This week’s GoodGym Barnet group run was a little different as we started at The Bull Theatre in High Barnet, where we’d previously helped out with some painting.

The Bull is another of Barnet’s little community jewels. The building has a history stretching back centuries and became the Old Bull Arts Centre in 1975. Today it is home to the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School as well as being used by the wider community. The school has helped develop an impressive list of young performers, including Amy Winehouse, Jess Glynne, Daniel Roche from Outnumbered and West End performers Alexia Khadime and Aimie Atkinson. Amy Winehouse and Alexandra Burke are also among those who have performed at the Bull itself. High Barnet Fair was once one of the biggest livestock fairs in England, attracting huge crowds, with horse racing, boxing, drinking and entertainment. The fair became so famous in London that “Barnet Fair” became Cockney rhyming slang for hair .. hence your Barnet.

Then it was time for some GoodGym action. We set about pulling weeds and clearing the outside area, and with plenty of hands we got through the job in quick time ... leaving enough daylight ( but not much ) for a run.

We headed across the High Street and through Old Court House Recreation Ground, enjoying one of those useful traffic-free routes that makes you realise how much there is to discover locally. The park itself was once pasture with stables and a brewery before becoming public open space in the 1920s. From there the route continues down a leafy alley beside the tennis courts, across Mays Lane and eventually through the fields to Dollis Brook.

We caught a lovely glowing sky from the last of the sunset before heading back uphill to the Bull, finishing with a warm-down and stretch inside the theatre.

A good task, a bit of running, some local history and another important community venue supported. We look forward to helping the Bull again later in the year.

Super Nature film.. Super nature Reserve and super goodGym runners doing some good!

We gathered in the foyer of the Phoenix Cinema and welcomed two new GoodGym recruits—big shout-out to Edward and Neeral on their first session!

The Phoenix also gave us an emergency bundle of leaflets to distribute for Super Nature, a film celebrating the natural world, showing at 2pm on Saturday 5 September, followed by a Q&A with director Ed Sayers. The Phoenix is an important charitable community cinema, so please support it if you can. Find out more and book here⁠ https://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/PhoenixCinemaLondon.dll/WhatsOn?f=634449

After warming up outside, we numbered up by sharing the television programmes that influenced us as children—from Teletubbies and Bagpuss to Star Trek.

We split into two teams and delivered all the leaflets along a nearby road before setting off at a good pace for the two-kilometre run to Glebelands Local Nature Reserve.

Glebelands is one of the last surviving parts of old Finchley Common and is a Grade I Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation. Its clay soil holds water, feeding natural springs, streams and seasonal ponds. These support rare wetland plants and wildlife, including great crested newts. It may look like a small patch of rough woodland, but it is one of Finchley’s most precious natural spaces.

Although the ground looked dry, subsurface water and mud meant that we couldn’t do the planned clearance work. Instead, we split into pairs for a litter pick and found a surprising amount of rubbish, particularly around a concrete structure that seemed to act as a litter magnet!

With our bags full, we headed back—an enjoyable evening supporting both our local cinema and an important local nature reserve.