Lawn House CGI

Lawn House stands on the corner of The Lawn and Uxbridge Road, next to 2023’s award-winning Hoxton Hotel, partly shown. Previously a Barclays Bank and now vacant, it provides the opportunity to complete The Lawn’s decade-long transformation into a series of hotels with improved public realm. This hotel is proposed to contain 130 rooms, 60% with kitchenettes.

A significant feature of the public realm are the arches of the proposed building’s frontage, said to echo the railway arches nearby, alongside the 2017 conservation award-winning Bush Theatre. These could divide opinion, perhaps considered as sitting uncomfortably with the uniform warehouse chic of the Hoxton adjacent, or acting as a pastiche of the Dorsett’s heroic arches and roofline – let us know your views. For reference, below is a photo of the existing building, showing the adjacent part of the Hoxton with its awnings. 

The design has considered the adjacency and daylight/sunlight issues with residents in Pennard Road directly behind, and the developers, Lamington Group, have been in discussion with them for some time. 

Lawn House – as existing

Nomination for an Environment Award, 2025.

Finely detailed brickwork is the feature in this new development on the corner of Macfarlane Road and Wood Lane opposite Westfield, designed by Maccreanor Lavington for Peabody Housing Association. It replaces the former BBC car park with a pair of appropriately-sized mid-rise buildings, providing 142 affordable homes in a mixture of shared ownership, London Affordable Rent and London Living Rent with 68 x 1 bed, 67 x 2 bed and 7 x 3-bed flats.

Macfarlane Place – H&C railway line – Westfield Living in the distance, TV centre tower under construction left

Macfarlane Place for Peabody Housing Association

Macfarlane Place – Wood Lane & public realm

Macfarlane Place – railway line

Macfarlane Place for Peabody Housing Association

Macfarlane Place – entrance

Macfarlane Place – brickwork shutters railings

Macfarlane Road – public realm

There are some echoes of the ‘warehouse chic’ of the 2023 award-winning Hoxton hotel just down the road, plus an echo of the red brick DIMCO buildings on the other side of Wood Lane, which were themselves nominated in 2021.

The use of materials is interesting, and although there is some fakery to the brickwork (common these days), the patterns are original, and the floor to ceiling windows and detailing lift the facades above the ordinary allowing it to not shout ‘social housing’.  Care has been used in the design, and as the RIBA journal notes, it has tenant-friendly touches such as heat-regulating shutters.  The shutters are said to have been designed to reduce overheating, eliminating the need for air conditioning and opening windows onto a potentially noisy Wood Lane, and the Hammersmith & City railway line immediately adjacent. There’s some interesting detailing internally too.  There are a few more photos on our Instagram

Nomination for an Nancye Goulden Award, 2025.

Hidden away down a tiny lane known as Dimes Place just off King Street, is a new commercial development known as The New Timber Yard, because it was formerly the home of Moss Timber Merchants (by Royal Appointment, specialist Timber Merchant).  Having been established for over a hundred years, they moved out to Greenford around 2016, and for a couple of years Dimes Place appeared regularly on our agenda for various reasons, including a change of developer, changes and densification of design, according to the Chairman’s annual report. The site has a lot of adjacency with neighbours all around as the photos show, and the site is somewhat Tardis-like, in that what you see from the street is very much less than the whole.

The New Timber Yard – Dimes Place

The New Timber Yard – Dimes Place

The New Timber Yard – Dimes Place

The New Timber Yard – Argyle Place

The New Timber Yard

The New Timber Yard – shared courtyard with external kitchen

The New Timber Yard

The New Timber Yard – logo

The New Timber Yard – reception

However, the end result it’s a world away from the hustle and noise of King Street, with attractive planting down the former roadway, taking you to a not insubstantial 200sqm office development, built to BREEAM ‘excellent’ standards, with a welcoming reception area.  Tucked away past the shared courtyard with pizza oven and BBQ are further offices, which were – according to the planning portal – originally intended as mews houses, where the former woodsheds were located between the backs of the houses in Cambridge Grove and Argyle Place.  There are a few more photos on our Instagram

This is what the site used to look like (click for larger images):

Moss Hammersmith
[Photo: Moss & co]

Moss Hammersmith
[Photo: Moss & co]

Dimes Place (planning)

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2025.

