The historic Physic Well in High Barnet once renowned for the medicinal properties of its water is to be fenced off. Two-metre high railings will protect the well's outer chamber as part of a £60,000 restoration and landscaping. The Physic Well, in Well Approach, is on English Heritage's at risk list.
It once attracted London's beautiful and fashionable including reputedly diarist Samuel Pepys but is now deteriorating and vandalised. The 17th Century brick well chamber was supported with a timber frame in 1937 but, surrounded by housing, it has suffered damage over the years.
Barnet received £13,000 of National Lottery money in January which will go towards the scheme.
Barnet Society and Agenda 21 member David Lee, on the working party looking at the Physic Well's future, welcomed attempts to restore it. "It's difficult to keep vandals away," he admitted.
"We are pressing for funding for the project. The general feeling is that the building has been terribly neglected for decades."
November 21, 2001 18:39
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