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Barnet
Barnet Greater London Computer Services
Approximate Population: 323,100
High Barnet or Chipping Barnet is a place in the London Borough of Barnet in North London, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th century settlement and is located 10 miles (16.1 km) north north-west of Charing Cross.
The tower of Barnet parish church - St John the Baptist - at the top of Barnet Hill, claims to be the highest point between itself and the Ural Mountains 2,000 miles to the east. However, the same has been said of numerous other points. Barnet Hill is a major hill on the historic Great North Road, although the modern Great North Road runs along Barnet Bypass.
The town was the site of the Battle of Barnet in 1471 (more accurately, Hadley), where Yorkist troops led by King Edward IV killed the rebellious “Kingmaker” Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Warwick’s brother, John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu.
It is the site of an ancient and well-known horse fair, hence the Cockney rhyming slang of Barnet Fair or barnet for “hair”. The fair dates back to 1588 when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the Lord of the Manor of Barnet the right to hold a twice yearly fair.
Chipping Barnet (chipping meaning market) was historically a civil parish of Hertfordshire and formed part of the Barnet Urban District from 1894. The parish was abolished in 1965 and the Chipping Barnet section of its former area was transferred to Greater London and the newly-created London Borough of Barnet. In 1801 the parish had a population of 1,258 and covered an area of 1,440 acres (6 km²). By 1901 the parish was reduced to 380 acres (1.5 km²) and had a population of 2,893. In 1951 the population was 7,062.