The Hammersmith Belle

The former Hampshire Hog / Hampshire has struggled in recent years, changing hands, names and formats several times, including in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. It used to have a restrained image commensurate with its elegant 1883 Victorian architecture – see below.

In its most recent incarnation it has joined the Belle pubs and restaurants group as the Hammersmith Belle, and taken on their standard sports bar brand appearance with fake LED-lit mini-trees outside, described in the nomination as having the appearance of a ‘Bulgarian Black Sea beach resort’ (who knew? – Ed).

This fits with an increasing trend for pandemic-inspired pavement encroachments, in a way that can erode the character of a city – building by building – and in the same way that the Uxbridge Road petitioners have mentioned. These do actually require planning consent, and should be the subject of enforcement. In this case, as many, no consent exists.

While it’s good to see this large longstanding establishment being reinvigorated – and in its original function – despite the 4.6 Google review ratings, the unsympathetic paint scheme, the brand’s generic plastic trees, loud signage, and pavement encroachments don’t seem to do the streetscape or building justice. Rather than help make the case for a vibrant sports bar, the additions seem to detract from an otherwise valiant effort to improve the frontage with its many thriving window boxes, and planting in the garish containers next to the trees, which unlike them, is actually real.

For reference, the appearance is shown below – from 2016:

The Hampshire Hog, 2016 [photo: Edward Hands / Wikipedia]

Royal Masonic Hospital Block A – showing originally proposed glass pavilions, now removed

This project finally received permission by unanimous vote after a long planning meeting on 30th July, but with some remaining concerns expressed by neighbours. A member of your committee attended to observe and note the proceedings. We’ve written about this project four times and have been working to help improve the scheme since the site sale over three years ago.

The issues were primarily around proposed design and building heights for the new 5-storey blocks E and F (given the conservation area/listed building location), adjacency issues for neighbours at both ends of the site, transport access, affordable housing provision, historic gardens, and importantly in this case, proposed additions to the Grade II* listed  buildings, particularly glass pavilions originally proposed on block A (pictured above), and the liner-style balconies on blocks B and C which have adjacency issues with Ravenscourt Gardens neighbours. 

Recent Changes

There have been two significant revisions since the original planning application in April 2024, which sought conversion to 140 flats, 65 care home places (discharging a medical covenant), 21 affordable, plus community use of block A (the main entrance).

In the first, last November, the glass pavilions were ushered off after our concerns, those of Historic England (really notable harm), the Historic Buildings Group, and the 20th Century Society were acknowledged, and an improved solution was found to the privacy / adjacency issues on the balconies, after the proposed heavy concrete planters were similarly dispatched. The screening issue has been addressed by glass inner balustrades, and a pleached tree boundary treatment, with separation distances discussed at some length by the planning committee, and shown to be greater than 18m in all but one case.

RMH Blocks E & F  – from May 2023 revision

In the second earlier this year, replacement block E/F maximum heights were lowered, and made more uniform by removal of the roof plant, moving it below ground in the place formerly allocated for car parking, this now being a car-free development, satisfying LBHF planning policy and some traffic concerns mentioned by existing neighbours. Part of this change was brought about by welcome adoption of a Ground Source Heat Pump heating system, and solar PV on the roof.  There were also refinements to the landscaping and planting, including relocation of a copper beech tree at the end of block C.

A review of comments made in our earlier articles shows that many of the issues raised by us, and others, have been addressed positively in the final design.

The planning committee accepted the officers’ assessment that the substantial public and heritage benefits of restoring the vacant listed building and opening it to the public outweighed the identified less than substantial harm, and that the impacts on neighbour’s amenity were acceptable. Support from Historic England was a significant factor in this decision, the hospital having been on the Buildings at Risk register.

