News from The Barnet Society

By the spring of next year and the second anniversary in March of the start of lockdown there should be a carpet of daffodils on the lawn in front of Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School.

After missing out on singing together and being forced for so long to rehearse via Zoom, the Barnet Choral Society are preparing for a stylish comeback presenting a performance of Verdi Requiem at their first concert for two years.

Above is the Green Belt between Barnet and St Albans. It’s the site of Bowmans Cross, a new settlement planned by Hertsmere Council. It will eventually have 6,000 homes for around 15,000 people – nearly as many as live in High Barnet ward.

More than two years after Barnet Council served an Enforcement Order on the owner of 70 High Street for non-compliance with its planning permission, and eight months after he appealed against the Order, a Planning Inspector has ruled that the building must be entirely demolished and the original building After Office Hours rebuilt.

A government decision is expected before the end of the year on the future of the Grasvenor Avenue Infant School where staff and parents have already been warned about its possible closure in July next year. Officials at the Department of Education are currently looking at the options.

Secondary school pupils who play an instrument or who are studying music are being invited to take part in a young composers' competition organised by the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival. The competition is aimed at widening local interest and support in what is to become an annual chamber music festival at Barnet Parish Church.

After Premier Inn abandoned its plans to build a new hotel on the former Barnet Market site, the empty land is back on the market for potential redevelopment with flats and townhouses. Bids for the site, which is bounded by St Albans Road and Chipping Close, have been received by agents Cushman and Wakefield.

A former warehouse and office block in Moxon Street is to be converted into a special needs school for up to 90 children with autism if Barnet Council gives the go ahead.

Signature at Barnet, a new care home with 100 apartments, which is due to open for residents in March next year, will become the largest nursing home in High Barnet.

After missing out last year, the High Street will be closed to traffic again for the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 5 December. Processions through the High Street – the photograph above was from the fayre in 2015 – draw huge crowds and there is always a wide range of events around the town centre.

Residents and admirers of High Barnet have every encouragement to enter a competition to write the best "Love Letter to London" -- after all this is said by many to be the most historic town within Greater London.

Closed circuit television and a steel security fence have been installed along a stretch of the St Albans Road to deter fly tippers who for years have taken advantage of a notorious dumping ground.

For the first time since it was opened 30 years ago the top deck of The Spires car park became a place to linger, look and admire.  Lined up was an impressive display of vintage and classic cars.

Two inspired community projects -- encouraging community gardens and collecting unwanted fruit -- celebrated their initiatives by combining to hold a joint workshop to produce local apple juice.

Fewer entries than usual at the annual show organised by the Barnet and District Beekeepers Association were only to be expected after so much unseasonal weather but there was praise as well for the standard achieved.

Back in February the Barnet Society thought it had helped save this remarkable Locally-Listed Victorian villa, when the Council unanimously refused its demolition in favour of 20 flats. But the developer has appealed against the decision, and you have until Wednesday 29 September to add your voice to preserve this building from the wrecking ball.

Jimmy Greaves, the legendary English footballer who has died at the age of 81, is held in great affection by fans of Barnet Football Club who remember seeing him play at Underhill in the 1977-78 football season.

Fog of War, a play written around the life of a community of local women living through the sound and fury of the 1471 Battle of Barnet, had its premiere in the historic setting of the garden of Monken Hadley Church.

A welcome return of his annual garden fete -- together with rides for children around his miniature railway track -- were another sign of life returning to normal at the Wood Street home of retired Barnet family practitioner Dr Ian Johnson.

A plan to construct as many as six blocks of flats over the car park and storage yard at High Barnet tube station appears to have been abandoned -- at least for the foreseeable future.