Friern Barnet Urban District was a

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, England created in 1883 from the civil parish Friern Barnet. It was succeeded by the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest ...

in 1965 as one of the smaller of its contributory predecessor districts. It was at the local level governed for nine years by the local board, then by Friern Barnet Urban District Council which operated primarily with separate functions from the County Council, operating occasionally for major planning decisions and major projects together with that body,

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the coun ...

Layout and two main settlements

Friern Barnet parish (and later this District) stretched north north-west from the boundary with

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner Lo ...

parish (specifically its

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, East Finchl ...

part) and was half as wide as long.A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton, M A Hicks and R B Pugh, 'Friern Barnet: Introduction', in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6'' ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1980), pp. 6-15. Part of the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

collaborative professional historians' project. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol6/pp6-15 The parish largely formed a counter-projection into the

Chipping Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing Cr ...

(also known as High Barnet or Barnet)-

Totteridge Totteridge is a residential area and former village in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a mixture of suburban development and open land (including some farmland) situated 8 miles (13 km) north north-west of Charing Cross. It ...

projection of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

into

to its north. In the north its land was the gentle, broad east escarpment above the head of the

Dollis Brook Dollis Brook runs through the London Borough of Barnet in north London. It is a tributary of the River Brent, which is itself a tributary of the River Thames. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk follows almost all of Dollis Brook, apart from a short sec ...

rather than others which are higher and have several limbs around Barnet. In its south the land is gradually lower and a nascent brook feeds west to east, Bounds Green brook. The parish/district had one main road; it was bisected lengthways by (the) High Road, the main road in the area, today the A1000 and part of the traditional Great North Road from London to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Until the mid 19th century the ancient parish of

Friern Barnet Friern Barnet is a suburban area within the London Borough of Barnet, north of Charing Cross. Its centre is formed by the busy intersection of Colney Hatch Lane (running north and south), Woodhouse Road (taking westbound traffic towards North Fi ...

, a depopulated medieval village — the manor house, manor barn, farm and church of which survived, had two tiny developed clusters: Whetstone in the far north and Colney Hatch in the south. Friern Barnet remained its ecclesiastical parish. Its civil form created in the mid 19th century took over the wide-ranging powers of the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

; in a matter of decades it was largely supplanted by a Local Board on creation of Friern Barnet Urban District and as to some powers by Middlesex County Council.

Planned urbanisation

In common with most outer London areas, the vast bulk of housing was built after the coming of the railways and in this case mainly between the 1851 construction of

New Southgate railway station New Southgate railway station is on the boundary of the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Enfield in north London, in Travelcard Zone 4. It is down the line from . The station, and all trains serving it, have been operated by ...

near Colney Hatch (just within the south-east border) and the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A second station followed in 1871 which is a short distance from the north-west corner of the District and which is on the High Barnet branch of the

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...

: Totteridge & Whetstone tube station. This led to high demand for housing in that area of the District.Clive's Underground Line Guides - Northern Line, Dates
/ref> The statistics in the panel to the right show the population change, accordingly.

References

{{London Government Act 1963 History of the London Borough of Barnet Districts abolished by the London Government Act 1963 Local Government Districts created by the Local Government Act 1858 Districts of England created by the Local Government Act 1894 History of local government in London (1889–1965) History of local government in Middlesex Friern Barnet