News from The Barnet Society

Victoria Bakery, a High Barnet institution for well over half a century, is closing down after the retirement of its owner James Freeman, a fifth-generation baker. Bread was first recorded as being baked at 83 High Street, Barnet, in 1884, and the Freeman family have been baking in north London since the 1820s.

According to a circular being distributed around Chipping Barnet, proposals are being developed to ‘improve’ the area around High Barnet station. These will include new public space and new homes, including affordable homes.

A new oil painting depicting the 1471 Battle of Barnet by local painter Keith West was unveiled in the Barnet Museum shop in the Spires – one of the events being held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of High Barnet’s shopping centre.

A pioneering New Barnet project for re-using supermarket flowers that have passed their sell-by dates is hoping to secure Lottery funding to expand its work teaching flower arranging to young offenders and residents at care homes.

Wars of the Roses heraldic banners, which are on display the full length of Barnet High Street, will provide a spectacular welcome for visitors to the second Barnet Medieval Festival to be held over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, June 8 and 9.

Motorists face a ten-week closure of the road through the historic gates at Monken Hadley in order to allow Thames Water to carry out much-delayed repair work to a sewer that collapsed earlier this year.

After 18 years of hard graft building up custom for her Barnet High Street gift shop, former actress Louise Rolfe has won a top accolade for highly rated independent retailers.

A school farm to be established in a 5.8 acre-field next to Totteridge Academy, in Barnet Lane, is to start off with a mini flock of Shetland sheep and several beehives.

Motorists face a ten-week closure of the road through the historic gates at Monken Hadley in order to allow Thames Water to carry out much-delayed repair work to a sewer that collapsed earlier this year.

Among the highlights at the annual commemoration day service for Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School were vocals by one of the youngest pupils and another by a past student whose musical training in Barnet inspired her to become an accomplished soprano.

Residents of the New Bevan housing estate in New Barnet face a daunting race against time to try to raise enough money to save a much-used meeting room and children’s play area.

An education programme aimed at widening public understanding of dementia and palliative care is being offered by the North London Hospice over the next 12 months and includes a summer school for teenagers who might be thinking of a career in medicine, nursing or health and social care.

Working together with other local primary and secondary schools and welcoming the involvement of community groups are among the key objectives of Aishling Ryan, newly-appointed principal of Barnet Ark Pioneer Academy which opens in September with its first intake of 180 pupils.

Several visitors at the first open day of the refurbished Barnet Physic Well fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition to descend the steps to see how the underground well chamber might have appeared when the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys drank its water in the 1660s.

After-school drama classes at the Bull Theatre provided an all-important source of inspiration for a Barnet schoolgirl who is now starring in musical comedy productions that have regularly sold out at the annual Edinburgh Festival.

Yet another change of owner of a Barnet High Street shop with a distinctly checkered history, has evoked memories of the day the premises were destroyed in what become known as the “Great Fire of Barnet” of August 1908.

Thames Water are warning that it will probably be the end of July before there is a final end to the roadworks that have led to road closures and restrictions on traffic passing through the historic village of Monken Hadley.

An alcove in front of Chipping Barnet library has been chosen as the potential site of a large granite sculpture, depicting a family of four, by Finchley sculptor Drew Edwards.

A business plan for opening a combined space for a children’s play area and community activities in Barnet High Street has won this year’s Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition. Joanne Merchant, a High Barnet mother of two, scooped up the top prize of £3,500 in financial backing plus business mentoring advice.

Twice as many Wars of the Roses heraldic banners will be hung from lamp standards along Barnet High Street this summer – just one of the attractions planned to commemorate the Battle of Barnet, and to promote a repeat of last year’s highly-successful Barnet Medieval Festival.