News from The Barnet Society

Chipping Barnet is a great base for some glorious countryside walks, and the best are described in Rambles Round Barnet – two volumes published by the Barnet Society. The good news is that Volume I has just been reprinted in a limited edition.

The Barnet Society’s AGM on 1st July gave me the opportunity to highlight the range of work we have done in the past, and continue to do, to enhance Barnet’s green environment.

Hill Residential Ltd and the Trustees of the Gwyneth Cowing estate, whose planning application for 152 homes on the Whalebones fields was refused last November, have appealed against Barnet Council’s decision. Their case will be heard at a 5-day public inquiry starting on 31 August.

Our teenagers and young adults could be among the greatest casualties of Covid-19. The Plan must offer them something, whether work experience or youth-focused leisure attractions. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area.

The town centre must become more child-friendly. Only if families have reasons to come here that appeal to their children, not just to parents’ need to work or shop, will it become important in their lives. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area.

Barnet has precious green open spaces, mature woodlands, streams and wetlands. Last year brought home what we stand to lose with climate change and bad building development. Surely this is the moment to invest in green initiatives. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area.

Barnet’s identity is founded on its distinctive history and building heritage. We must do something to draw the attention of more residents and potential visitors and investors to our existing assets. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area here.

NEW – What an amazing and exciting word, full of hope and invigoration, isn’t that exactly just what we all need right now! NEW investment, NEWly recreated, NEW experience. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area here.

The Council is consulting on a Community Plan to help regenerate the High Street area. This is your chance to have a say. The Barnet Society offers some guidance. Last month a public consultation was launched online here. We have until Friday 19 February to respond.

The Plan is out for online public consultation until 19 February. You’re invited to comment on the key principles of the plan, and to choose five project ideas for further development.

In 2020 the Barnet Society celebrated 75 years since its foundation. But our founders would be shocked at how their neighbourhood has altered. Local shops have disappeared and employment has dwindled. Pubs have become an endangered species. Vehicle traffic is as bad as ever.

Birt Acres, a key figure in the invention of British movies, lived and worked in Chipping Barnet. His 1897 short Band Marching down a Street is one of very few to survive from the earliest days of film. Local history investigation has convinced me that it was shot in Stapylton Road.

There is a serious problem for ramblers planning to travel by car to Dancers Hill before doing the following walks: (1)  The 2-miles ‘There and Back’ route in Walk 3 of ‘Rambles Round Barnet’ Part 1.(2)  Both routes in Walk 4 of ‘Rambles Round Barnet’ Part 1.

Barely a year after JC Decaux was refused planning permission for three telecom/advertising hubs in the High Street, they’ve returned with two more. If approved, that would make four within 200 metres.

The Barnet Society’s 75th birthday in May 2020 is a timely moment to celebrate the local Green Belt that was the original reason for our existence. Our founding in 1945 was prompted by the threat to build on the green space that surrounds Chipping Barnet on three sides.

The Barnet Society’s 75th birthday in 2020 was a timely moment to celebrate, in three recent Website articles, the local Green Belt that was the original reason for our existence.

Since 2013 the Barnet Society has submitted responses to the following London Assembly (LA), Mayor of London (MoL) & Transport for London (TfL) public consultations.

Past, present and future work in and around Chipping Barnet - a talk to Barnet U3A on 6 August 2020 by Robin Bishop, Chair of the Society. Click on the link below to view Robin's presentation. 200806_BSoc_ppt.pdf

When my beer supplies dried up during lockdown, I was delighted to discover – by way of The Wilds Café – Urban Alchemy Brewing, a newly formed brewery based in York Road.

Since 2016 the Barnet Society has submitted responses to the following London Borough of Barnet (LBB) public consultations.