The London Borough of Barnet Tourist Information

The London Borough of Barnet is situated on the North-West edge of the city. It was brought into existence only in 1965, as an amalgamation of the Municipal Boroughs of Finchley and Hendon, the Friern Barnet Urban District of Middlesex, and the Barnet and East Barnet Urban Districts of Hertfordshire. Geographically it is bordered by the County of Hertfordshire to the North and the London Boroughs of  Enfield to the East, Haringey to the South-East, Harrow to the West, Brent to the South-West and Camden to the south.

It is the fourth largest of the London Boroughs, covering an area of 33 square miles (87 square kilometres), and is home to more than 300,000 people, one-fifth of whom belong to ethnic minorities.

The Borough contains three Parliamentary constituencies, Chipping Barnet, Finchley and Golders Green, and Hendon.

It is twinned with Barnet, Vermont, and Montclair, New Jersey in the United States,  Siegen-Wittgenstein and Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Germany, Chaville and Le Raincy in France, Ramat Gan in Israel, Morphou in Cyprus, and Jinja in Uganda.

As with so many London Boroughs - which are administrative, rather than organic units - the real identity of the area is to be found in the various local communities that make it up and from which it was formed. Within Barnet you will find a large number of separate and identifiable ‘urban villages' such as Barnet itself, New Barnet, East Barnet and Friern Barnet;  Edgware, New Edgware and Edgware Bury; Finchley, North Finchley and East Finchley; as well as Cockfosters, Monken Hadley, Totteridge, Arkley, Oakleigh Park, Whetstone,  Mill Hill, Watling, Church End, The Hyde, Hampstead Garden Suburb, Hendon, West Hendon, Golders Green, and Childs Hill.

Each of these possesses its own community resources and amenities, has its own individual history and its own physical and cultural identity.

Given Barnet's size and overall population - equivalent to that of a medium-sized city - you will find within its borders, as you would expect, a wealth of cultural diversity, and a host of facilities for entertainment, leisure and employment.