About Northern Heights
The land now known as
Northern Heights has been in continuous use as a camp site for over 60
years. Middlesex East Guide County, covering the London Boroughs of Brent,
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, first became joint owners of the site in 1970
but assumed sole ownership 1997. At that time
Northern Heights
consisted of 4½ acres of open
grassland together with a further 2½ acres of woodland.
The site held pre-war wooden buildings with outside toilet facilities and,
although used by many groups, the condition left much to be desired
In 1997 the County took the courageous decision that such a valuable
resource, situated within London’s greenbelt, should be re-developed to
offer not only traditional camping and residential accommodation for all
community groups but also be developed with an environmental dimension and a
strong emphasis on conservation
With a re-development budget around £1.5m, architecturally designed plans,
and Planning Permission granted, a new logo for the site was designed
At this stage the old upper toilet block was demolished, Fieldside
(link to Fieldside page) received a make-over and by 2001 the foundations of the first new building were in place.
Blackthorn (link to Blackthorn page) was opened in 2002 and in 2003
Watersend (link to Watersend page), the new toilet/shower building was used for the first time
2003 also saw the County exchange two parcels of nearby land that it owned with 5½ acres of land adjoining Northern Heights which also included a large pond - thus one site of 12½ acres of meadow, ancient woodland and a pond was formed. 325 trees were planted on the new boundary fence.
The autumn of 2003 saw the demolition of the old bunk house and the activity cabin and over the winter of 2003/2004, building work began on the Earth House (link to Earth House page) and the Warden’s Lodge.
The Earth House was opened at the beginning of 2005 and the re-built all faith centre, “The Hive”, was completed in 2006
