News from The Barnet Society

Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice is rapidly reaching completion in the grounds of the nature reserve maintained by Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road, Barnet. Next April, staff and support workers hope to move into what is promised will be a state-of-the-art children’s hospice serving north London and Hertsmere. The official opening is provisionally timed for July.

 “Come on you Bricks” is now rivalling the Barnet football chant of “Up the Bees” as supporters of Hadley Football Club promote their much-improved recent performances and refurbished football ground. Hadley FC – which is even older than Barnet Football Club – plays at Brickfield Lane, Arkley, hence their nickname “The Bricks”.

Many of the Royal Mail post boxes around Barnet, Potters Bar and Brookmans Park have been decorated for Christmas with a seasonal display of knitted animals in order to raise money for the RSCPA rescue centre at Southridge.

Hertsmere Council is consulting on the possibility of building up to 2,620 new homes plus new places of work between Wrotham Park and Potters Bar, westwards as far as South Mimms and eastwards beyond M25 junction 24. This would have a huge impact on our Green Belt.

SaveTheHighStreet.org – which is campaigning to help shopping centres that are facing challenging times – is to hold a series of advice sessions in High Barnet on Wednesday 12 December.

Barnet’s annual Christmas fayre broke with tradition this year. Instead of being opened by the Mayor of Barnet, the ceremony was conducted by the “Lord Mayor of London, Councillor Richard Whittington” – star of the Christmas pantomime at the The Bull Theatre.

The Barnet Society welcomes the Council’s intention to restore Barnet & King George V Playing Fields, and to widen public access by providing a café with toilet facilities and play areas for children and their parents or carers.

Efforts are underway to identify and map the many alleyways and footpaths that add so much to the local landscape and help make High Barnet such an attractive place to live.

A major redevelopment of Barnet playing fields in Dollis Valley could include the provision of a skate board park, children’s play areas, an outdoor gym as well as a series of new football pitches and a new community centre with indoor sports facilities.

Barnet’s historic wellhouse, which houses one of the best-preserved medicinal wells in the country, has been restored to its full mock-Tudor glory.

A strong local cast from around Barnet, including former pupils at the Suzi Earnshaw Theatre School, will be appearing in Dick Whittington, this year’s Christmas pantomime at the Bull Theatre. Councillor David Longstaff, actor, High Barnet councillor and former Mayor of Barnet, will be taking on the part of the dame.

After having moved from site to site in recent years, Barnet Market has returned to the bandstand area beside Waitrose, at the rear of the Spires shopping centre, and traders hope that finally this will become their settled home.

Plans for a 100-bed Premier Inn on the site of Barnet Market were approved by a clear majority at a meeting of Barnet Council’s planning committee despite the continued, forthright opposition of residents in the adjoining Chipping Close.

Gail Laser, founder of Love Barnet, has won national recognition for the decade she has spent working tirelessly to improve trading conditions in Barnet High Street.

St Mark’s Church, Barnet Vale, is launching an appeal to find out more about the families and relatives of the 29 men whose names are commemorated on a First World War plaque about which little is known.

After carefully weighing members’ and readers’ – often differing – points of view on the changes proposed by Transport for London (TfL) to the 292, 384 & 606 bus routes and a bus stop on Barnet Hill, the Barnet Society has concluded that for the moment we support the present arrangements.

Barnet’s pioneering role in the development of care for young people suffering from multiple sclerosis has one lasting memento – a plaque commemorating the opening of the Marie Foster Centre by the Duchess of Gloucester in November 1973.

Seven new almshouses for women aged over 50 – currently under construction in Potters Lane – are continuing a tradition that dates back to the 17th century, and for which Chipping Barnet has a proud place in the history of caring for the needy.

Volunteers hoping to organise a repeat of this summer’s Barnet Medieval Festival are rallying support for pledges of a minimum of £2 per person in this year’s Mayor of London crowdfunding appeal. Organisers have set a target of £35,000 for a festival next year over the weekend of June 8-9, 2019.

A planning application has now been submitted to Barnet Council for a large-scale private care home for the elderly on the Marie Foster site in the heart of the Wood Street conservation area.