Welcome to Friary Park
The Friends
We are a group of local residents who are passionate about preserving the biodiversity and heritage of this much-loved park.
​
Whilst Barnet Council have full responsibility for the maintenance of the Park, we seek to be a link between the Council and the community, to add extra and make the Park the best it can be.
​
Our aims are:
-
to protect and improve the park’s environment & biodiversity through collaborative working with Barnet Council and other organisations
-
to advance the arts, culture & heritage of the park
-
to bring the community together through volunteering and shared goals
​
​
We look forward to working together with other community groups, volunteers and local residents associations to make Friary Park a space we can all be proud of.
We would like to thank the outgoing Friends Group who have worked tirelessly over many years. Their contributions include organising litter picks, adopting flowerbeds, refurbishing the clock on Friary House, obtaining grants for a table-tennis table and hopscotch grid and working with the council to install a skateboard park.
​
The pandemic taught us the vital importance of having green space nearby to enjoy. With the amount of open space being constantly reduced, it is more important than ever that make the most of our beautiful park.
​
We look forward to working with partners including the Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, The Friern Barnet & Whetstone Residents’ Association, and the Finchley Society and Community Focus, which occupies part of Friary House.
The Park
On 15 April 1909 Friern Barnet Urban District Council bought the estate from Edmund William Richardson’s daughter, Eliza. A local businessman, Sydney Simmons, offered to cover the cost of £7796 5s 7d on the proviso that it was turned into a park ‘for all time’. He made certain stipulations including:
-
The park to be forever maintained by and at the expense of the District Council
-
No houses to be built on the ground except such lodge or lodges for the use of those employed in the park
-
No allotments of any kind
-
No large trees to be cut down
-
One part of the land to be laid and used for pleasure and recreation of the general public
-
One part for cricket especially for young people under the age of 17
-
Any special cricket matches to be arranged for as certain number of days only each year by the committee
-
Tennis courts and gymnasium
-
The present building on the estate to be used for refreshments and a lounge or shelter, and caretakers.
-
To be altered to suit requirements
The official opening of the park was to have been performed by the Lord Mayor of London on Saturday 7 May 1910. Unfortunately, King Edward VII died the day before so the Council had no option but to cancel the planned formalities but decided to let the public into the park at 2pm. A children’s tea party eventually took place on 21 July. This was not the first time a party had been held here – in 1897 Edmund Richardson had invited children to his garden to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Recent History
The park had a shallow lake, a bandstand, greenhouses, a children’s playground, gymnastic apparatus and in 1912 a bowling green was added on the site of what used to be Edmund Richardson’s tennis lawn. Lawn tennis courts were added around the same time. In 1927 a putting green was added behind the bowling green. Despite the popularity of these attractions, Friern Barnet Council did not allow organised sports on Sundays.
Cricket matches regularly took place and from 1924 Friern Barnet Grammar School pupils played football matches in the park. In 1938 water taps and wash basins were added in the public conveniences, but a towel dispensing machine was considered too expensive and paper towels were issued instead.
The Council allowed religious services to take place on the proviso that no collections were to be taken.
From 1923 to 1939 hospital fetes took place each July with the proceeds going towards Finchley Memorial, the Royal Northern and Wood Green cottage hospitals. It was not until wartime, (March 1942), however, that the Friern Barnet Summer Show became a regular fixture in the calendar until 2014.
During the War public shelters were dug alongside the tennis courts and running down to the stream, the flowerbeds were turned into vegetable cultivation and 90 allotment plots were made available between the stream and the fence along Torrington Park, behind the tennis courts and behind the bowling green.
As part of the national Government scheme, the imposing main gates and the iron fence around the statue were removed for salvage.
In 2005 CCTV cameras were installed in the park and in 2009 a £30,000 skate park was created. In 2011 a disabled children’s playground was added to the main playground.