Welcome

Beatles-biopic filming comes to North London, see inside Jeremy Corbyn's house, and where *is* the latest Waitrose opening?

🏡 Meet High Barnet's Golden Girls

Behind High Barnet’s bustling high street is a housing development that’s challenging the way we think about getting older.

​New Ground is Britain’s first all-female cohousing community for older women — and, ten years after its residents moved in, it remains a remarkable north London experiment in friendship, independence and ageing on your own terms.

The three-storey development, built on the site of a former convent school in Union Street, is home to 26 women. The eldest, Hedi Argent, is 96. Twenty-one of the original residents who arrived in 2016 still live there.

But New Ground is emphatically not a retirement home. Its residents prefer to say they “look out for each other, not look after each other”.

Each woman has her own self-contained flat, complete with kitchen and bathroom, but there is also a communal house for shared meals and film nights, alongside a garden, balconies and spaces designed to encourage neighbours to actually know one another.

The idea was decades in the making.

The Older Women’s Co-Housing group began pursuing the project in the late 1990s, inspired partly by similar communities in the Netherlands (Knarrenhof and Humanitas Deventer are interesting examples). Finding a suitable site — close to shops, transport and healthcare — took 12 years, followed by a lengthy planning battle.

The women were also determined that New Ground should not become an enclave only for those able to buy property. Of its 25 flats, eight were secured for social housing.

Life there isn’t presented as some perfect communal utopia. Residents admit there are disagreements, from decorating decisions to bigger questions about new members. Decisions are generally made by consensus, while residents divide responsibility for gardening, maintenance, finances and other tasks.

There is also a “health buddy” system, with small groups helping one another with shopping, prescriptions or practical support when somebody is unwell.

With millions of older women across the UK living alone, New Ground offers one possible answer to a question likely to become increasingly important: how do we want to live as we age?

The residents published the ebook Our Later Years: Shared Wisdom on Ageing Powerfully Together a few months ago, paperback out next year.

For the women of High Barnet, the answer has been to build something themselves — not around dependency, but friendship, independence and community. 🏡

Events

ARTS

Monday 14th September

​1953: The Year Of Floods | Mon, Sep. 14 | 3:00 pm to 3:45 pm | Barnet Museum, 31 Wood Street, EN5 4BE | £3 | Lectures return to Barnet Museum. September's is on 1953, the year of floods, hosted by Terrance Atkins.

Sunday 20th September

​London Ceramics Market | Sun, Sep. 20 | 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm | Hornsey Parish Church, N10 3AH | Free entry | Twenty-five local ceramic artists selling their pot loads. Tea and coffee on site.

COMMUNITY

Tuesday 15th September

​The National Databank Drop-in at Colindale Library | Tue, Sep. 15 | 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm | Colindale Library, 7 Bristol Avenue, NW9 4BR | Free | Barnet has teamed up with the National Databank, which provides free mobile data through the Good Things Foundation network with Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone. For over-18s from low-income households.

Thursday 17th September

​Lauderdale House Social Walks | Thu, Sep. 17 | From 3:00 pm | 30 Makepeace Avenue, Highgate, N6 6HL | Free | Starting at Holly Lodge, this walk crosses Hampstead Heath on the way to Keats House. Email hollylodge.manager@gmail.com to join.

​Oral History Lunchtime Lecture | Thu, Sep. 17 | Lunchtime | RAF Museum London, Grahame Park Way, NW9 5LL | Free | How the RAF Museum's oral history collection began, how it has grown, and some of the highlights.

KIDS

Wednesday 16th September

​Shine Learning Maths Mastery Club | Wed, Sep. 16 | 4:00 pm to 4:50 pm | artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, N12 0GA | £20 | Small-group maths tuition for 7 to 11-year-olds, designed to close learning gaps and take the fear out of the subject. Taught by an experienced primary teacher and SEN specialist.

Saturday 19th September

​The Little Children's Market London | Sat, Sep. 19 | 10:30 am to 12:00 pm | Enfield Grammar Upper School, EN2 6LN | £2.50 | Thousands of preloved bargains for ages 0 to 11: toys, clothing, books, games, equipment and baby essentials, all under one roof.

NATURE

Friday 18th September

​Queen's Park Insect Safari | Fri, Sep. 18 | 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm | Location provided on booking | Free | A guided bug hunt around Queen's Park with the resident insect expert, turning up more species than you would expect.

