Plaque

Friary House
Friary Park opened to the public on Saturday 7th May 1910 after Sydney Simmons, JP, local resident and founder of the Patent Steam Carpet Beating Company Ltd, re-imbursed Friern Barnet urban District Council with the purchase cost of £7500.
There has been a house on this site since about 1551 and it was occupied by, amongst others, John Popham, Lord Chief Justice who presided at the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 and Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators in 1605. Guests at the house included Queen Elizabeth I and, in the early 1700s, Queen Anne.
The house and estate were bought in 1800 by John Bacon when there were only 55 houses in Friern Barnet, and 33 in the hamlet of Colney Hatch, where Friern Barnet Lane and Friern Barnet Road meet.
The old house was demolished around 1871 and the present house was built by Edmund William Richardson, the Company Secretary of the Planet Building Society, who lived in it until his death in 1908.
The house was extensively renovated in 2010 by Barnet Council for the use of local organisations.

The restoration of the clock on the house was made possible by generous donations from: Friends of Friary Park; Friern Barnet & District Local History Society (in memory of their founder, John Donovan); Friern Barnet & Whetstone Residents' Association; T&B Builders: The Whetstone Society.

May 2011