“Barnet” covers High Barnet, New Barnet, East Barnet and Friern Barnet. At J.E.Knight Building Services, we also cover all of these areas. We have completed works from Kitchen Fitting and Bathroom Installation to Fencing in Barnet for many years; it is where we are based and where we began our business many years ago. All of the Barnet’s are within the London Borough of Barnet. The borough was formed in the 1960s from parts of the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. We cover most of both of these counties. Barnet is a North London borough consisting of all or parts of the following areas: Arkley, Barnet, Brunswick Park, Burnt Oak, Childs Hill, Chipping Barnet, Cricklewood, Church End, Cockfosters, Colindale, East Barnet, East Finchley, Edgware, Finchley, Fortis Green, Friern Barnet, Golders Green, Hadley, Hampstead Garden Suburb, Hendon, High Barnet, Holders Hill, Mill Hill, Monken Hadley, New Barnet, North Finchley, Oakleigh Park, Osidge, Southgate, The Hyde, Totteridge, Whetstone and Woodside Park.
Barnet is twinned with towns in the United States (Barnet in Vermont & Montclair), France (Chaville & Le Raincy), Germany (Siegen-Wittgenstein & Tempelhof-Schöneberg), Uganda (Jinja), Israel (Ramat Gan) and Cyprus (Morphou).
Local primary schools include: Danegrove, Barnet Hill, All Saints’, Whitings Hill, Underhill, Queenswell, Foulds and St John’s. Secondary schools include: Bishop Douglass, Compton, London Academy, Mill Hill County High School, St Martha’s, Queen Elizabeth’s and East Barnet school. Barnet also benefits from a local selection of independent schools including Mill Hill School, The Mount School and the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School. Furthermore local colleges include Barnet College, Southgate College and Woodhouse.
Barnet is a hub of transport, serviced by High Barnet station (terminus on the Northern Line), as well as Cockfosters, Oakwood and Totteridge and Whetstone – all local. New Barnet, Oakleigh Park and Hadley Wood are the local railway stations. Barnet is also serviced by a wide range of buses including: the 34 (Barnet to Walthamstow), 84 (New Barnet to St Albans), 107 (New Barnet to Edgware), 184 (Barnet to Turnpike Lane), 234 (Barnet to Highgate Wood), 263 (Barnet to Holloway), 307 (Arkley Barnet to Brimsdown), 326 (Barnet to Brent Cross) and the 384 (Barnet to Cockfosters).
Barnet has a lot of restaurants with a wide range of cuisine. There are also plenty of pubs providing Barnet with a good nightlife. These include: The Queens Arms, The Kings Head, The Monken Holt, The Misty Moon, The Nelson, The Black Horse, The Sebright Arms, Ye Olde Mitre Inn, The Railway Tavern, The Railway Bell, The Builders Arms plus many more locally.
There are cinemas, swimming pools and gyms. Barnet has its own museum – Barnet Museum, and there is a very good amount of open space including Barnet Playing Fields. Barnet has its own football team Barnet FC. They used to play at Underhill Stadium but have now moved to The Hive stadium in Canons Park. Barnet Cricket Club plays behind Underhill stadium.
The Borough of Barnet is flush with open space. There are many nature reserves, cemeteries and golf courses. Much of the borough is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and 16 of Barnet’s open spaces are regarded as ‘premier parks’. Seven of these parks have achieved a Green Flag Award during 2009/10. These include Oak Hill Park, Victoria Park, Sunny Hill Park and Edgwarebury Park. Barnet has 67 local Nature Reserves including Oak Hill Wood (East Barnet), Rowley Green Common (Arkley), Scratchwood (Mill Hill), Darland’s Lake Nature Reserve (Totteridge) and Moat Mount Open Space (Mill Hill). In addition, the borough boasts over 200 green spaces, one of the main ones being Whitings Hill Open Space; a large public open space in High Barnet (Chipping Barnet).
Barnet High Street is Barnet’s main shopping area and has been since the 18th century. The Spires shopping centre was opened in 1989 and houses shops, café’s, a supermarket and amenities. If you need a library, Barnet is a great place to look! There are 15 libraries in the area in Barnet, Hendon, Edgware, Finchley, Hampstead Garden Suburb and Mill Hill to name just a few of the areas.
Barnet Hospital (Barnet and Chase Farm NHS) is the hospital in Barnet, located in Well Road. The Primary Care Trust for the borough is NHS Barnet. The trust runs Barnet Hospital, Edgware Community Hospital and Finchley Memorial Hospital. There are four police stations in the borough: Colindale, Barnet, Golders Green and Whetstone. There are four fire stations that operate in the Borough of Barnet.
High Barnet (also known as Chipping Barnet) is the most North point of North London. High Barnet is the highest point of ground between London and York. It is said that the hill is the hill mentioned in the nursery rhyme “The Grand Old Duke of York”. Barnet is the famous site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet (which took place in Hadley, close to Barnet High Street). St John The Baptist Church (built in the 1500s) stands tall in the middle of Barnet High Street. High Barnet has a market that is over 800 years old. It is also home to two Grade I listed buildings.
New Barnet is located about a mile away from High Barnet. The area saw development mainly in the 1850’s. It used to be based in Hertfordshire but was later transferred to Greater London and became part of the London Borough of Barnet. In need of redevelop, New Barnet is home to small independent shops that are in at risk from the threat of takeover by larger supermarkets.
East Barnet known locally as the Village is bordered by Cockfosters and Southgate. It has pubs, shops and restaurants and a large park – Oak Hill Park, which has a golf course, children’s play area, outdoor gym and basketball courts as well as football pitches and large woods. Oakwood Station was originally going to be called East Barnet Station but the station is in Southgate, hence it didn’t happen. The Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture opened in 2000 at the Cat Hill wing of Middlesex University.
Friern Barnet became part of the London Borough of Barnet in 1965. It was originally considered part of Barnet and based mainly in Hertfordshire but with parts in Middlesex. Friern Barnet is a suburban development. Its name comes from the word “Friern” indicating “brotherhood”, which refers to its ownership by the Priory of the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. The housing here consists mainly of Victorian and Edwardian properties with many semi-detached and terraced houses. Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum was redeveloped as Princess Park Manor which is a luxury redevelopment set within 30 acres of Parkland. Princess Park Manor consists of individual luxury apartments, a gym and tennis courts etc. Adjacent to this is Friern Village – a modern housing development. Friary Park is a lovely large open space in Friern Barnet, the area is also home to Coppetts Wood Nature Reserve and Middlesex Golf Club.