News from The Barnet Society

Planning applications have been approved for changes to several of the iconic buildings at the historic heart of High Barnet’s conservation area. Work is to start in late April on a “makeover” at the town’s oldest coaching inn, The Mitre.

After the success of last year’s revived Arkley village fayre, the organisers are planning an even more ambitious event for Saturday 31 May at the village field in Brickfield Lane, Arkley.

Former Secretary of State Theresa Villiers, who was Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet until she lost her seat in last year’s general election, has been made a Dame Commander in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours. Four of her ex-colleagues were promoted to the House of Lords.

Barnet Post Office is to become a franchise operation along with another 107 crown offices across the country where the Post Office is to cease its own management and staffing. Applications to run these businesses as a franchise are currently being considered. New owners could be in place by the end of September.

Recently restored and repaired medieval banners commemorating the 1471 Battle of Barnet will once again decorate the High Street during the summer months after Barnet Museum intervened with financial support.

After being unable to play at home last year because crows had dug holes in their green, the East Barnet Valley Bowls Club is holding open days at weekends during the coming months in a bid to boost their membership.

A decade long association as a volunteer at the Rainbow Centre, the community hub for the Dollis Valley estate, has been rewarded with a Barnet Council “Inspiration All” award for Patricia Gay in recognition of her dedication and support.

Information boards celebrating the 60th anniversary of the creation of the London Borough of Barnet are on display at Barnet Museum’s shop in The Spires shopping centre and at the Chipping Barnet Library.

Barnet’s popular roadside cafe, The Hole in the Wall, will have a prominent position on the Great North Road (A1000) if Barnet Council approves plans for redevelopment of the Meadow Works industrial estate at Pricklers Hill.

A lifetime’s fascination with the work of the prominent early Baroque painter Caravaggio has led to an unexpected twist in the career of High Barnet painter and art lecturer Keith West.

Yet another smiling recipient...but the days are numbered at High Barnet’s free book shop which is desperately looking for new premises as it is under notice to leave The Spires shopping centre.

A small village community of flats and bungalows established by two Holocaust survivors has provided a home over the decades for hundreds of students from all over the world – an achievement celebrated with a visit by the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou.

Arkley’s much admired volunteer litter picker is having to admit defeat when confronted with an abandoned ULEZ camera pole which was left lying on the grass verge after being cut down during a wave of sabotage.

Motorists and bus passengers are facing severe disruption for the rest of March because of the closure for sewer repairs of Barnet Road, Arkley – the main road from High Barnet towards Arkley and Borehamwood.

Leaflets promoting Bring Barnet Back are being distributed across the town as the campaign hots up to persuade Barnet Council to approve plans for a new football stadium at Underhill.

Preparations are well underway for the most ambitious programme so far for the popular summer season of concerts beside Jack’s Lake at Monken Hadley Common. Since the festival was launched in 2021, there has been ever growing support for the open-air musical evenings which are held in a woodland glade beside the lake.

A guided tour of New Barnet’s much-cherished community garden by Wendy Alcock, founder of the Incredible Edible campaign, was a highlight of the group’s annual seed swap at St John’s United Reformed Church.

Claire Fisher’s first play – Mary Livingstone, I Presume? – tickles the audience with a joyous array of gossip and small talk between the Hadley Green gentry of yesteryear, their servants and the townspeople of Barnet. The Bull Theatre was packed with highly appreciative audiences for the latest production by the Blue Door Theatre Company.

When responding to the debate over the two most controversial development applications to have emerged since he was elected Labour MP for Chipping Barnet seven months ago, Dan Tomlinson is insisting he will maintain his neutrality.

Revised plans for blocks of flats to be built over the car park at High Barnet tube station show that the highest would be ten storeys in height. A total of five blocks ranging from eight to ten storeys would be constructed alongside Barnet Hill with the tallest opposite the lower entrance to the tube station.