PUBLIC SERVICES.
Pymme's brook in Southgate was thought capable of poisoning the whole
neighbourhood with sewage received from its
tributary Bounds Green brook, until in 1856 public
pressure secured a proper sewerage system for
Colney Hatch asylum. (fn. 97) There was still some leakage
from the asylum in 1875, when the streams were
otherwise barely polluted. (fn. 98) After complaints by
the Lee Conservancy Board in 1869 over sewage
from the Avenue area, a tank was built at Ely
Place and by 1873-4 there was no discharge into
Hertfordshire. In 1873 the vestry regarded Friern
Barnet as a rural parish with only minor problems
and considered that earth closets were adequate
for the thinly populated Oakleigh estate. On
grounds of expense the parish wanted no part in
schemes for East Barnet in 1873-4 (fn. 99) or Finchley
in 1875, and candidates for election as guardians
at Barnet rural sanitary authority regarded demands
for a sewage farm as 'humbug'. (fn. 1) By 1883 sewerage
was out of control in several areas and improvements including an additional tank at Ely Place
were inadequate. (fn. 2) Edmonton was unwilling to take
the parish's sewage (fn. 3) and the rural sanitary authority
was sued for polluting Pymme's brook. (fn. 4) Accordingly the authority, which had already laid some
pipes, (fn. 5) decided to carry out an expensive scheme, (fn. 6)
whereupon Friern Barnet obtained its own local
board of health. (fn. 7)
The sewage farm was on 30 a. in Wood Green
and Edmonton, adjoining Cromwell Road in the
Freehold, (fn. 8) as only there could the parish process
its own sewage. (fn. 9) Able to serve 30,000 people and
discharging a purified effluent into the brook,
it was regarded in 1891 as a great credit to the
designer, Baldwin Latham. (fn. 10) The surplus land was
used for rubbish and allotments. (fn. 11) The asylum's
pipes were connected to it in 1898 (fn. 12) and in 1932
it was altered to make room for the North Circular Road. There were six houses with an inadequate supply of water to their closets in 1892-3
but only two in 1925. (fn. 13) From 1963 Friern Barnet's
sewage was processed at Deepham's works, Edmonton, and the Cromwell Road works became
redundant. (fn. 14)
Three brooks and surface wells supplied water
until c. 1866. A conduit house adjoining the residence of John Cleeve the elder was to be freely used
by all in 1718 (fn. 15) and a public well at Whetstone
was demolished in 1820. (fn. 16) Queen Elizabeth's well
near Friern Barnet Lane was insanitary in the
early 20th century (fn. 17) and in 1925 a drinking fountain
was erected on the site. The New River Co. erected
a pumping station at Colney Hatch by 1876, (fn. 18)
when the vestry was told that water would be supplied under even pressure to New Southgate and
that hydrants must be adapted. (fn. 19) The New River
Co., from 1904 the Metropolitan Water Board,
supplied less of the parish than did the Barnet
District Gas and Water Co., later the Barnet Water
Co., from 1892 to 1950. (fn. 20) The water from Barnet
was excellent but insufficient. (fn. 21) Although Barnet
was found to have an unlimited supply in 1893, (fn. 22)
pressure in 1899 was still too low for a mechanical
fire-engine. (fn. 23) Except for the inhabitants of the
Freehold, who feared the expense of changing all
their fittings, the whole parish wanted and in 1887
the board demanded a constant supply. (fn. 24) Part of the
parish was receiving it in 1907, (fn. 25) when fittings
in the remainder were being adapted. (fn. 26)
The Southgate and Colney Hatch Gas Light
and Coke Co. was incorporated in 1858 and was
supplying Friern Barnet from a gas-works in
Edmonton, adjoining Colney Hatch station, by
1866. It was then reconstituted as the Colney
Hatch Gas Co. and the whole parish was included
in its sector. (fn. 27) Mains were extended from Colney
Hatch to the Great North Road in 1862 but there
was no main to the parish church in 1868-72,
when the East Barnet Gas Co. was supplying it.
Both companies had mains at Oakleigh Park in
1877 and the Colney Hatch Gas Co. had mains in
Athenaeum Road in 1882. (fn. 28) There was still no
gas supply in the Freehold in 1887. (fn. 29) In 1883 the
vestry adopted the lighting provisions of the Lighting and Watching Act (1834). There were 42 street
lamps in 1884, when plans were agreed with the
gas company, (fn. 30) a further 45 were erected in 1885, (fn. 31)
and others followed in response to local pressure. (fn. 32)
The company was taken over by the Tottenham and
Edmonton Gas Light and Coke Co. in 1938 and
later by the Eastern Gas Board. (fn. 33)
In 1889 the local board considered using power
from the manure engine at the sewage farm for
electricity but instead sought expert opinion. (fn. 34)
In 1901 Friern Barnet U.D.C. was authorized to
supply electric lighting to the whole of the U.D.,
including private roads, and to lay mains in Station
and Friern Barnet roads. (fn. 35) The order was revoked
in 1907, (fn. 36) when the cost of electric lighting was
an issue at the elections. (fn. 37) In 1909 responsibility for
the parish passed to the North Metropolitan
Power Supply Co. (fn. 38) It established an outside department at Friern Barnet Road, New Southgate, by
1923, (fn. 39) later the London Electricity Board (Northmet Sub-Area) central stores and meter-testing
department.
In 1875 it was a matter for congratulation when
the fire brigade from Finchley arrived within 30
minutes of an outbreak. (fn. 40) Ratepayers at New Southgate in 1883 resolved to establish a fire station in the
Avenue area (fn. 41) but it is unlikely that it was done.
There was a fire committee of the U.D.C. by
1907, when the formation of a volunteer fire brigade
was an election issue, and it proposed to purchase a
manual engine as water pressure was inadequate for
a mechanical one. (fn. 42) By 1912-13 there was a fire
station near the sewage farm, another beside the
council offices, and a third near All Saints' church. (fn. 43)
In 1936 tenders were invited for a new fire station
and mechanical fire pump. (fn. 44) The central fire station
by the town hall was the M.C.C.'s Fire and Ambulance Service Depot in 1960 and closed in
1968-9. (fn. 45)
The first allotments provided under the Allotments Act (1887) were on land not needed for the
sewage farm in 1894. In 1909 encroachments were
made by the farm (fn. 46) but the number of allotments
increased with the spread of council housing in the
1920s. (fn. 47) There were 5 a. of permanent allotments
by 1934 and 51 a. by 1946. (fn. 48)
Parochial lending libraries were provided by the
church from before 1850 until at least 1907. (fn. 49)
A branch of the county library existed at St. Peter's
school by 1926, when new branches were opened
at St. James's schools and the Priory for the north
and central wards. (fn. 50) The existing library in Friern
Barnet Road was built in 1933-4 (fn. 51) and the South
Friern branch library in Colney Hatch Lane in
1963-4. (fn. 52)
Friern Barnet had no hospital of its own. In
1894 the vaccination Acts were executed by the
guardians of Barnet union and from 1935 the area
came under the jurisdiction of the Hornsey,
Finchley and Wood Green hospital committee and
its successors. (fn. 53)