It consists of a long village strung out between Barnet and Stirling Corner roughly centred around the "Gate" pub and is composed of the ancient hamlets of Barnet Gate, Rowley Green and Arkley hamlet. It is also home to one of the oldest windmills in southern England.
From at least the early 19th century until the 1890s, Arkley was commonly known as 'Barnet Common' or 'West Barnet'.
It is thought by some that Hendon Wood Lane was originally a minor Roman road. Certainly the name, 'Grendel's Gate' (now Barnet Gate, and formally known as 'Grims Gate'), is associated with the monster from the Saxon epic, Beowulf. This implies that the place was of modest importance as early as 1005. It may have been a centre of a small but significant community, founded on a woodland economy.
The area is latter referred to in medieval documents as 'Southhaw', and may have pre-dated the settlement at Chipping Barnet. Certainly, Barnet manorial court was held here in the 13th century. Nobody is sure what the 'Ark', part of Arkley means but the 'ley' means a "clearing of some sort". Its earliest appearance is about 1330. By the 16th century, these woods had been cleared, and the subsequent clearing formed common.
Important buildings in the area include St Peter's Church, designed by George Beckett. Built in 1840 at a cost of £5,000, it contains the monument of its benefactor, Enoch Durant (died 1848), and a bell cast by Thomas Mears.
St Peter's can be found opposite the War Memorial on Barnet Road in Arkley.
Arkley, as an ecclesiastical district was established in the same year, and as a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1905. Arkley Windmill was in use by 1806. It is marked as 'corn' windmill on the Ordnance Survey of the 1860s . From photographs, it appears to have had only two of its original sails by the 1890s, by which time it may have been powered by steam. It ceased to be a functioning mill during World War I, and was restored in 1930, but not as a working mill. The Gate Inn retains some of its original features. Until the early 1960s a large tree grew up from the floor of the pub and out through the roof.