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🗞️ Fitzalan Road Changed British Yoga
Published 2 days ago • 6 min read
Welcome
The Finchley Now team are delighted to reveal our first foray into investigative writing - the little know fact that the first yoga class in the UK happened in Finchley (with a celebrity twist to follow).
Plus Yard Sale Pizza opens in East Finchley today. And M&S news.
🧘Finchley 1961 First Yoga Class in UK
Early yoga class in the garden on Fitzalan Road
On a quiet stretch of Fitzalan Road, there’s an ordinary-looking Edwardian house with an extraordinary claim: it hosted the first public Iyengar yoga class in the UK.
Not in a studio. Not in a church hall. In a sitting room — and, once the numbers grew, out in the garden.
It was the early 1960s, and BKS Iyengar was newly arrived, teaching a tiny group who’d been gathered through the house’s owners, Ayana Angadi and Patricia Angadi (born in Hampstead).
Their home doubled as the HQ for the Asian Music Circle — a cultural salon where visiting Indian musicians played to a curious London long before “world music” had a marketing label.
So how did yoga enter the picture? Credit the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who championed Iyengar and encouraged a Finchley-based class for Circle members.
Iyengar was a regular visitor to London – here he is giving a demonstration at the home of Lady Crosfield in Highgate.
On the evening of Monday, 19 June 1961 Iyengar hosted the first, very small, open class – in Finchley.
Three students turned up: Silva Mehta, Angela Marris (the secretary of the Music Circle) and Diana Clifton. One remembered the teacher’s mix of charm and steel: “I am better than the wall… I’ve got hands, I’ve got arms.”
Sixty-odd years on, the current owners are aware of the music history — but the yoga story still feels like Finchley’s best-kept secret.
Watch this space - there's a surprising celebrity part two to this story next week🧘
Events
ARTS
Saturday 14th February
Valentine's Day Candle Making Workshop | Sat, Feb. 14 | 2:00 pm | Our Yard at Clitterhouse Farm, Claremont Road, NW2 1AP | £19.67 | Whether you're celebrating Valentines, Palentines or Galentines Day you'll be sure to leave this Candle Making Workshop feeling the love.
Valentine’s Day private 1 to 2 Throwing Pottery Taster Workshop (90 minutes) at Noriko Nagaoka Studio | Sat, Feb. 14 | 11:30 am to 5:30 pm | End of Woodberry Grove, N12 0DN | £175 for two people | Are you looking for an interesting experience on Valentine’s Day? Email Noriko.
COMMUNITY
Saturday 14th February
Highgate Repair Cafe | Sat, Feb. 14 | 10:00 am to 1:00 pm | St Michael's Church, South Grove, N6 6BJ | Free | Book a slot online to get matched with a fixer for your technology or get spares for your equipment.
Charity Gala | Sat, Feb. 14 | 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm | The Bull Theatre, EN5 5SJ | £10.69 | Come and celebrate everything that The Bull Theatre has to offer. Meet the groups based in the building and hear their stories in an evening of magic, drama, music, and fun. Feel the love.
THEATRE
Wednesday 18th February
The Height of the Storm | Wed, Feb. 18 | 7:30 pm to 9:15 pm | Incognito Theatre, N11 | £11 | André and Madeleine have been in love for over fifty years. This weekend, as their daughters visit, something feels unusual. A bunch of flowers arrives, but who sent them? A woman from the past turns up, but who is she? And why does André feel like he isn’t there at all?
KIDS
Saturday 15th February
Little Chefs Club at Clitterhouse Farm | Sun, Feb. 15 | 10:00 am to 12:00 pm | Clitterhouse Farm Project, NW2 1AP | £22.38 | Little Chefs Club helps kids 5+ learn simple recipes, build confidence, and have fun cooking together at Clitterhouse Farm.
Wednesday 18th February
Lunar New Year Storytelling Workshop: The Great Race | Wed, Feb. 18 | 11:00 am to 11:45 am | artsdepot | £7.50 | Join New Earth Theatre for an interactive storytelling workshop inspired by the ancient legend about the Chinese Zodiacs, The Great Race. This is a special opportunity to engage in cultural exchange as you'll take part in telling the tale.