Rivercourt LTN council information

In the six months since the temporary Rivercourt Road LTN was put in place, we’ve received messages nearly every week – vanishingly few positive – and it’s still regularly our most read article on the website.  Messages fall into the following categories, with more than one correspondent questioning legality:

• Implementation problems:
  • I’ve received a fine, I don’t know why.
  • The signage / wording is poor – I had no idea I wasn’t supposed to go down there.
  • I paid for a visitor by RingGo who still got fined.
  • I witnessed someone reversing into the A4 – the ‘turning circle’ is dangerous – or – I witnessed an accident caused by someone slowing down/stopping to read the signs and being hit from behind, creating a multi-vehicle shunt – example images below.
• The LTN is damaging my business, I’m leaving the borough.

Rivercourt crash front

Rivercourt crash rear-end

The “local access only” wording and cacophony of messy signage is considered deceptive by many correspondents – this and many of the other are points were raised in our original article.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that when challenged on a PCN fine, the council may back down, rather than attend a tribunal, however there’s rather more to this story, when considered in the light of the recent High Court case.

JULY 2025 UPDATE Based on the council’s publicity, residents may have believed that they could allow visitors, quote: “Local residents can also easily get access for the visitors by using the RingGo app, which has proved widely successful in residential areas throughout the borough…” The words throughout the borough are misleading and only part of the story. In fact only residents in certain streets extremely close to Rivercourt Road can provide access for their visitors. LBHF now says (but doesn’t yet publicise the details): Cromwell Avenue, Weltje Road, Beavor Lane, Vencourt Place, Ravenscourt Park, (only some properties: from junction of King Street to the train bridge) and Ravenscourt Road (only part from junction of King Street to the train bridge).  A number of residents have written to us, detailing problems they’ve had with the Ringo system which was supposed to have been upgraded five years ago to properly support LTN access, but still has senior moments.  Caveat emptor.

The West Dulwich case

Last month, the legality of the way in which an LTN was implemented by Lambeth Council in West Dulwich was tested in the High Court, and found to be unlawful.  It wasn’t the legalities of the LTN itself, but the poor way in which consultation was carried out, and the way in which the council failed to take due consideration of well researched and detailed evidence provided by local people in a 53-page submission.

Images from Design & Access statement for 2025/00389/FUL

We’re pleased to note that yesterday, LBHF and RBKC simultaneously approved the proposed pedestrian and cycle underpass underneath the Overground (Mildmay Line), linking the Imperial White City North Campus to North Kensington’s Latimer Road.  Modelled on continental schemes by Dutch architects West 8 of Rotterdam, the D&A statement includes images from several similar schemes – reproduced here – including those seen in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.  This begs the question – could TfL replicate this at the opposite end of what was once “The world’s shortest motorway” – the West Cross Route – just 1km south ?

The approved scheme is part of a Section 106 commitment made by Imperial as part of their scheme at the White City North Campus in 2013. We advertised and attended an exhibition of the proposals last September in Wood Lane, and it was approved by the councils at simultaneous planning meetings on 10th June.

The images speak for themselves, the only significant issue appearing to be how to keep pedestrians safe from any ‘turbocharged’ e-bikes that are likely to appear: the RBKC committee agreed to a 6 month safety review. Mopeds and other officially recognised motorbikes won’t be allowed, and CCTV is in the design to ensure that the council’s LET team and Imperial will be able to monitor transgressors. Affiliate St. Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum has a longer report with more of the history of the scheme.

Holland Park Roundabout

HPR TfL proposal

Last year TfL presented a proposal for Holland Park Roundabout (HPR). It provides an additional cycleway, but removes a lane of Holland Park Avenue (HPA), routing bikes around the Thames Water Tower on the inside of the roundabout, and across the 3 lanes lanes of traffic, making it a maximum of 8 lanes wide, as shown, requiring additional junctions, and additional signals.

