Church Farmhouse Museum

Church Farmhouse Museum was in a Grade II* listed 17th-century farmhouse in Hendon, north London, in the London Borough of Barnet – the oldest surviving dwelling in Hendon.[1][2][3][4]

Church Farmhouse Museum from Greyhound Hill

The museum had two period rooms, a period kitchen and scullery, two exhibition spaces and a large garden with a pond.[5] The building is a two-storey, red brick farmhouse with three gables and centrally placed chimney stacks.[6] It is typical of 17th-century Middlesex vernacular architecture.[7] A blue plaque commemorates Mark Lemon, who lived in the house as a child between 1817 and 1823.[8] His book Tom Moody’s Tales includes recollections of his childhood in the area.[4] The house was owned by the Kempe family between 1688 and 1780, and later by the Dunlop family from 1869-1945.[5][9]

Barnet Council, in an attempt to save money and despite local opposition, voted to withdraw funding from Church Farmhouse Museum, as well as Barnet Museum, from April 2011.[10] The Council's cabinet met on Monday 13 December 2010 and approved the budget for 2010/2011 which included this proposal.[11] There was a brief period of public consultation up to 17 January 2011, resulting in two petitions submitted against the closure, one signed by an estimated 1,900 people and one by an estimated 1,000 people.[12] followed by a final recommendation by the cabinet in February, as a result of which the museum closed, for the time being, on 31 March 2011. The final temporary exhibition, "Harry Beck and the London Tube Map", closed on 27 March 2011.[13]

Part of the museum collection went to Barnet Museum and part was sold at auction.[9][14]

The building is now occupied by the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, both part of Middlesex University. The University took over and restored the building in 2016.[15][16]

References
  1. "350 Years of Church Farm". Committee of the Friends of Church Farmhouse Museum. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  2. "CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM". Historic England. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  3. Tichborne, Roger. "Church Farmhouse Museum - The national treasure that the Barnet Conservatives Trashed". The Barnet Eye. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  4. "Commemorative Plaque for Mark Lemon at Church Farmhouse Museum" (PDF). Blue Plaque Places. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  5. "Church Farmhouse Museum Gardens". London Gardens Online. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  6. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Bridget Cherry (1999). London 4: North. Penguin Books. pp. 163–4. ISBN 0-14-071049-3.
  7. Baker, T F T. "Hendon: Growth before 1850". British History Online. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  8. "Mark Lemon blue plaque in London". Blue Plaque Places. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  9. O'Neill, Natalie (5 February 2013). "Former Church Farmhouse Museum 'going to waste'". Hendon and Finchley (etc) Times. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  10. Hill, Dave (15 January 2011). "Barnet Council and the Church Farmhouse Museum". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  11. "Finance and Business Planning 2011/12 - 2013/14" (PDF). Barnet London Borough. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  12. "Complete agenda and report pack" (PDF). Barnet London Borough. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  13. M@ (21 March 2011). "Church Farmhouse Museum Prepares To Close". Londonist. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  14. Kendall, Geraldine (2 October 2012). "Council makes concessions in £25,000 Church Farmhouse sell-off". Museums Association. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  15. "Pioneering research centres move into Hendon's oldest dwelling". Middlesex University. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  16. "Former Church Farm Museum Report" (PDF). Barnet London Borough. Retrieved 30 November 2017.

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