MUSIC
Saturday 14th February
Candlelight Concert | Sat, Feb. 14 | 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm | The Old Palace, Hertfordshire, AL9 5HX | £60 per ticket | Enjoy a romantic evening of love songs by candlelight in a beautiful Tudor palace.In the stunning setting of the Old Palace, where Queen Elizabeth I once held court, enjoy elegant renditions of classic love songs throughout the decades, performed live by our magnificent string quartet, The London String Trio, in the opulent glow of golden candlelight.
Friday 20th February
Colindale Barnet Folk Club Presents Sweet Thames Plus Floor Spots | Fri, Feb. 20 | 8:00 pm | The Bull Theatre, EN5 5SJ | £7.48 | Tamesas are a female folk trio singing traditional songs with bodhran, fiddle and flute. Performing an eclectic mix of songs and tunes the arrangements move between gentle, intimate tales of the sea to poignant and powerful stories of women’s lives.
NATURE
Saturday 7th February
Potters Bar and Barnets RSPB Local Group | Wed, Feb. 11 | 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm | St. John's United Reformed Church, Mowbray Road, EN5 1RH | £5 | Dr Iain Boulton will talk on “The Thin Green Line”, about the work of a Local Government Ecologist Dr Boulton is a bat expert and the Biodiversity & Environmental Compliance Manager at Lambeth Council. He will share many years of experience in the protection and conservation of wildlife and public open spaces for Lambeth.
Events - Book Ahead
Saturday 28th March
A Ludovico Einaudi Candlelight Experience In Barnet | Sat, Mar. 28 | 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm | St John the Baptist Church, Junction of High Street and Wood Street, Chipping Barnet, EN5 4BW | from £20 | The performance at this event will be a String Trio.
Saturday & Sunday 12-13th September
Barnet Food Festival 2026 | Sat, Sept. 12 | RAF Museum London Grahame Park Way, NW9 5LL | £10 under 16s go free | Join for a delicious time at the Museum’s airfield. Sample street food from around the world, enjoy live music, and bring the family for fabulous children’s activities.
Friday 7th August
The Eminem Experience in London! | Fri, Aug. 07 | 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm | Angel Central, 16 Parkfield Street, Islington, N1 0PS | £22.30 | Get ready for a high-octane celebration of Eminem’s legendary music as The Eminem Experience brings his greatest hits to life like never before. This immersive production blends the raw intensity of live hip-hop with next-level musical craftsmanship for a night fans will never forget.
Local Lowdown
Barnet's Punch and Judy Professor | Image from The Barnet Society
Pupeteering
A lifetime of laughs. Geoff Barrett, Barnet’s very own Punch and Judy 'professor', has been delighting local crowds for fifty years with his handmade glove puppets. Now 77, he’s easing up but plans to return this summer for one more show in Byng Road - because the show, as ever, must go on.
Baking
From buns to boutique. Muswell Hill’s smallest bakery, Astrid Bakery, has outgrown its 400-square-foot space on Alexandra Park Road. So, it has opened Astrid Atelier just down the street. Founder Charlotte O’Kelly, once a fashion journalist, now serves her famed croissants and breads from two North London havens of buttery bliss.
Expanding
Food hall dreams. Marks & Spencer is looking at High Barnet and New Barnet for new food halls. This is part of its plan to nearly double the number of stores across the country.
Opening
Pizza incoming. East Finchley’s newest pizza shop, Yard Sale Pizza launches today. It's delivering hot slices across N2, N3, N6, N10, N12 and NW11. Today's the day that cheesy happiness lands on your doorstep.
Bowling
Still rolling strong. Glebelands Indoor Bowls Club has hit a major milestone - 35 years on the green. The mayor joined founding member Don Knight and the original crew for a celebratory match, even ditching his shoes to bowl in socks. The president’s team won and donated the winnings to North London Hospice.
Finchley Then: The Magdalene Laundries
Convent and Homes of The Good Shepherd, East Finchley
Established in the 19th century, these asylums were refuges for so-called "fallen women". They were offered shelter and reform. The asylums functioned as commercial laundries, run by nuns.
But, the reality within these walls was often far harsher – a life marked by hard labour, stigma, and isolation.
Who knew that one of the last Magdalene laundries was in East Finchley? Built in 1866, the asylum was on East End Road, opposite St Marylebone Cemetery. It occupied the area bordered by the railway, Hamilton Road, and what’s now the North Circular.
Know as the “Good Shepherd Refuge” it housed 170 women and 80 girls, run by a Catholic order, The Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
And email us with any projects or ideas you'd like us to write about.
Tessa Davis
Sasha Frieze
Finchley Now
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