TheLondon Borough of Barnet (/ˈbɑːrnɪt/ⓘ) is a suburbanLondon Borough innorth London, England. Forming part ofOuter London, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties ofMiddlesex andHertfordshire.[1] It is the second largestLondon borough by population with 389,344 inhabitants as of 2021,[2] also making it the 17th largestdistrict in England. The borough covers an area of 86.74 square kilometres (33 sq mi), the fourth highest of the 32 London boroughs, and has a population density of 45.8 people per hectare, which ranks it 25th.[3]
The area covered by the modern borough has a long history. Evidence of first-century Roman pottery manufacturing has been found at Brockley Hill[4] and Roman coins from the third and fourth centuries were found atBurnt Oak. Both sites are on the Roman roadWatling Street from London (Londinium) toSt Albans (Verulamium) which now forms the western border of the borough.[5]
Hendon is mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086,[6] but the districts of Barnet, Edgware and Finchley were not referred to, possibly because these areas were included in other manors.[7][8][9]
The modern borough was created in 1965 under theLondon Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former boroughs of Finchley and Hendon and urban districts of Barnet, East Barnet and Friern Barnet. The area was transferred from Middlesex and Hertfordshire to Greater London, to become one of the 32 London boroughs.[24]
The 1963 Act did not include a name for the new borough. A joint committee of the councils due to be amalgamated suggested "Northgate" or "Northern Heights".[25]Keith Joseph, the Minister of Housing and Local Government, eventually chose Barnet.[26] The place name Barnet is derived from theOld Englishbærnet meaning "land cleared by burning".[27] The old Barnet Urban District had been the least populous of the five predecessor districts at the 1961 census; nearly half the new borough's population lived in the old borough of Hendon.[28]
When the present borough was created, it included part ofElstree. On 1 April 1993 Barnet's northern boundary was altered and some of its more rural northern parts, including Elstree, were transferred toHertfordshire (and its district ofHertsmere).[29]
The borough covers a group of hills on the northern edge of theLondon Basin. The bedrock is chalk which is covered with clay. Some of the hills are formed from glacialtill deposited at the farthest extent of glaciers during theAnglian glaciation.
The pattern of settlement is somewhat diverse.
In the north of the borough on the eastern side isBarnet, also known as High Barnet or Chipping Barnet,Totteridge, andWhetstone. In the north on the western side isEdgware andMill Hill. The central northern part of the borough is largely countryside. This division is largely because the eastern side grew around what is now the High Barnet Underground branch of theNorthern line. The western side grew around theMidland Railway and what is now the Edgware branch of the Northern line.
Church Farmhouse Museum on Greyhound Hill in Hendon is a grade II* listed 17th-century farmhouse used by Barnet Council as an exhibition space and museum until the Council closed it to save money on 31 March 2011. Early in 2014 it was given the classification of "vulnerable" by English Heritage after having stood abandoned for almost three years.[35] It now houses units ofMiddlesex University.
Since 2013 rugby union Premiership outfitSaracens F.C. have called the borough home, playing matches at StoneX Stadium atBarnet Copthall which was previously a community sports stadium and is still used in this capacity thanks to Saracens using movable stands for their matches. As well as athletics facilities, the complex also has a swimming pool.
In 1801, thecivil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 6,404; and the area was characterised by farming and woodland — with settlement principally around theGreat North Road. By 1830, a newturnpike, theFinchley Road was constructed and horse-drawn omnibuses introduced. The population rose dramatically with the arrival of the trams and railways in the middle of 19th century, and new estates were built to house commuters. As industry relocated away from London during the 1960s, the population entered a decline, that has begun to reverse with new housing developments on brownfield sites.
According to the 2001 census the borough then had a population of 314,564[36] though the most recent ONS projection for 2008 is 331,500.[37] 67% of householders are owner-occupiers. 47.3% of people described themselves as Christian, with the second largest group beingJewish at 14.8%, the highest percentage in any local government area in the United Kingdom. The third largest was people who said they had no religion at 12.8%. Just over a quarter of people belonged to non-white ethnic groups, up from 18% in the 1991 census. 12.3% were Asian and 6.0% black. Barnet had the largestChinese population of any London borough in 2001, at 6,379.[38]
As of 2011, 13.3% of the borough's population is over 65 - the sixth-highest of London's boroughs. The 65+ population is 47,400, the second-highest afterBromley. The Jewish population is 54,084 and represents 15.5% of the population - the highest in the United Kingdom.[39] 41.2% identify themselves as Christians, and 16.1% with no religion.
The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Barnet.
Former mayor of LondonKen Livingstone said once said that Barnet's transport agenda is "recklessly anti-public transport, anti-pedestrian and anti-cycling" and that Barnet has become a "laboratory experiment for some very ill-thought out policies".[52] In 2004 cycle lanes were removed andcycle training funding cut by the controversial pro-motorist councillorBrian Coleman.[53]
TheA5 is a major road in that forms much of the borough's western border. It is also the first Roman built road in England. It later took theAnglo-Saxon nameWatling Street. The Great North Road passes through the borough starting at East Finchley and crossing into Hertfordshire atMonken Hadley. It was a coaching route used bymail coaches between London,York and Edinburgh. The many inns on the road provided accommodation, stabling for the horses and replacement mounts.[54] A section of theA1 road was built to bypass this route through Mill Hill, eventually joining the Great North Road atHatfield.
TheFinchley Road was built as a turnpike in the 1830s linking theWest End toFinchley. TheA41 splits off from the Finchley Road just before it crosses the borough boundary, briefly merges with the A1 through Mill Hill, leaving the borough at Edgware.
TheNorth Circular Road (or A406) is part of a north orbital route for London; it crosses the borough east–west linking all the other major routes. Junctions one, two and four of theM1 motorway are in the borough.London Gateway services is at the site of the abandoned third junction. Thebus routes in the borough are managed byTransport for London.
There was a railway line joining the two sides of the borough, part of theEdgware, Highgate and London Railway which was going to be part of the Underground's Northern line "Northern Heights" expansion, but steam passenger services beyond Mill Hill East ended in 1939, and the completion of the electrification of this railway was eventually abandoned in the 1950s, primarily because the full extension would have breached theTown and Country Planning Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 51).[citation needed] What track was laid, was removed in the 1960s, with a small part of the trackbed used for theM1 motorway extension in the 1970s.
In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents aged 16–74 used to travel to work were (expressed as percentages of all residents aged 16–74):
There are 15 council-run libraries in the London Borough of Barnet, mobile library and home library services, and a local studies and archives library.[58]
Street sign "Barnet Street" (Barnetstraße) in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district of Berlin. The district also has streets called Hendonstraße and Finchleystraße
^"East Barnet Urban District".A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved13 April 2024.
^Youngs, Frederic (1979).Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. Vol. I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society.ISBN0901050679.
^"Where Judgment Of Solomon Will Be Needed Minister To Have Final Word On Names Of New London Boroughs".The Times. London. 8 August 1963. p. 5.
^"Chelsea Name Retained New Decisions On Three Boroughs".The Times. London. 3 January 1964. p. 5.
^A. D. Mills, ed. (2003). "Barnet, Chipping".A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-852758-6.