The roundabout currently provides cycle and pedestrian routes north and south: the relevance to this story is that the existing northern underpass, under the pedestrian surface crossing at the southern end of the West Cross Route, bears more than a passing resemblance the scheme just approved 1km north. It could provide a lower cost, very much simpler, safe and ready-made solution.

HP underpass 2

HP underpass 1

HP underpass 3

HP underpass 4 (with sheep)

Those writing to us have expressed concerns over the likelihood of further delays to the many already congested buses at Shepherds Bush Green, and down HPA – seriously congested in rush hours – plus the scheme’s apparent unnecessary cost, complexity and added dangers. The proposal creates additional junctions where the 8 bus routes, numbered 31, 94, 148, 228, 49, C1, 295, and 316 cross to Shepherds Bush bus station / Westfield, through which it’s proposed to drive a bidirectional cycle lane.  The well-established statistic is that 80% of accidents happen at junctions. 

TfL also suggests there would be some local traffic displacement, which, with Shepherds Bush residents already significantly affected by Westfield, would present further problems.  Independent traffic analysis using industry standard models – incorporating the loss of one lane on HPA – shows that the scheme would greatly increase congestion, supporting our correspondents’ concerns.

Telegraph HPR – click for/video

A video report in last weekend’s Telegraph shows that a number are significantly adding to their own risks by running the poorly timed lights at the bottom of HPA.

TfL suggests that HPR is high on their list of London’s most dangerous junctions – the main reason for the scheme. Local campaign group SOS dispute the accident figures by a large factor – TfL claim 54 accidents in the 3 years to May 2023, but SOS’s detailed analysis from public records only shows one slight accident involving a cyclist, and no pedestrian incidents at all – despite the above activity. TfL cast a wide net over the area including much of Shepherds Bush Green and the junctions close by to create their ‘HPR danger’ narrative. The London Cycling Campaign has campaigned in support of the proposal, but does not include the roundabout in it’s list of top 20 dangerous junctions.

Save our streets leaflet (click to view)

SOS are highlighting the dangers of the proposed additional junctions, their analysis of TfL’s own consultation data obtained under FOI, suggesting that only 12% of residents and 30% of cyclists support the scheme.  Many currently eschew the existing infrastructure altogether (paths and crossings), and use the road – as is – as the video shows.

Empress State Building (+Earls Court 2)
[photo: Wikipedia]

Hammersmith has several tall buildings, the latest being 181 Talgarth road, but perhaps the most iconic is 1961’s Empress State (31 Storeys) next to Earls Court. There are more in the pipeline, particularly on our borders. Six years ago, we wrote about the increasing fashion for rather less iconic hi-rises, then referring to what we now call the Ziggurat (35 storeys), Centre House (32 storeys, now largely complete opposite TV Centre on Wood Lane), and the prospect of what was being planned at North Acton, in an “almost continuous string of high-rise developments from NW10 to W12”.

We’re not there – yet – but unknown at the time were the remaining details around Imperial White City and White City Living,  227 Wood Lane, Earls Court – now proposing to build upwards to 42 storeys – and a 29 storey tower, 100 Kensington starting to loom over Tesco at 100 West Cromwell Road next door, and of course along the way, 181 Talgarth road.  Wandsworth recently rejected Terry Farrell’s 29-storey tower on the south side of Battersea Bridge, perhaps suggesting that the recent article by Sir Simon Jenkins has been read London was a city of streets; now it’s a city of towers

Michael Bach of the London Forum recently noted that according to the NLA annual tall buildings report, the pipeline for London’s tall buildings numbers nearly 600 – equivalent to a 20-year supply – based on the completion rate of the last 10 years.

The GLA, London Plan and Tall Buildings Report

Do tall buildings work?

