Living in Barnet: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
Estate agent Lawrence Henry of Statons says Barnet is proud of its history, and High Barnet — also known as Chipping Barnet — is a wonderful place to live.
“It is on the edge of the green belt with a wide variety of homes at all prices, five minutes from the M25 and with a 30-minute commute into the City and central London, and some of the best schools in the country.”
With the arrival of new retailers such as H&M in the renovated Spires shopping centre, he also believes the local High Street is on the up. Home buyers include locals, incomers from more central areas of London trading up to a house with more space and a larger garden, and overseas buyers from Russia and China.
There are few other places in London where the high street leads straight on to a common lined with fine Georgian houses.
A short walk away is historic Monken Hadley where next month St Mary The Virgin church marks the 525th anniversary of its restoration with six Son et Lumière performances celebrating Barnet’s history.
There will be scenes from this summer’s re-enactment of the Battle of Barnet during Barnet’s Medieval Festival, with children from Mount House School dressed as battle standard bearers.
The audience will learn of prominent lawyer Sir Roger Wilbraham (1553-1616), who founded Monken Hadley’s almshouses; and of First World War hero Captain Charles Tempest-Hicks.
A four-year Heritage Lottery-funded project involving more than 200 local volunteers, the Battle of Barnet celebration ran from 2015 until earlier this year.
Its greatest successes were the 72 banners strung along the High Street this summer in tribute to those who fought in the battle, and the Medieval Festival, set to become London’s largest celebration of historic battle re-enactments. Running since 2017, next year’s festival will be on May 30 and 31.
High Barnet is 11 miles north of central London, with countryside and Potters Bar to the north; Cockfosters to the east; Totteridge and Whetstone to the south and Boreham Wood and Elstree to the west.
The property scene
Period cottages in pretty Wood Street in the conservation area in High Barnet town centre include a three-bedroom home on the market at £900,000.
There are Georgian houses around Hadley Green, while you’ll also find Victorian terraces in the town centre and Edwardian houses in the roads near the Tube station. Big detached mansions, some of them new, grace Hadley Wood.
Elsewhere are houses from every era since the Thirties, and more recently modern flats have gone up.
The most expensive house currently for sale is a six-bedroom mansion in Camlet Way, at £6 million. A listed Georgian terrace house in Hadley Green Road is £1.7 million.
Statons estate agent Lawrence Henry says the fastest-selling homes right now are the family houses near the Tube.
One of these, a three-bedroom Edwardian semi in Bedford Avenue, is on sale for £1,325,000.
New-build homes
The largest development is Brook Valley Gardens, the regeneration of the Dollis Valley Estate off Mays Lane.
It’s a joint venture between Barnet council, housebuilder Countryside and housing association L&Q, with 631 new homes in traditional streets designed by award-winning architect Alison Brooks. Phases one and two of five are complete, with phase three available next year (020 8023 8403).
Elmbank off Barnet Road in nearby Arkley is a Linden Homes scheme of 93 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and 21 three-, four- and five-bedroom houses, of which 24 homes are affordable. Five-bedroom semis are £995,000. Call 020 3811 6642.
Statons agent Lawrence Henry says there is a local trend to build luxury flats in blocks that look like traditional mansions.
Statons is selling two such developments now, both in Camlet Way in nearby Hadley Wood: Criterion, by Spitfire Bespoke Homes, has eight two- and three-bedroom flats from £1 million and The Residence, by Heronslea, has two flats left of nine, from £1,495,000.
With a modern design, Sambrook Court launches soon in Cockfosters Road, with 14 flats from £575,000. Call Statons on 020 8441 9555.
First-time buyers
Lower-cost homes provider at Brook Valley Gardens is L&Q (0300 456 9997); at Elmbank it is Notting Hill Genesis (033 3000 4000).
Renting
High Barnet does not have a vast choice of rental homes and there are few buy-to-let investors. Monthly rents start around £900 for a one-bedroom flat; £1,300 for a two-bedroom flat and £1,700 for a three-bedroom Victorian house in the centre.
A seven-bedroom mansion in Hadley Wood’s Beech Hill is available to rent for nearly £18,000 a month.
Staying power
Barnet is a family area — and with plenty of scope for moving up and down the property ladder, people tend to stay.
Postcode
There are two Barnet postcodes: EN5 which covers High Barnet and Arkley and EN4 which covers Hadley Wood.
Best roads
Camlet Way and Beech Hill have large detached mansions with carriage drives; the Georgian houses overlooking Hadley Green are sought-after.
