Place Name
Takes its name from the nearby St James’s Church, New Barnet – although not directly, given that the church itself is almost half a mile away. Instead this was where the vicarage was situated, the St James Church website explains: “In 1916 a house in Park Road was bought for £1,200 to be the new vicarage, after the previous one had been deemed ‘inadequate’ by the Archdeacon.” As for the church, in East Barnet Road, the site gives a potted history: “In the mid-19th century the Great Northern Railway reached Barnet and a new town, which became known as New Barnet, grew up around the station. Holy Trinity Church, Lyonsdown, was built to the west of the railway to serve the new community. As the population grew, they opened another church in an ‘iron structure’ on the east side of the line, calling it St James’s. The Lyonsdown curate played a key role at St James’s, and there was a great deal of shared activity between the two churches. By the end of the century it seems that the ‘tin tabernacle’, as it was known, was long past its use-by date. There were plans for a permanent structure and the need for fund-raising, but not much was done until the arrival of the Rev W.F. Kerr as curate-in-charge. His first priority was the building of the Church Hall further down the East Barnet Road (now Subud Centre), which was opened in 1906. This was to provide a temporary haven for the church a year later when the tin tabernacle was damaged beyond repair by a fire in a timber yard next door. Planning for a new church building now gained greater urgency, and the hard work of fund-raising began. Those who lived in the St James’s side of the parish were largely from the artisan and working classes, and despite support from members of Lyonsdown Church, the realities of building costs forced changes to the plans; there would no longer be a bell turret and west gallery, and the chancel was put on hold. The final bill was around £7,000, and the church was left to tackle a debt of £1,300. The foundation stone was laid in February 1911 and the new church was ready for consecration by the Bishop of St Albans on 24 July that year. By the end of the year the last curate-in-charge, the Rev W.G. Carpenter, had been licensed as the first vicar, and New Barnet had become an independent parish.” There vicarage was later knocked down and this road was developed on the extensive gardens.
