New Barnet owes its conception to the building of the
Great Northern Railway in 1850, when a station serving High Barnet was built, but located about a mile away from the town centre of High Barnet, so that this 'new' area quickly saw development: In 1876,
Handbook to the Environs of London by James Thorne describe New Barnet as one of those new half-finished railway villages that we have come to look on as almost a necessary adjunct of every station within a moderate distance of London.New Barnet's growth accelerated at the turn of the 19th Century aided by the speculative developer,
E. Fergusson Taylor, who became known as the creator of New Barnet. In 1892 a
town hall was built for the local board and from 1894 New Barnet formed part of the
East Barnet Urban District of
Hertfordshire until 1965 when it was
transferred from Hertfordshire to
Greater London to become part of the newly created
London Borough of Barnet. The War Memorial was built opposite the Town Hall in 1921 to remember the 278 men of East Barnet who died in World War 1. In 2019, a new leisure centre in New Barnet was completed by Barnet Council, including a 25m pool and gym. The leisure centre is run by the not-for-profit provider Better. ==Transport==