Saturday shoppers queued up in disbelief to read a bailiff’s notice posted on the front door of the Oasis coffee shop in the Spires shopping centre – the seventh business to have closed within the complex in recent months.
Barnet church has its clock back at last! For almost a month High Barnet residents looked in vain when needing to check the time, but the tower of the town’s famous landmark is resplendent once more.
Work is well underway preparing the ground for planting a wild-flower meadow which will become a major new attraction at Barnet Countryside Centre in Byng Road.
Love Barnet’s pop-up shop at 89 High Street promoting locally produced crafts and goods had what the staff said was a “fantastic” first week’s trading.
Guns & Smoke, a new American-style bar and grill at the heart of the High Barnet conservation area, is announcing that it will be opening soon – possibly by mid-September – although planning permission has yet to be obtained from Barnet Council.
Face-painting, games, balloons and cups of tea were among the attractions at Barnet Police Station’s open day as a full complement from the uniformed ranks were on hand to welcome local residents, families and children.
Work is about to start in Union Street, just off Barnet High Street, on the construction of twenty-five flats for older women.
Continue reading Ground-breaking project for older women’s housing
Barnet’s bee population – and the borough’s beekeepers – are in very good shape thanks to the enthusiasm and good husbandry of the Barnet District Beekeepers Association.
Descendants of the family that established the Thomas Watson Cottage Homes, which are tucked away at the end of Leecroft Road, have unveiled a commemorative stone to mark their centenary.
British Telecom reworks its ever-lasting litany of excuses and is finally being forced to admit to internet customers in High Barnet that it has no intention of honouring a much-repeated undertaking to deliver a high-speed broadband service.
Continue reading High Barnet’s third-world broadband service
After raising the staggering sum of half a million pounds, work has started on the first phase of an ambitious project to transform what was once Christ Church School into a drop-in facility for the elderly and a centre for the benefit of the wider community.
Two local history projects connecting Barnet’s past to the present day have been officially unveiled at Barnet Museum as part of its annual Tea in the Park celebration in Courthouse Gardens.
Continue reading Barnet Museum’s garden party brings history to life
Facelift for the Spires to be finished by the spring ready for Carluccio’s restaurant to open next summer. Building work is due to start in August constructing a new entrance to the Spires shopping centre, together with premises for a new branch of the Italian restaurant chain Carluccio’s that will have its frontage opening on to Barnet High Street.
Even before the completion of its fitting out, an application has been made for planning permission to almost double the size of a new private hospital which is to open in Moxon Street, High Barnet.
Parents of children due to start school from 2016 onwards are being urged to sign a petition to support a campaign to establish a new Church of England free school for High Barnet.
Continue reading Petition for new primary school in High Barnet
Just imagine the bustle and activity of 1898 when such was the competition in the High Street of Barnet that shoppers had the choice of eleven butchers, including one pork butcher and two poultry dealers! Today only one shop remains, the Butcher’s Hook.
British Telecom has been forced to admit that there will be another lengthy delay in providing a fast broadband service to up to 3,000 High Barnet households.
Around 2,000 boys from across London and the Home Counties are again expected to apply to study at Barnet’s award-winning Queen Elizabeth’s Boys’ School, which has just begun the selection process for the 180 places that will be available in September 2015.
Continue reading Queen Elizabeth’s Boys’ School – an academic hothouse at the expense of local boys?
When customer satisfaction is the only protection against the tsunami of change that is sweeping through so many of Britain’s high streets, few Barnet traders can match the long-standing loyalty of local residents for the refreshments served at Dory’s cafe, still going strong and now in the hands of the third generation of an Italian family.
Transport for London has turned down a suggestion by the Barnet Society that by slightly extending the final destination of the 34 bus service (Walthamstow Central to Barnet) there could be a reorganisation of bus stops at the top of Barnet Hill and an easing of traffic congestion.
New look for Spires shopping centre: a continental cafe-style culture for Barnet High Street?
Barnet Council has promised that a heritage officer will carry out an inspection in Church Passage in the “very near future” in an attempt to resolve continuing disagreement over cladding on the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.
Barnet Council has almost £150,000 available which could be spent immediately on improving the road junction at the top of Barnet Hill, if only an agreement could be reached on how best to ease traffic congestion and make it safer for pedestrians.
Continue reading Loads of cash to improve Barnet’s traffic bottleneck
A new layout for High Barnet’s bus stops could benefit passengers and speed up traffic flow. Transport for London has been asked to consider reorganising the bus stops at the top of Barnet Hill in order to reduce traffic congestion around Barnet parish church and to provide easier access for bus passengers.
The Barnet Society pinpoints the sites of missing telecoms cabinets needed to deliver a fast broadband service. The Barnet Society has identified eight sites where it believes British Telecom needs to install additional kerbside telecoms cabinets if several thousand High Barnet households are ever going to have the chance to obtain a fast broadband connection.
After collecting High Barnet’s rainfall figures since the 1980s, a Barnet family can say without hesitation that this winter has been the wettest locally for at least thirty years.
Two designs for a new High Street entrance to the Spires shopping centre – one of which would be without the two original spires of Barnet Methodist Church – are now on public display and open for consultation.
A long-awaited meeting between Theresa Villiers MP and senior executives of British Telecom has still left unanswered many of the questions about when – or if ever – many High Barnet residents will be offered a superfast broadband connection.
Continue reading MP tackles BT but is High Barnet any the wiser?
Barnet has probably more to thank the politicians and planners of the 1930s and 1940s for than any other town in north London. With protected Green Belt land on three sides, the High Barnet of today is blessed with some unrivalled countryside on our door-step.
Continue reading Green belt “critical to the health” of Barnet
Like much of the south-east of England, Chipping Barnet is seeing a rapid rise in home extensions and offices being converted into flats. An easing of planning restrictions has given home-owners and property developers greater freedom. But are large home extensions an intrusion for neighbours? Will more flats instead of offices change the character of the town centre?
Why not become a member? Receive our latest newsletter hot off the press four times a year, and support our work with a membership.
If you have some local news, history or want to bring something to our attention please email us.
NEW: Double yellow lines appear in Sebright and Calvert Roads
NEW: Food waste briefing
NEW: Routemaster bus returns to the 263 route 🚌
Aaron Chenie posted a comment on Yellow line parking restrictions are excessive say residents who believe they have been treated with contempt by Barnet Council
Lolita posted a comment on Yellow line parking restrictions are excessive say residents who believe they have been treated with contempt by Barnet Council
Joe Blake posted a comment on Queen Elizabeth’s School – a Barnet brand name that will soon be appearing on new international schools in India and Dubai
Andrew Jackson posted a comment on Save Chipping Barnet Woodland campaigners delighted by planning refusal for new house in a protected wood close to Hadley Green