Template:Wp-Friern Barnet-History

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Friern Barnet was an ancient parish in the Finsbury division of Ossulstone hundred, in the county of Middlesex.

The area was originally considered to be part of Barnet, most of which was in Hertfordshire. By the 13th century the Middlesex section of Barnet was known as Little Barnet, before becoming Frerenbarnet and then Friern Barnet (sometimes spelt in other ways, such as "Fryern Barnett"). The "Friern" part of the parish's name derives from the French for "brother" and refers to the medieval lordship of the Brotherhood or Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.

Friern Barnet was mainly rural until the 19th century. The opening of Colney Hatch paupers' lunatic asylum in 1851, and of railway stations on the Great Northern and Metropolitan Railways, also in the mid-19th century, prompted its development as an outer London suburb.^[1] This process was accelerated by the arrival of electric trams in the 1900s.

Local affairs were administered by the parish vestry until 1875, when it was grouped with neighbouring parishes as part of Barnet Rural Sanitary District. In response to a petition by local ratepayers who wished the area to be removed from the Barnet RSD, the parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and formed a local board of health of nine members in 1883. Under the Local Government Act 1894 the local board's area became the Friern Barnet Urban District. This occupied an area of in 1911 and had a population of 14,924. In 1961 it occupied an area of and the population was 28,813. In 1965 it became part of the London Borough of Barnet.

Notable people

In order of birth:

• Lawrence Campe (died 1613), draper and citizen of the City of London, funded the building of almshouses in "Fryan Barnett".
• Charlotte Maria Tucker (1821–1893), pseudonym A.L.O.E. (A Lady of England), was born at Friern Hatch. She was a prolific writer and poet for children and adults, who tempered her didactic Evangelicalism with realistic depictions of the poor.
• Wilfred Kitching (1893–1977), 7th General of the Salvation Army, was educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School.
• Dorothy Lawrence (1896–1964), a reporter who posed as a man to join the army in World War I, was later confined in Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (latterly Friern Hospital), where she died.
• Jack Cohen, founder of the Tesco retail chain, funded with his wife the Jewish care facility Lady Sarah Cohen House in Friern Barnet.
• Hazel Alden Reason (1901–1976), chemist and popular science writer, was born in Friern Barnet.
• H. G. H. Kearns (1902–1986), an entomologist with a strong knowledge of engineering, was born in Friern Barnet.
• Cyril Fletcher (1913–2005), comedian and actor, was educated at Woodhouse Grammar School.
• Colin Pearson (1923–2007), a studio potter and art teacher, was born in Friern Barnet.
• Edgar Mann (1926–2013), a politician who chaired the Executive Council of the Isle of Man and then headed its government, was educated at Woodhouse Barnet Grammar School.
• John Williams (born 1941), classical guitarist, was educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School
• Václav Jelínek (born 1944), Czech spy who was arrested in his flat in Friern Barnet on 22 April 1988, while in the process of receiving coded messages by radio.
• Neil 'Roberto' Williams (born 1978), a radio and TV presenter, was educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School.
• Girls Aloud pop group who resided at Princess Park Manor.