From its new call centre at Bowes Park, volunteers from the North London Samaritans are stepping up their efforts to reach out to help anyone troubled by personal or emotional problems and to advise those most at risk of suicide.
Continue reading Samaritans reaching out to prevent suicidal thoughts
Every Sunday this winter St Mark’s Church, Barnet Vale, becomes a night shelter for the homeless – “our contribution to helping the weakest”, says the Vicar, the Reverend Tristan Chapman.
Continue reading Full house at Barnet homeless night shelter
Gary Murphy, landlord at one of High Barnet’s highly-rated real ale pubs, the Mitre, is preparing for the next round of an ongoing campaign to force the pub owners to give publicans of tied houses a fairer deal on rents and the price and choice of beers.
Continue reading Campaigning to save traditional public houses
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.
Continue reading Posting a letter helps animal rescue centre
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.
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.
Creating a play area for children combined with space for community activities in the centre of High Barnet is the aim of local resident Joanne Merchant, mother of two small boys.
Continue reading Reviving Barnet High Street with a children’s play area
Barnet Council has backed down from its decision to charge a High Street newsagent an extra £1,800 a year in council tax for having a free-to-use cash machine installed in the shop window.
A highly-controversial plan to convert empty retail premises just off Barnet High Street into a house in multiple occupation with nine self-contained rooms has been withdrawn – at least for the moment.
Continue reading Town centre “rabbit hutch” rooms plan withdrawn
Problems caused by uncontrolled street drinking in High Barnet and rough sleeping in shop doorways along the High Street topped the issues raised at an Engage Barnet question time.
Continue reading Unruly street drinkers troubling High Street shoppers
Offering High Barnet residents and shoppers a free-to-use cash machine is proving an expensive nightmare for the Paper Shop in the High Street.
Continue reading Hefty council tax bill for High Street cash machine
High Barnet’s struggling High Street shopping centre is facing fresh challenges: another two national chains are pulling out just as plans are announced to convert empty retail premises on the corner with St Albans Road into a house in multiple occupation.
Continue reading Shop closures and conversions changing town centre
A joint display of classic cars and vintage armoured vehicles drew record crowds to the fifth annual Barnet Classic Car show at the Army Reserve Centre in St Albans Road, Barnet.
Barnet’s annual Classic Car Show on Saturday (30 June) is to be a joint display alongside vintage armoured vehicles to mark National Armed Forces Day.
Continue reading Barnet’s classic cars joined by vintage armoured vehicles
Barnet High Street is flying heraldic banners from the Wars of the Roses to promote the town’s first-ever medieval festival which is being held this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, 9 and 10 June) to commemorate the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Continue reading Wars of the Roses banners transform Barnet High Street
A three-week public consultation has opened on a new scheme of improvements to the High Street – and it’s vital that residents support this chance-in-a-generation to rejuvenate it.
If Barnet Council gives approval, 26 hand-painted heraldic banners are to be hung along Barnet High Street to promote the Barnet Medieval Festival – a weekend of medieval displays and re-enactments of scenes from the battles of St Albans (1461) and Barnet (1471) to be held at the Byng Road playing fields on Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10.
Continue reading Wars of the Roses banners for Barnet High Street
The coat of arms of Henry VI is the latest to be painted as part of the Battle of Barnet Project – and it is one of 30 heraldic banners that it is hoped will be hung along the High Street to celebrate Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses.
Hands-on experience in a great variety of trades, sports and occupations was all part of a careers day organised at the Pavilion School, in Chandos Avenue,Whetstone, which provides support and education for Barnet children who are outside mainstream education.
Continue reading Opportunities for Barnet’s challenged youngsters
Replica copies of four of the heraldic banners of the dukes, earls and knights who fought in the 1471 Battle of Barnet are now on display in the Spires shopping centre.
High Barnet’s most prominent “ghost advertisement” – high up on a side wall in the High Street – is creating quite a flurry of interest and might well be up for listing as being of historical interest.
After remaining empty and abandoned for over a year, High Barnet’s historic Brake Shear House, just off the High Street, has been brought back to life as Nightingales Emporium, a collaborative selling point for a group of artists and entrepreneurs.
A van producing and selling authentic Roman pizzas is helping to kick start the development of what is fast becoming a popular food court outside the Stapylton Road entrance to the Spires shopping centre.
Shanly Homes, which purchased the semi-derelict Brake Shear House workshops off Barnet High Street earlier this year, has appointed new architects to review the plans for redeveloping the site.
End of an era. Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.
Barnet High Street’s historic Brake Shear House complex, which is boarded up ready for demolition, has gained a temporary reprieve, and former tenants of workshops and offices are being offered fresh short-term leases.
Cameras, smart phones and tablets will be out in force to capture images of the many much-admired and much-loved models that will be on display at the fourth annual Barnet Market classic car show on Saturday 10 June.
CHIPPING BARNET HIGH STREET – PROPOSED PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS:
BARNET COUNCIL PUBLIC CONSULTATION, 28 MARCH – 20 APRIL 2017
Comments by the Barnet Society, April 2017
Members of Chipping Barnet Town Team have given their backing to Barnet Council’s plans to widen one side of the High Street pavement – from the Post Office to just beyond the entrance to the Spires shopping centre – despite criticism from some residents in nearby streets.
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Lucy Bridgers posted a comment on Pub of the year award regained by The Mitre as Barnet’s real ale enthusiasts voice concern over closures in neighbouring Enfield
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Michael Griffin posted a comment on Pub of the year award regained by The Mitre as Barnet’s real ale enthusiasts voice concern over closures in neighbouring Enfield
Anne Stern posted a comment on Plain clothes police proving more effective in tackling Barnet’s shoplifting and drug users than uniform patrols in High Street