Tall buildings have become the consistent hallmark of Mayoral Opportunity Areas since Ken Livingstone’s days, detailed in our recent Planning System article, more recently favoured by the student accommodation sector (PBSA), notably at North Acton, but also from White City to Nine Elms, and farther afield, remembering that Earls Court is also an opportunity area.  This has led to the recent GLA investigation, and last month’s publication of their Tall Buildings Report. Far from extolling the virtues of tall buildings, important questions are now being asked about the cost (both rent/purchase, and long term, including to the environment), suitability for the people housed in them, particularly families, quality of construction, and of course whether they are actually addressing the ‘housing crisis’.

In the run up to the next London Plan due in 2026-7, the Mayor’s “Towards a New London Plan” document and consultation suggests that his dissatisfaction is that some boroughs haven’t clearly identified tall building locations, and may mandate new rules for tall building clusters, including a minimum height benchmark for small sites, with potentially lower maximum heights near the river. Any clarification would be welcome.  While there’s a welcome proposal to reduce duplication with the NPPF and other policies, and sensitivities around Tall Buildings are recognised, there are a lot of options being tabled here, which might suggest a lack of confidence and/or strategic direction. The public consultation is open until 22 June.

The developer’s argument is often straightforward – it creates more housing on less land, and is more viable. One of the spanners in the works has been the requirement for two staircases post-Grenfell, reducing floor sizes, so putting yet more pressure on heights. There’s also the potential for an insidious side-effect of Mayoral the call-in process, regularly used to approve such designs often against local opposition, and councils (current examples being a 46 storey PBSA tower in Canary Wharf, and a 27 storey PBSA tower at Archway) – the typical step-and-repeat, so called spreadsheet architecture means that developers can easily stretch the tower upwards to meet the demand for a minimum 35% affordable, or until an agreed figure is reached, with almost no design effort at all.  Then they can blame the Mayor.

Last year, the London Forum reported that London is “on course to have the most crowded skyline in Europe“, following a Policy Exchange report that says ‘mania’ for high rise development has damaged UK cities’ and that far from helping the housing crisis,  ‘tall buildings have in fact “made it worse”’. In one memorable week, around half the stories in our Hammersmith Weekly email were about hi-rises, with recent stories around Westfield Living confirming many of the issues. 

Whatever the truth of the claims and counter-claims, in the twenty years of London Plans, coincident with the drive upwards (that was supposed to address the problem), the housing situation has turned from a problem to a “crisis”, and some of the original towers are already being demolished for yet taller ones, before questioning whether they are part of the solution, or part of the problem.

Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2025.

Bradmore Square is a small space tucked away behind Bradmore House on the Broadway, with which we and the Historic Buildings Group have a long history. The back entrance to Hammersmith tube and bus station, and the increasingly popular Broadway shopping centre is conveniently adjacent.  Recently the public realm has been noticeably improved.

Bradmore Square 3

Bradmore Square 2

Bradmore Square 1

The nomination notes that “it’s additionally impressive that the pots continue to be green and watered, even throughout the dry weather that we have been having”.

Mogden sewage works [photo : eight2O]

With the recent boat races having brought with them the annual hand-wringing over river pollution, providing the Mayor with an opportunity to remind us of his 2024 pledge to make London’s rivers swimmable within 10 years, it seems an appropriate moment to review the status quo in this long running saga.

In addition to the annual boat race related news, there have been a number of stories in the wake of the recent Thames Water TV documentary and the related Tideway Tunnel or ‘Super Sewer’ completion, after more than a decade of construction.  The programme revealed a team of people battling the odds to keep an overstretched system working, and not always winning. It must be disappointing for those working on the project to have so much of the news created by the things they were working for years to fix.

There’s the small matter of the automatic outfall monitors now mandated by OFWAT which, connected directly to Twitter, became an effective way to allow the public to beat the water companies with their opprobrium.  It may be that there were plenty of spills before these monitors, but that nobody could put a number on them, and the increasing heavy rainfall episodes have clearly not helped.

Original Super Sewer plans

Notwithstanding the connection to the Super Sewer at Hammersmith under the watchful eye of our own Capability Brown, and at Fulham on Carnwath road, there have been quite a range of related stories that help illustrate the causes, effects and work being done – or not – to address them, here’s a roundup: