A change of scenery this week as we headed to the historic Bull Theatre in High Barnet, rather than our usual Phoenix Cinema starting point. Always good to spread our wings a little!

We started with a chat from Carly about the upcoming High Barnet Christmas Fair, a great local tradition which GoodGym has been invited to support. If you’d like to get involved, you can sign up on the GoodGym website. https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/help-the-bull-theatre-at-barnet-christmas-fayre?legacy=true

Unfortunately, our usual contact Susi was unwell, which meant some of our planned tasks had to wait. But there was still plenty to do, with the team getting stuck into weeding the garden areas and pathways, accompanied by the usual GoodGym chatter.

With the gardening done, George led the runners out onto Hadley Common while I stayed behind for a chat with the theatre team. Apparently, there was a slight navigational hiccup, but Victoria R spotted the error and soon had everyone back on track!

A few special mentions this week. Subham who had already run over 8km just to get to the start. Fantastic effort! Patricia , out for her fifth GoodGym session, and Beattie, who has now clocked up an impressive 150 good deeds! Awesome stuff!

And a big thank you to Victoria, who has kindly offered to help promote our activities on Instagram using the GoodGym handle. Every bit of publicity helps spread the word!

After the usual stretches and a final chat, we headed off in our various directions, some running, some cycling and others taking the Tube.

Another enjoyable evening of exercise, community support and good company. Well done, everyone!

From Finchley Facts to Harry Potter Magic!

Eight GoodGym explorers, a little local history, hidden woodland, famous faces, competitive Poohsticks and a few surprises along the way!

At 11am, eight curious GoodGymers gathered at Finchley Central station for another of our social discovery walks. The idea? Get outdoors, have a chat, enjoy a few games and discover some of the extraordinary stories hiding in our own neighbourhood.

As is traditional, we gathered round, numbered up and shared our favourite Finchley facts. Margaret Thatcher, former MP for Finchley; Harry Beck, the genius behind the iconic Tube map; and Amie Winehouse, who grew up locally.

We headed along the high street, stopping at various buildings, including the former St Mary’s Primary School, where yours truly was once a six-year-old pupil! The school has since moved near the Dollis Brook Viaduct, and much of the old site is now occupied by a courthouse.

Next was St Mary’s Church, whose history stretches back to the 12th century, with fragments of Norman stonework still surviving. A wonderfully welcoming place, with plenty of stories to tell, including memories of local people helping to raise funds for the church organ.

Then on to Stephens House & Gardens, where we joined Spike Milligan on his bench for a few stories about this much-loved comedian, who lived in Finchley for nearly 20 years. Sadly, Spike wasn’t contributing much to the conversation!

Winding through Finchley’s attractive back streets, we came across the rather extraordinary Beechwood Mews development. I researched this later..

Designed by award-winning architect Peter Barber, this clever scheme squeezes 97 homes, half of them affordable, onto a narrow strip alongside the busy North Circular.

Its striking brick frontage acts as a noise barrier, protecting a pedestrianised residential street behind it. Special acoustic glazing and ventilation measures help tackle the challenges of living beside one of London’s busiest roads.

Then time for the Tiny Forests... Crossing the North Circular, we entered a very different world: the four Tiny Forests at Mutton Brook.

GoodGym has helped Earthwatch, Barnet Council, local schools and residents plant and care for these little forests.

What makes them particularly interesting is that the three newer plots use different soil preparation methods, allowing us to compare how the trees grow and survive.

It’s a fantastic outdoor science classroom where families can discover trees, wildlife, biodiversity and climate resilience while contributing to real scientific research.

The great Mutton Brook Poohsticks Championship then started...

Just beyond the Tiny Forests, we gathered on the bridge for a fiercely contested game of Poohsticks. Stick selection proved crucial, and with an actual cash prize at stake, the pressure was on! Congratulations to Louise, whose superior stick selection and remarkable understanding of stream dynamics secured a famous victory.

From there, we ventured into Little Wood, an ancient woodland with its own remarkable open-air amphitheatre, built in 1920 and still used for summer performances.

Through Big Wood, we emerged into the beautiful Central Square of Hampstead Garden Suburb, with its two magnificent churches designed by Edwin Lutyens.

