Chipping Barnet and feng shui

I went to a Barnet trades council meeting in Barnet last night. We usually hold our meetings at the Bull Theatre. I enjoyed my trip out as I had been confined to the house through illness for four days. But it wasn't wise taking the 251 bus to Whetstone in the rush hour traffic, I overheard some deeply tedious conversations which made me wish I was back talking to myself in my own living room.

And when I got up to Barnet my choice of Jenny's restaurant for my supper probably wasn't wise either. Anyway, the meeting was fine, but by the time I left Barnet I was all out of sorts.

I don't know a lot about feng shui - except that it's complete rubbish, of course - but I think High Barnet's is bad. And I blame that church. St John the Baptist church at the top of the hill. That too big, too ugly Gothic Revival church occupying the junction of all the main roads, blocking the flows of energy, or something like that.

I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the church is built on the site of a gallows, because it gives me the willies. Wikipedia tells me that the original church was expanded to its current monstrous size in late Victorian times:

It is a late example of the Gothic Revival Style by Victorian architect John Loughborough Pearson, begun in 1890-91 and completed after his death by his son Frank Loughborough Pearson.

I really don't get Victorian religiosity - almost all churches I see built at this time would make me recoil from Christianity. When I was a girl, I used to go to a Salvation Army troop of Brownies - perhaps that's where my horror stems from!

Anyway, I'm sure Barnet went downhill after they built that horrendous church. Apologies to any regular worshippers at St John's - I'm sure it's possible to grow to love it.