SPORTS

Tuesday 15th September

Back To Netball at the Archer Academy | Tue, Sep. 15 | 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm | Archer Academy, N2 8GA | £35 for 5 weeks | Women-only netball sessions, no experience needed, in a supportive and unintimidating setting. Contact Sophie.Johnson@englandnetball.co.uk.

THEATRE

Sunday 20th September

​Rabbit & Rey and The Lost Things | Sun, Sep. 20 | 11:00 am to 12:00 pm | artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, N12 0GA | £13.75 | Ever feel like the world is playing hide and seek with your things? Meet Rey, imagination expert and glorious misplacer of everything, and Rabbit alongside.

Events - Book Ahead

Saturday 3rd October

​All Things Bump to Baby | Sat, Oct. 03 | 11:00 am to 3:00 pm | John Lewis & Partners, Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Prince Charles Drive, NW4 3FL | £5.00 | The nursery team and local experts on preparing for a new baby, plus a look at the All Things Baby service.

Monday 5th October

​Finchley Central Town Team Meeting | Mon, Oct. 05 | 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm | Finchley Church End Library, Gateway House, 318-320 Regents Park Road, N3 2LN | Free | Following the inaugural meeting in May, residents, businesses and community groups are invited to hear about projects aimed at improving Finchley Central town centre, meet the committee and have their say. Booking required.

Friday 23rd October

​Ice Skating at Brent Cross | Fri, Oct. 23 | Times TBC | Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Prince Charles Drive, NW4 3FL | Free to look, tickets TBC | Ice skating returns to Brent Cross from 23 October right through to 3 January. Ticket details still to come, so keep an eye out.

Local Lowdown

Selling

• A three-bedroom terrace in Finsbury Park has changed hands, and its owner is rather well known. Jeremy Corbyn's house, bought for £363,000 in 2007, was listed this year at £700,000, and the listing now shows it as sold. Three floors, two reception rooms and a 26-foot garden.

Reopening

• Ballards Lane has had another ribbon-cutting. Waitrose Finchley reopened on 4 September after a refurbishment, with upgraded service counters, a dry-aged beef cabinet and a redesigned bakery. MP Sarah Sackman did the honours, and early shoppers got tote bags and prosecco. The store has served Finchley since 1994.

Playing

• West Hendon Playing Fields has had its first big upgrade. Two tennis courts, a 3x3 basketball court and a much bigger playground are now open, with a climbing frame, monkey bars, slides and wheelchair-accessible picnic tables. Phase two would add an all-weather pitch and a kiosk cafe.

Fundraising

• Barnet's Noah's Ark Children's Hospice is aiming to raise £1 million. Its From That Moment appeal launches with a short film in which three families describe how the hospice supported them through diagnosis, with music therapy, specialist play, respite and sibling support. Text FTM to 70560 to give £10.

Closing

• After 35 years of fresh pasta on Fleet Road, Giacobazzi's served its last customer on 4 September, possibly for good. Raff, Renata and Carlo opened the deli in 1991, and its rumoured regulars included Helena Bonham Carter and Michael Palin. South End Green will be less tasty.

Fab Four Film Finchley?

Beatlemania is back in north London as director Sam Mendes films his ambitious four-part Beatles biopic. (Of course some filming also in Liverpool).

The films will tell the band’s story from each member’s perspective, with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. All four films are due in April 2028.

London has already stood in for 1960s New York, while filming has also taken place around Marylebone Station and Boston Place – famously used in the opening of A Hard Day’s Night.

The production has also recreated the iconic Abbey Road crossing, where the Beatles posed for their 1969 album cover. (Vanessa Feltz has something to say about this).

And now the rumour mill has moved closer to home. Unconfirmed reports suggest filming may also have taken place around Temple Fortune, with Beechwood Avenue in Finchley also being mentioned.

Nothing official yet – but if you spotted a film crew, Finchley Now wants to know.

Editors' Note - From Sasha

Busy week preparing for New Year. But great site visit to the Central Criminal Court – known as the Old Bailey. No pics allowed, here’s an official one (and you can do guided tours, too).

Also, let us know about local events or local news. We curate our content to keep it a 5-minute read, so can't include everything we're sent.

​And email us with any projects or ideas you'd like us to write about.

Tessa Davis Sasha Frieze