Up and coming
At Hadley Highstone, a little-known settlement strung out along the Great North Road in the Monken Hadley conservation area, there’s a mix of period cottages and Victorian and later houses.
A four-bedroom semi-detached Victorian house is on sale for £1.25 million; and a two-bedroom cottage for £599,995.
Transport
High Barnet is a short distance from the M25. High Barnet Tube is the terminus for one of the branches of the Northern line, so there is always a rush-hour seat in the morning.
Trains from Hadley Wood and New Barnet take around 20 minutes to King’s Cross and half an hour to Moorgate.
High Barnet and New Barnet are in Zone 5 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £2,400. Hadley Wood is in Zone 6 where an annual travelcard costs £2,568.
Council
Barnet council is Conservative controlled. Band D council tax for 2019/2020 is £1,545.41.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
The Spires shopping centre has recently been expanded and given a facelift; it now has branches of Waitrose, H&M, JD Sports, Waterstones and Carluccio’s.
Barnet was once a prominent coaching town on the main road north out of London and the High Street is remarkable for its numerous inns and pubs, including the handsome Red Lion, now run by pizza and carvery group Stonehouse.
The High Street is notable for its independent restaurants: L’Antica serves wood-fired pizzas; Melange and Hadley House both do cocktails and have a Mediterranean menu, Hadley House adds a DJ on Saturday nights; Spizzico, a long-standing Barnet favourite, opens for brunch, lunch and dinner and newly opened Brothers Kitchen has a Turkish-inspired menu. In Hadley Wood, the Mary Beale Restaurant is set in the West Lodge Park country house hotel.
Open space
The Old Court Recreation Ground in Manor Close is the town centre park with children’s playgrounds, a café, a bowling green and free-to-use tennis courts.
From High Barnet High Street, it is a short walk to the open countryside of Hadley Green.
There are two walking routes: the Pymmes Brook Trail, a 12-mile walk from Barnet to Tottenham; and the Dollis Valley Greenwalk, a 10-mile walk running through Barnet and ending at Hampstead Heath.
Golf is popular locally and there are three local clubs: Old Fold Manor in Old Fold Lane; Dyrham Park Country Club in Galley Lane and The Shire in St Albans Road, the only Seve Ballesteros-designed course in the country.
Leisure and the arts
The Everyman Cinema in the High Street, the section south of the Underground station, is the local multiplex cinema in a fine Art Deco building.
The Bull Players is an amateur dramatics company based at The Bull Theatre in the Susi Earnshaw School in the High Street.
New Barnet Leisure Centre in Lawton Road opened in September and has the nearest council swimming pool.
Schools
Barnet has a good choice of both state and private schools.
However, the opening of a new secondary school, Ark Pioneer, in Westcombe Drive has proved controversial, with locals claiming that it will affect the intake of two other nearby comprehensive schools – Totteridge Academy and Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’.
Primary school
All Barnet’s state primary schools are judge to be “good” or better by the Government’s education watchdog Ofsted.
Those that get the “outstanding” rating are: St Catherine’s RC in Vale Drive; Whitings Hill in Whitings Road; Hadley Wood in Courtleigh Avenue in Hadley Wood, and St Mary’s CofE in Littlegrove in East Barnet.
Comprehensive
The two established state comprehensive schools, Totteridge Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Barnet Lane and Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ (ages 11 to 18) in High Street are both judged to be “good”.
The other nearby comprehensives are: JCoss (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Castlewood Road, a Jewish school rated “good”; Southgate (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Sussex Way, rated “outstanding”, and East Barnet (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Chestnut Grove, rated “good”, both in Cockfosters; and Dame Alice Owen’s (co-ed, ages 11 to 18), a semi-selective school in nearby Potters Bar, which gets an “outstanding” report.
Grammar
Queen Elizabeth’s School (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Queens Road is a state grammar school which is judged to be “outstanding”.
High education
Barnet and Southgate College (ages 16 to 18), sitting prominently at the junction of High Street and Wood Street, is judged to “require improvement”.
Private
The local private primary schools are: Lyonsdown (co-ed, but going girls-only by 2022, ages three to 11) in Richmond Road and Goodwyn (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Hammers Lane in Mill Hill.
The local private secondary school is Mount House School (co-ed, 11 to 18) in Camlet Way.
Susi Earnshaw Theatre School (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in High Street is a private performing arts school with some famous graduates including Amy Winehouse.