign.

Ponies and traps with their owners and admirers assembled on Hadley Green in an attempt to maintain the spirit of the historic Barnet Horse Fair which by tradition is held early in September but which is without a regular site. Photographs of the impromptu Sunday gathering were posted on the Romany Heritage website.

Alan Parish, assistant organist at St John the Baptist Church, Barnet, for over half a century, was at the console as an accompanist for a valedictory choral evensong to celebrate what was described as his remarkable contribution and exemplary dedication.

Flags, bunting and even a "royal" visit were the order of the day at Barnet Market to help celebrate the 823rd birthday of its royal charter and the first anniversary of its new-found trading freedom.

Public consultation over an application for an adult gaming centre in Barnet High Street has been re-opened. Community groups and residents now have the chance to study responses made to earlier objections.

Food banks across the London Borough of Barnet are being supplied with surplus apples and pears which are being picked by the volunteer group Barnet Community Harvesters. Fruit is ripening earlier than usual because of this summer’s heatwave and drought and some fruits are smaller in size but there is a plentiful crop.

A new two-storey clubhouse and an improved layout of four rugby pitches will transform Byng Road playing fields if planning approval is obtained by Barnet Elizabethans Rugby Football Club.

Two new hospitality ventures are hoping to boost evening trade in Barnet High Street - a cafe bar with a special line in cocktails and a pop-up bar offering locally brewed craft beers and real ale.

After months of negotiation and trial and error a site has finally been agreed for a small bronze statue commemorating High Barnet's feline celebrity, Millie the Waitrose cat.

Local councils in London and the Home Counties are currently planning to allow building on more than 48,000 acres of the Green Belt, according to a major new report by the London Green Belt Council (LGBC).

After a nine-day Public Inquiry last month in Hendon Town Hall, a Planning Inspector has dismissed Citystyle Fairview’s appeal against Barnet Council’s refusal of 539 flats on the former gasworks site.

National Car Parks has refused to comment on speculation that its contract to operate the NCP car park at The Spires Shopping Centre in High Barnet is about to be relinquished or even terminated.

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has stepped in to support residents in a renewed attempt to stop the demolition of 33 Lyonsdown Road, New Barnet, a locally-listed Victorian villa which the Barnet Society and other heritage groups have been campaigning to save since 2017.

The Lord Nelson, tucked away off Wood Street, High Barnet, is the 2022 Runner Up Pub of the Year in the annual contest organised by the Enfield and Barnet Campaign for Real Ale.

Two stalwarts have stepped down after 20 years' campaigning with the Barnet Society -- High Street champion Gail Laser and long-standing committee member Andrew Hutchings.

After remaining empty and disused for the last four years, a buyer has finally been found for the abandoned car park that was once the home of Barnet Market -- and what was for a brief time due to have become the site of a Premier Inn.

After 30 years in business the A1 Clay Shooting Ground just north of Arkley has closed -- raising questions as to the future use of another large site in the Green Belt between Barnet and the M25 motorway.