Here we heard about Henrietta Barnett, the remarkable woman whose vision helped create the Garden Suburb in the early 20th century: a place where people from different backgrounds could live among beautiful buildings, gardens and green spaces.

Our next stop caused quite a stir among the Harry Potter fans.. if I could find them! We passed the house used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, where Hermione casts a spell to erase her parents’ memories of her, hoping to protect them from Voldemort. ( researched later )

For some of our explorers, seeing the actual filming location was a magical moment. Others were rather less impressed and took the opportunity to enjoy the views across Hampstead Heath Extension instead.

Our final stretch took us through the lovely open spaces of the Heath Extension and onwards to Golders Hill Park, where a café and refreshments provided a very welcome finish.

What a lovely way to spend a few hours! Good company, a few laughs, fascinating local stories, a bit of friendly competition and some beautiful green spaces, Magic!

Fancy joining our next GoodGym discovery walk?

Keep an eye out for our next walk on the GoodGym listings. Everyone welcome!

Four sturdy Goodgymmers gathered for an evening session at the Phoenix. We had braced ourselves for poor weather and, with one brave soul asking for a walk rather than run, arrived in less-than-appropriate gear. Sadly, our walker pulled out due to work, but on the plus side, the weather turned out to be rain-free. Still, we democratically agreed to power-walk with optional jeffing .

And it turned out we could do a lot more talking while walking, and still get fit. Rachel had a lingering request to share revenge narratives, but in honour of Victoria horror stories of attending a gym, we instead decided to talk about favourite exercise experiences - 'good gyms'. We chattered away for the 2.7km through East Finchley's back streets to the Mutton Brook, then Lyttleton Playing Fields and finally to Northway Gardens, where we met Brian.

As ever, Brian was in good form, regaling us with his stories of managing the gardens, as well as of the amazing work volunteers had done to transform the rose beds over a decade ago. He talked about the history of the gardens and how things have changed in recent years.

Then to the night's tasks - a large fallen branch needed moving, and it took four (mainly because we wanted to be useful). We made short work of it, so Brian led us to task two. The Council had trimmed willows and put the fronds in the bushes by the path, so together we moved them all further along the hedge to a gap, where they were out of sight.

Then, with the job done, Brian led us back to the road, pausing briefly to show us a beautiful cotinus coggygria - a smoke tree, visibly red even in the dark. We parted at his car, and made our merry way back, chatting away and finally getting to those revenge narratives Rachel was keen to share. And there was even time at the Phoenix Cinema for a quick drink and popcorn before heading home.

On Wednesday evening, George, Paul and Victoria headed to the Phoenix Cinema to join local community members for a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing, an event that GoodGym Barnet helped bring to life.

The People’s Emergency Briefing is designed to be shown at community screenings, encouraging conversations between local residents and highlighting how much people within these communities care about the climate emergency. This screening sold out, bringing a full house together for the climate conversation.

Several Barnet-based community groups, including Barnet Friends of the Earth, Finchley CND, Chipping Barnet Foodbank, Barnet U3A and many more, attended the screening and took part in discussions afterwards, sharing their reactions to the film, their concerns about the climate emergency, and ideas for addressing the challenges ahead.

Afterwards, much of the group headed to The Bald Faced Stag for drinks, further conversation, and a bit of community building. George and Victoria even shared their thoughts to help Dave McCormick - who compered the event with Silvana Kohon - write a report on the event for The Archer.

George kicked off the run with a question about gigs, inspiring Rachel and Beattie, two stalwart GoodGymers, to give this report a slightly musical theme.

Beattie took a walk on the wild side with Patricia, while the others set off running, with Victoria as back marker. Richard went past like a flash—ah-ah!—and George once again wondered whether Richard had ambitions for leadership.

All the leaves were brown and the sky had a greyish tinge as the GoodGymers set to work for a while on an autumn day.

We raked the leaves with abandon and bagged them up, then tucked the bulbs into the soil, leaving them “dreaming Spring”. We pictured a host of golden daffodils to come, taking a moment to look up at the stars.

We made these memories for ourselves, with Theodore capturing our usual photos.

Finally, we laid down our tools and returned to the cinema, where we celebrated Richard’s 400th outing with pizza and popcorn.