[3] Barnet borders the Hertfordshire district of Hertsmere to the north and five other London boroughs: Camden and Haringey to the southeast, Enfield to the east, as well as Harrow and Brent to the west of the ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road).

The borough's major urban settlements are Hendon, Finchley, Golders Green, Friern Barnet, Chipping Barnet, Whetstone, and Edgware; there are also village settlements notably Totteridge and Arkley along with rural areas and countryside part of the Green Belt.

The local authority is Barnet London Borough Council, which meets at Hendon Town Hall and has its main offices in Colindale.

Both sites are on the Roman road Watling Street from London (Londinium) to St Albans (Verulamium) which now forms the western border of the borough.

[5] Hendon is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086,[6] but the districts of Barnet, Edgware and Finchley were not referred to, possibly because these areas were included in other manors.

[29] The local authority is Barnet Council, which meets at Hendon Town Hall and has its main offices at 2 Bristol Avenue in the Colindale area of the borough.

The residents of London Borough of Barnet are represented at Westminster by Members of Parliament (MPs) for three parliamentary constituencies.

[32] Hendon, in 2024 the most marginal Labour-held seat in the country with a majority of 15 votes, is represented by David Pinto-Duschinsky.

The borough covers a group of hills on the northern edge of the London Basin.

Some of the hills are formed from glacial till deposited at the farthest extent of glaciers during the Anglian glaciation.

This division is largely because the eastern side grew around what is now the High Barnet Underground branch of the Northern line.

Further south, around the borough's centre, the development becomes steadily more intensive around the suburbs of Cricklewood, Colindale, Hendon and Finchley.

Golders Green is renowned for its Jewish minority ethnic population and forms part of the south of the borough, along with Hampstead Garden Suburb and Childs Hill.

Barnet describes its 16 main open spaces as 'premier parks', nine of which achieved a Green Flag Award for 2008–2009:[33] The borough has sixty-seven Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, eight Local Nature Reserves, and it is jointly responsible with the London Borough of Brent for the Welsh Harp (Brent) Reservoir, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The A5 (Edgware Road) forms the border between Barnet and the boroughs of Brent and Harrow, with an exception being the West Hendon area and part of the Welsh Harp.

[1] Odeon Cinema, Barnet is a Grade II listed building located on Great North Road.

Church Farmhouse Museum on Greyhound Hill in Hendon is a grade II* listed 17th-century farmhouse used by Barnet Council as an exhibition space and museum until the Council closed it to save money on 31 March 2011.

and non-League football clubs Wingate & Finchley F.C., Hendon F.C., London Lions and Edgware Town.

In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 6,404; and the area was characterised by farming and woodland — with settlement principally around the Great North Road.

The population rose dramatically with the arrival of the trams and railways in the middle of 19th century, and new estates were built to house commuters.

As industry relocated away from London during the 1960s, the population entered a decline, that has begun to reverse with new housing developments on brownfield sites.

47.3% of people described themselves as Christian, with the second largest group being Jewish at 14.8%, the highest percentage in any local government area in the United Kingdom.

In 1588 Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the Lord of the Manor of Barnet to hold a twice yearly horse fair.

The Great North Road passes through the borough starting at East Finchley and crossing into Hertfordshire at Monken Hadley.

The Piccadilly line, although in the Borough of Enfield, is very close to the border, with buses in Barnet connecting people to the stations.

The Midland Main Line passes through the western edge of the borough, and is served by Thameslink at (from north to south): Mill Hill Broadway, Hendon and Cricklewood.

There was a railway line joining the two sides of the borough, part of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway which was going to be part of the Underground's Northern line "Northern Heights" expansion, but steam passenger services beyond Mill Hill East ended in 1939, and the completion of the electrification of this railway was eventually abandoned in the 1950s, primarily because the full extension would have breached the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo.

[citation needed] What track was laid, was removed in the 1960s, with a small part of the trackbed used for the M1 motorway extension in the 1970s.