Author: friendsofmarketplace
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Official Opening
Barnet Council hosted the Official Opening of Market Place Playground at 2pm on Sunday 20th October. There were some speeches including from Deputy Mayor, Cllr Danny Rich, who cut a ribbon to officially opent the space. Here is an article on the project from the London Borough of Barnet website.
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Call for arts & heritage professionals
As reported in the Archer July 2024, Friends of Market Place Playground are on the look out for amazing arts & heritage professionals who can help work on 2 brilliant projects for the renovated play space in 2024/2025: If you’re interested or know someone please get in touch via friendsofmarketplace@gmail.com or 07791 078845
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Construction begins
Friends of Market Place Playground have have been working with Barnet Council and the East Finchley Community Trust on plans to refurbish Market Place Playground and are delighted to share the news that Southern Landscape & Construction have been appointed to carry out the work and construction has begun this month, March 2024. A massive thank you to…
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£2,500 from Bupa Foundation!
In more funding news, we are delighted to announce a £2,500 grant from the team at Bupa Foundation, which is administered by Groundwork London. A great addition to our funds as we get closer to the build. Thanks so much Bupa!
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Garfield Weston Foundation donate £20,000
We’re so happy to announce that Garfield Weston Foundation has supported the development of Market Place Playground with a grant of £20,000. Thanks so much to the generous trustees of this foundation which does so much for youth, community, environment and many other projects across the country. We’re delighted you’ve shown confidence in our vision.
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£20,000 grant for sand play awarded
Another amazing result for our fundraising team – we have just confirmed receipt of a £20,000 grant for sand play from the London Marathon Foundation’s Active Spaces Fund. This is a much needed boost to the coffers as we begin the tender process. Thank you so much to everyone at London Marathon Foundation for recognising…
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CSDS Foundation has granted us £25,000
We are delighted to announce that we have received a further boost to support the renovation of Market Place Playground. CSDS Foundation has granted us £25,000 for equipment. This is a valuable and timely contribution to our overall budget and helps us get closer to target as we begin the tender process. Thanks so much…
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The Betty Messenger Foundation awards us £25,000
We are delighted to announce that Market Place Playground has received a further boost. The Betty Messenger Foundation has awarded us £25,000 as part of their final grants programme as they prepare to dissolve. We are hugely grateful for this support as we move into the tendering process stage. Thank you TBMF!
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Bill Nighy @ The Phoenix event raises over £6000
Friends of Market Place were delighted to host Bill Nighy at the Phoenix on Friday 28th April 2023. Guests paid £26 a ticket, of which £25 has gone towards the project fund to transform Market Place Playground. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and helped us raise over £6000 at this event. We…
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Mayor of London fund announces £56,500 Grow Back Greener grant for Market Place Playground
The Mayor of London’s Grow Back Greener Fund has confirmed a £56,500 grant to convert Market Place Playground into a natural space. The funds will be used to remove the existing tarmac and wet pour surface, replace with grass, sand and other permeable surfaces. The remainder of the grant will be used to plant 20…
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Archer Academy students present ideas for Market Place Playground
Archer’s Year 7 students spent last term learning all about community spaces and landscape design as part of their Thematic Learning lessons. Their end project was creating a new design for Market Place Playground. On Wednesday 25 January the Friends group visited Archer Academy to view their amazing work. 11 students presented their designs to…
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Planning Application Live
Our proposal for Market Place Playground’s new design went live on Barnet’s Planning Application portal on 30 December 2022. Click here to see the application. The application number is: 22/5903/FUL. This stage will take 8 weeks and we anticipate receiving approval in early March. Meanwhile the Friends group, council team and landscape designer Aileen Shackell continue to work…
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Barnet confirm an additional £100,000 of funding for Market Place Playground
Tonight’s Barnet East Area Committee confirmed an additional commitment of £100,000 for Market Place Playground. This is in addition to their 2021 grant of £30,000 Thanks to our amazing councillors Arjun Mittra, Claire Farrier and Alison Moore (pictured below at Market Place Playground Summer Play Day) for their efforts and for all our other champions…
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Community Engagement Day
Over 80 residents braved the thunder, lightning and wind to attend the Community Engagement Day we held on Saturday 19th February from midday to 3pm at the Constitutional Club. After advertising on Facebook, through Grange Big Local, in the Archer newspaper and with posters all around East Finchley, we were thrilled that so many of…
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Summer of Play
Kicking off with National Play day on Wednesday 4th August 2021, Friends of Market Place hosted a series of four play events, one for each Wednesday of August. We wanted to show the potential of this amazing community space. Aw we loved it soo much! Thank you for putting on such a great day!! 4th…
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National Play Day
We celebrated #NationalPlayDay at Market Place #N2 today. We sang & danced. We made & played. We explored & climbed. We visited the moon, the circus and used our imagination. We jumped & ran. And we made new friends. Thanks to our amazing community for making today so special. There are so many people who…
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Meet the Friends
We ran a ‘Meet the Friends’ event on Thursday 8 July in the playground from 3.30pm to 5pm. It was lovely to meet many locals. Tunnel slide, climbing wall and trampoline were among the requests from children during the event.
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£30,000 Awarded
Tonight £30,000 was awarded to Market Place Playground by Finchley and Golders Green Area Committee!!! This is in addition to £40,000 already reserved by Grange Big Local so we are on our way to make Market Place a playground and open space that East Finchley deserves. We will be meeting over the next two weeks…
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Survey Feedback
A massive thank you to the 337 East Finchley households who completed our first survey. “It has a special place in our hearts. We can’t go to Market Place without bumping into friends. It’s been a life line.” Your comments, input and ideas are inspiring and will be hugely important as we start planning the…
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Urban Playground
On Monday we were lucky enough to show Tim Gill around Market Place Playground. Tim is former director of Play England, Design Council Built Environment expert and international advocate for child centred spaces. We are loving his new book Urban Playground. The meeting reminded us how much potential Market Place has and opened our eyes…
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Survey to inform upcoming Area Committee meeting
Friends of Market Place Playground had a very positive meeting at the Finchley and Golders Green Residents Forum on Wednesday 3rd March and will be taking our plans to the Area Committee next month. We would love as much input as possible from the community so we have put together this survey. Please can you…
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Committee Formation
Three green spaces in East Finchley, including Market Place Play Area, appear on a map drawn up by Barnet Council designating a total of 45 parts and green spaces across the borough as “low quality or low value”.
Market Place 