Welcome to
Friends of Barnet Market

News

The Market is back on the St Albans Road site after its move on November 4th, 2009. This is good news, although there are still some significant worries about the current state of the site’s surface and the dangers of cars driving onto the site and parking next to the queues of shoppers. These have been brought to the attention of the owners of the Market and we are hopeful that the dangers will be dealt with soon. The Market now has more space and there has been considerable interest from potential stallholders – FoBM has received 18 enquiries ourselves which we have referred to the owners. There is already an olive and bread stall which we heartily welcome!

The reasons that the Market was moved off the site almost two years ago are explained in the following:

Permission was given in August 2005 for the St Albans Road market site to be redeveloped to provide a building with 3 storeys and a basement. There will be provision for market stalls on the ground floor, 14 flats above and a car park for 27 cars in the basement.

It was obvious that the Market would have to move while the building work was being carried out and arrangements were finally made for the stalls to move to Barnet Council’s Stapylton Road car park in January 2008. After a further delay, an archaeological survey was carried out on the St Albans Road site to check that there were no remains of historical interest and then the way was finally clear for building to begin.

Lynne Hillan, new Leader of Barnet Council, visits the Market together with her mother (who has shopped in the Market for many years) and Theresa Villiers MP
Lynne Hillan, new Leader of Barnet Council, visits the Market together with her mother (who has shopped in the Market for many years) and Theresa Villiers MP

Unfortunately the 'credit crunch' took its toll and building work didn't start, while the lease covering the use of the Stapylton Road car park ran out at the end of June 2009. After extensive negotiations between the owners of the market company and Barnet Council officials, the lease was renewed for a short period while the old site was prepared for the 4th November move.