News from The Barnet Society

Plans to improve one of the busiest stretches of Barnet High Street by planting trees, and providing benches and cycle hoops, have been upstaged by the arrival of a super-size black kiosk for a new smart telephone. It has been installed at precisely the point where pavement was due to be widened.

Celebrations for the Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65 years on the throne, brought back fond memories for former Buckingham Palace pastry chef, George O’Connor, who lives in sheltered housing in Barnet.

Yet again NHS Property Services appears to be in a state of indecision about the future of the derelict Marie Foster home that continues to blight High Barnet’s Wood Street conservation area.

Pupils of the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School from the Old Bull, High Barnet, were guests of the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor David Longstaff, when he presented them with medals for winning sixth place in the awards for London’s New Year’s Day parade.

Mitchells and Butlers say they have created ten new jobs following the conversion of the Red Lion public house into a Stonehouse pizza and carvery. The Mayor of Barnet, Councillor David Longstaff, officially re-opened High Barnet’s landmark public house, at the top of Barnet Hill, after a four-week closure.

East Barnet war memorial is one of tens of thousands across the country that is being considered by Historic England for possible listing for its special architectural or historic interest. People wishing to comment have until mid-February to offer their advice online via the consultation procedures at www.historicengland.org.uk or by post.

A ready supply of lively and forthright questions kept the politics and views of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers firmly under the spotlight at her annual question and answer session with members of the Barnet Society and other local associations.

Barnet Council’s planning committee has voted unanimously to reject plans to build a massive all-through academy school on the site of Barnet Football Club’s former stadium at Underhill.

A plan to widen the pavement on one side of Barnet High Street, from the Post Office to just beyond the entrance to the Spires shopping centre, is about to go out for public consultation.

Downsizing of the Chipping Barnet Library – with much of the floor area being converted into commercial office space – is proceeding apace after planning permission was granted by Barnet Council.

The job of promoting and explaining the Battle of Barnet of 1471 is to be undertaken by a project co-ordinator whose appointment has been made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

After years of uncertainty answers have finally been found to questions about the identity and motives of an early pioneer in the continuing task of defending the footpaths and green spaces that mean so much to members of the Barnet Society.

After what for her personally – and for the rest of the country – has been a momentous political year, the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers, will be the guest of the Barnet Society at our annual question and answer session at 3pm on Friday 20 January.

Two sculptures by the noted Barnet sculptor John Brown are due to appear in Steven Spielberg’s most recent science fiction adventure, Ready Player One, which is being filmed in Birmingham and at the Warner Studios in Leavesden.

High Barnet’s landmark public house, the Red Lion at the top of Barnet Hill, will be closed for most of January so that it can be refurbished ready for re-opening as an upmarket eatery.

Dr Alice Roberts presents the BBC4 program 'Digging for Britain' Two promising pointers towards locating the precise site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet were examined in the final television programme of the current archaeological series, Digging for Britain on BBC4.

After years of uncertainty about its future, Barnet Museum is finally being promised security of tenure – a 125-year lease at a peppercorn rent. Barnet Council’s asset, regeneration and growth committee agreed the move at its most recent meeting.

As work continues constructing an extension to the Roman Catholic church in Union Street, Barnet, mass and other services are being held in neighbouring churches and halls. Rapidly rising attendances, often resulting in parishioners having to stand, especially on holy days, have required extensive rebuilding of the church.

There has been another indication of the growing commercial interest in, and rising value of Barnet’s Green Belt land – just as Arkley residents step up their campaign against local farmland being developed as a natural burial site.

Outraged Barnet book lovers staged a mass read-in outside the closed front doors of Chipping Barnet Library to demonstrate their dismay and anger at the downgrading of a much-loved community asset.