Fire risk assessments, fire alarm installation, CCTV and access control for schools, care providers, landlords and commercial occupiers across Mill Hill, Mill Hill Broadway, Mill Hill Village and Mill Hill East, in NW7.
NW7 combines a ridge of schools, convents and cottages on The Ridgeway with a railway-side centre at Mill Hill Broadway and large housing sites where a barracks and a research institute once stood.
IDS Global has traded since 2011 from its Hayes head office and is a member of the IFSM and the FPA. From Hayes, the A40 leads to the A406 North Circular, and the A41 from Brent Cross runs north as Watford Way through Mill Hill.
Beside Mill Hill Broadway station, which Thameslink trains serve, Barnet owns the Bunns Lane car park. In July 2025 the council announced 130 build-to-rent homes there, half at affordable rents, in buildings of four to six storeys, with construction given as starting in 2026 and finishing in 2028. A Knight Frank listing puts serviced offices at 120 Bunns Lane a two minute walk from the station. At Mill Hill East, the Millbrook Park outline consent of September 2011 covers 2,174 homes, a primary school, a GP surgery, 1,100 square metres of high street uses and 3,470 square metres of employment space.
Barnet's 2008 conservation appraisal says about a third of the Mill Hill Conservation Area is institutional and educational buildings in large grounds, among them Mill Hill School, Belmont, St Joseph's College, Holcombe House and St Mary's Abbey. Care Quality Commission records show Aarandale Manor on Holders Hill Road registered for nursing or personal care, for adults over 65, including dementia care.
The appraisal records vacant or underused buildings left by declining religious communities, and pressure on the large sites to change. A school wing, a convent outbuilding or a mansion split into flats each has its own occupants, sleeping arrangements and escape routes, and a change of use alters all three.
We assess each building as it is used today, including older wings, loft spaces and outbuildings, with a dated action plan.
Fire risk assessments
At 00:46 on 3 March 2025 a fire broke out in a range of commercial properties with flats above on Watford Way. The London Fire Brigade received 13 calls and sent ten engines and about 70 firefighters from Mill Hill, Hendon, Finchley and other stations, and part of the nearby A1 was closed in both directions. In July 2023 fire damaged the ground floor of a house converted into flats on Laleham Avenue, and the man inside left before crews arrived.
Where a shop sits below homes, we design BS 5839 detection for the shop and a warning route to the flats above. For converted houses, we plan detection for shared stairs and hallways.
Fire alarm installation
Police.uk records about 184 shoplifting offences, 120 vehicle crimes and 103 burglaries inside the Mill Hill neighbourhood boundary between August 2025 and July 2026.
Barnet's appraisal counts cameras and high solid gates among the security features that often harm the conservation area. On The Ridgeway we keep units compact and agree positions before work starts. For shops, yards and car parks near the Broadway, we cover entrances, service areas and parking, with recording the police can use.
CCTV installation
The Ridgeway Views blocks are three to six storeys, and the Bunns Lane scheme is approved for four to six. Door entry and fob readers on communal doors, bike stores and plant rooms record who enters each part, and a lost fob can be cancelled without changing locks.
The appraisal notes that security pressure on institutions threatens their open entrances, so for campuses we concentrate on building entrances rather than perimeter gates.
Access controlBarnet's 2008 appraisal covers about 152 hectares and about 260 houses. It lists one Grade II* and 60 Grade II buildings, plus 58 locally listed, and notes an Article 4 direction around The Ridgeway, Milespit Hill, Wills Grove and Winterstoke Gardens that controls replacement windows and doors, satellite dishes and most new gates, fences and walls.
The appraisal also lists automatic entry systems, cameras, burglar alarms, shutters, bars and high solid gates as features that often harm the area, and recommends design guidance on security measures. We agree positions with the planning team first.
The 2008 appraisal recorded St Joseph's Missionary College as vacant. e-architect describes a scheme of 49 homes at the Grade II listed building, built in the 1870s on about seven acres within the conservation area, with its late wings replaced and the chapel converted.
The National Institute for Medical Research site was vacated in 2017 and demolition began in April 2018. The Housing Design Awards record an 18.64 hectare site, where Barratt London delivered 323 homes in phases 1 and 2, completed in September 2022, 60 per cent of them affordable. The building that stood there was a nine-storey cruciform block designed by Maxwell Ayrton in 1934.
We counted police.uk street-level crimes inside the Metropolitan Police's Mill Hill neighbourhood boundary for August 2025 to July 2026. Police.uk anonymises locations, so the figures are approximate. They total about 1,499 crimes, including 400 violent crimes, 184 shoplifting, 120 vehicle crimes, 103 burglaries and 24 robberies.
Mill Hill fire station is at 10 Hartley Avenue, NW7, one of four London Fire Brigade stations in Barnet.
Between 7am and 8.30pm the Brigade does not attend automatic alarms at non-residential buildings unless a 999 call confirms a fire, which covers offices and shops on Bunns Lane and the Broadway. Flats, care homes, schools and Grade II listed buildings are attended at any hour.
Mandatory HMO licensing applies to larger houses, and Barnet's additional scheme has covered shared houses of three or four people since 27 October 2022, borough wide. London Property Licensing gave the fee as £1,872 plus £37 per unit above five in August 2026. The ten wards in the June to September 2026 selective licensing consultation did not include Mill Hill.
Check first. The Ridgeway sits under an Article 4 direction that restricts most new gates, fences and walls, and Barnet's appraisal describes cameras and solid gates as harming the area. We recommend compact equipment, tidy cable runs and a conversation with the planning team before anything is fixed.
Yes, at any hour. Schools, residential care homes and flats are on the Brigade's list of premises that always receive attendance, so every false alarm at a school or at Aarandale Manor sends crews. We design zoning to help staff find the cause quickly.
Mill Hill fire station at 10 Hartley Avenue, NW7 2HX, is one of four London Fire Brigade stations in Barnet. The 2023 Laleham Avenue fire drew crews from Hendon, Stanmore and Tottenham as well as Mill Hill, and the 2025 Watford Way fire drew crews from Hendon and Finchley.
Yes. Millbrook Park has outline consent for 2,174 homes, a school and a GP surgery on the former Inglis Barracks site. We cover NW7 from our Hayes head office, including managing agents and landlords of residential blocks, with fire risk assessments, door entry and CCTV.
