Mays Lane and Duck Island

The oldest settlement on Mays Lane is at the bottom of Chesterfield Road and is known as Duck Island. It possibly takes its name from a 17th century family called Duck who were local landowners, or possibly because the area close by Dollis Brook was frequented by ducks.

• some time after the enclosure of Barnet Common (1815) a few houses were built here, and by the 1861 there was even a small tin chapel and school.
• in 1895 Bells Hill cemetery was opened for High Barnet, and the year after a new church called St Stephens
• by the end of the Victorian period many of the farms near Mays Lane were dairy farms
• the Isolation Hospital (1906 - 1948) was built to care for those with diphtheria and scarlet fever, and later became St Stephen's hospital, part of Barnet General Hospital
• the hospital was demolished in 1999 and replaced with Darlands Drive.