Things to do in Barnet: parks, markets, museums and days out

Barnet is not a borough people visit for a weekend, which means much of what it has is used by residents and largely unknown beyond them. That is to its credit, and it makes for an unusually uncrowded set of options.

Outdoors

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Trent Park is the headline: several hundred acres of woodland, lakes and open parkland on the Enfield boundary, with a country house history and enough ground to lose an afternoon in.

Hadley Common and Hadley Green sit at the top of the borough beside Monken Hadley’s conservation area, and offer the closest thing to open countryside inside London. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk threads ten miles from Moat Mount down towards Hampstead Heath, and can be picked up in sections.

Closer in, Victoria Park in Finchley, Oak Hill Park in East Barnet and Sunny Hill Park in Hendon are the everyday ones, with playgrounds and cafés.

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Museums and history

The Royal Air Force Museum at Colindale is the borough’s standout attraction: a large collection of aircraft across several hangars on a former airfield, free to enter, and comfortably a full day with children.

Barnet Museum on Wood Street is small, volunteer-run and genuinely good on the Battle of Barnet, fought north of the town in 1471 and among the decisive engagements of the Wars of the Roses. The battlefield site itself is walkable from High Barnet.

St Mary the Virgin at Monken Hadley and the surrounding conservation area reward an hour’s slow walk, particularly combined with the common.

Markets and high streets

Barnet Market traces its charter to the twelfth century, which makes it one of the oldest in the country still trading. It is a working market rather than a tourist one.

For eating and browsing, Church End in Finchley, the stretch around Golders Green Road, and East Finchley’s high street each have their own character — Golders Green in particular for its kosher bakeries and restaurants.

When it rains

The RAF Museum is entirely indoors. The Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley is one of the oldest continuously operating cinemas in the country and a genuine pleasure. artsdepot in North Finchley programmes theatre, comedy and children’s shows.

The borough’s libraries run free children’s sessions during term time and through the holidays, which is the most underused wet-weather option in Barnet.

Getting around

The Northern line’s two northern branches cover much of the borough, with Trent Park closest to Oakwood on the Piccadilly line. Cross-borough journeys are often quicker by bus than by rail, and the 384 and 234 are more useful than the map suggests.