London Borough of Barnet

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Barnet
Alternate Name(s)	-
Area	86.74 km² (33.5 sq. mi.)
Population	384,774
PostCode	-
Website	[1]
Bordering Boroughs	Camden Brent Haringey Enfield Harrow

The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east and Enfield to the east.

Districts

The pattern of settlement is somewhat diverse. To the north of the borough is Barnet, also known as High Barnet or Chipping Barnet. Also in the north are the low-density districts of Edgware, Totteridge, Whetstone and Mill Hill.

Further south the development becomes steadily more intensive around the suburbs of Cricklewood, Colindale, Hendon and Finchley. Golders Green is renowned for its Jewish minority ethnic population and forms part of the south of the borough, along with Hampstead Garden Suburb and Childs Hill.

History

The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 from the Municipal Borough of Finchley, Municipal Borough of Hendon and the Friern Barnet Urban District of Middlesex and the East Barnet Urban District and Barnet Urban District of Hertfordshire.

Places of interest

• Royal Air Force Museum
• Brent Cross Shopping Centre
• College Farm
• Middlesex University (Hendon Campus)
• Hendon Police College

Parks and open spaces

The borough has a large number of parks and open spaces. The Borough also has controls five Local Nature Reserves (LNR), and is jointly responsible with the London Borough of Brent for the Welsh Harp reservoir. In addition there are large areas taken over by cemeteries and golf courses; part of Hampstead Heath; as well as smaller recreation grounds.

Sport

The borough is home to a professional football club, Barnet F.C. and Barnet Copthall leisure complex.

Demographics of Barnet

The estimated population of the borough in mid 2019 was 384,774. 67% of householders are owner-occupiers. The borough has the highest percentage (14.8%) of Jewish residents of any local government area in the United Kingdom. Many more people in Barnet have some Jewish ancestry, but don't consider themselves Jewish. Barnet has the largest Chinese population of any London borough population wise, and ranks 5th by percentage of Chinese people.

Transport

Bicycle

Former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said "Barnet's transport agenda is recklessly anti-public transport, anti-pedestrian and anti-cycling. Barnet has become a laboratory experiment for some very ill-thought out policies".

Tube

The borough is served by the northern-most sections of the London Underground's Northern Line, including all three of the line's northern termini (Edgware, High Barnet, and Mill Hill East):

• High Barnet
• Totteridge and Whetstone
• Woodside Park
• West Finchley
• Mill Hill East
• Finchley Central
• East Finchley
• Edgware
• Burnt Oak
• Colindale
• Hendon Central
• Brent Cross
• Golders Green

The Piccadilly Line skirts around the north eastern edge of the Barnet. Three stations are close to the borough border.

• Cockfosters
• Southgate
• Arnos Grove

Train

National Rail services in Barnet are operated by First Capital Connect (now Thameslink) on two routes.

Thameslink Route

• Mill Hill Broadway
• Hendon
• Cricklewood

Great Northern Route

• New Barnet
• Oakleigh Park
• New Southgate

Bus

The borough is served by a large number of bus routes managed by Transport for London.

Road

The following major roads run through the borough:

• M1
• A1 (Great North Way)
• A5
• A41
• A406 (North Circular)

Council

Elections of the entire London Borough Council are held every four years. The most recent election was on Thursday 5 May 2022.

The council consists of 63 councillors with 2 or 3 elected for each of 23 wards. At the 2022 elections the Labour Party secured a majority on the council for the first time with 41 seats to the Conservative Party's 22.

See also List of Mayors of Barnet

London Fire Brigade

There are four fire stations that operate in the Borough of Barnet. These are mobilised to protect around 330,000 people. The main risks identified in the borough include Barnet FC's stadium, Underhill Stadium, Brent Cross shopping centre, Coppetts Wood Hospitals and Barnet General Hospital. There are also several busy roads that run through the borough such as the [A1] and [A406].

Between the four stations; five pumping appliances, two equipment lorries, a bulk foam unit, a breathing apparatus support unit, a damage control support unit and a hazardous materials support unit are operated.