“Before the railway, there was nothing.” That’s how the story of New Barn begins. Imagine this area before 1850. There was no New Barn. The Great Northern Company built the railway line.
To do so, the railway company had to purchase land. They bought it from different farms and estates. The owner of Lyonsdown estate made a demand. The railway company had to buy the whole estate. This was instead of just the needed fields. In 1850, the railway company sold the rest of the Lyonsdown estate. The buyer was The British Land Company.
Development in New Barn was slow at first. The New Barn we know today wasn’t fully built until 1914. This was the time of the First World War. Lyonsdown Road and Station Road were laid out first. Station Road was originally called New Barnet Road. By 1857, the British Land Company sold houses on New Barn Road.
By January 1860, Leicester, Lytton, and “Lionsdown” roads existed. Many Victorian roads have names from the Battle of Barnet. Leicester and Richmond Roads are examples.
In 1864, Anglican Christians built Holy Trinity church. By 1869, it became its own parish. It was called Lyonsdown. The railway station served the whole of Barnet. It was originally called Barnet Station. In 1872, the East Barnet Gas and Water Company built a gasworks. It provided power for the gas lamps. These lit the houses of New Barn.
The same company provided drinking water. The water came from a 500-foot artesian well. In 1892, a town hall was built for the local board. Even so, the roads didn’t fill up immediately. A school was built for 400 children in 1871. By the 1880s, shops were already in New Barn.
A police station opened in 1884. It was at the junction of Edward and Margaret Roads. It had one inspector, three sergeants, and 15 constables. The station closed in 1933. The building was demolished in 1985. There was a volunteer fire brigade at Hope Villas around 1870. It was replaced in 1903. A purpose-built station then had a full-time force.
In 1871, the new parish of Lyonsdown had 2,340 people. By 1881, it only increased to about 4,230. By the 1890s, New Barnet was the political centre. It was the centre of the parish of East Barnet. Despite all these new institutions, roads remained empty. The Ordnance Survey map of the mid-1890s shows this. Some roads were thirty years old but still empty.
New Barnet was fully built by the First World War. A war memorial was unveiled in March 1921. Lord Hampden dedicated it to the 278 men of East Barnet. These men were killed in the First World War.
The memorial cost about £1,000. The figure on top represents victory. The Hippodrome cinema opened in 1926. It was later renamed the Regal in 1933. In 1934, John Ward established the Abbey Folk Museum in Park Road. It was England’s first outdoor museum. It was based on Skansen in Sweden.
The museum’s collection was large. It included a medieval barn. After Mr Ward died in 1945, the museum closed. The collection went to Queensland, Australia in 1986.
So, as you explore New Barn today, remember its humble beginnings. From farmland to railway town, it has a rich history. It is a history built on vision and change.