Regarding the predicament of Avenue House, I can clearly hear the sound of chickens coming home to roost.

In its latest newsletter, the Finchley Society reminisces on Shakespeare’s plays beautifully performed in the bothy, which is set in Avenue House gardens. Memories fade quickly.

It was only three or four years ago that Finchley Arts Centre Trust (FACT) which put on the plays and, against all the odds, was attempting to renovate the bothy building (with the help of a generous philanthropist), was evicted at a few hours’ notice by none other than Avenue House Estate Trust (AHET). And what did the Finchley Society do? Precisely nothing.

Subsequent inspection of the bothy building, commissioned by AHET, labelled workmanship as “poor standard” when it was unfinished owing to the speedy eviction.

With the destruction of FACTS, and the ill-will this generated, AHET sowed the seeds of its own demise. Too many people have been affected.

Perhaps it would not be such a bad thing to let Avenue House revert to Barnet Council, which managed it until 2002, with house and gardens open to the public.

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