London Open House offers a wonderful opportunity to explore buildings all over London - including in our Borough. The full listing of 27 buildings open to see in H&F over the weekend of 22-23 September is available here.  Why not also stroll or cycle round the nominations and winners of our own Environment Awards ?

And as the northern boundaries of the Borough become more important, on both dates there is a walk round part of the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Area led by art historian Magdalen Evans, details here

The walk could be combined with visits to other entries in the sometimes less-familiar north of the Borough include the former governor's house in the gates of HMP Wormwood Scrubs which houses the Koestler Trust, the UK's leading prison arts charity; and the Hythe Road Studios of ACAVA (the Association for the Advancement of Visual Arts). There are tours round the ex-BBC Television Centre Development at White City and the BBC’s previous administrative headquarters, now Westworks on Wood lane.

Members of the Committee visited this year's nominations on Sunday 20th May and shortlisted them. They are all shown on the nominations page with just a selection here. If you would like to comment on them, or make suggestions for winners, please use the comment form on the nominations page. 

Award winners will be announced at the AGM in the Bush Theatre on 5th July. 
Members, guests, and friends will be warmly welcomed.

Helios TV centre

Planters, Lower Mall

2A Loftus Road

Ark Conway Primary Academy

TV Centre redevelopment

BT InLinkUK “Phone box”

Westfield extension / John Lewis

Guerilla Gardening – tree pits in Galloway Road

TV Centre redevelopment

White City Place

LAMDA

Capability Brown wears a tiara for the Royal Wedding

St Paul’s Girls School Pavilion

Riverside Studios – Crisp Road

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The planning application for the Town Hall development has been lodged, and is available on the council's planning portal, with listed building consent application here.  A good starting point is the Design & Access Statement.  Summary details are also now available on the council website if you don't have time to go through all 488 planning documents!

There are a number of design developments: the addition of a brise soleil over the substantial roof extension, and a slight modification of the King Street/cinema frontage following comments by ourselves and others.  The Committee will be studying the application carefully.  The slide show above shows the main CGI images published with the plans.

We would be pleased to hear your feedback.

Conservation Award 2017: Bush Theatre

This year's award nominations are open - winners of awards and wooden spoons will be announced at the AGM at the Bush Theatre on 5th July.

Please do nominate your choice - see our awards page to understand the process and the various award categories, and review the list of existing nominations which are being added to the website as they come in. Nominations close on 16th May.

It would help us if you can send us a photo with your nomination.

There will be a drop-in exhibition at the Town Hall of the latest plans for the redevelopment scheme, on Friday 20 April 4-8pm and Saturday 21 April 10-2 pm, as shown in our diary. The plans will be on the Council website thereafter. The designs will form the basis of the planning application so it is not a consultation event - but there will be the opportunity to submit comments as part of the planning process.  The Council's letter of invitation sent to the areas closest to the Town Hall is attached.

For reference, the visualisations shown here are from the February 2018 consultation - we understand that these have been updated subsequently.

3rd-Town-Hall-Exhibition-Invitation.pdf

Hammersmith Bridge 2017, © Jane Bain

Members of the Hammersmith Society, Historic Buildings Group and HAMRA committees met the team in charge of the major works planned for Hammersmith Bridge.

Jane Bain of HAMRA delivered an  impressive visual presentation about the effect of surrounding developments on the Bridge silhouette and general loss of visibility over time, using archive photographs (small selection shown below) to support our contention that the paint treatment of the Bridge should be revisited so the Bridge is visible, distinctive and can be fully appreciated in longer views. The agreement of Historic England will be needed to any change in the colour treatment, which may be a challenge.

Hammersmith Bridge 1950 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 1964 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 1986 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 2003 © Jane Bain

The works, which will involve bridge closure, are still scheduled for the end of this year. At the moment studies are still being carried out on the Bridge: stress tests, load assessments, effects of previous repairs. A feasibility report is being prepared on the basis of this information which will give options for the scale of the major repairs: financial viability may not necessarily support TfL’s aspiration to have double-decker buses using the Bridge. 

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This site (between Hammersmith Library and the Broadway) is a 1960s office building, and developers are proposing to re-clad it and remodel the interior as a Premier Inn hotel. Members of the Committee attended an exhibition of plans. 

The scheme does not involve redevelopment from the ground up so offers limited scope for a major improvement to the street scene, however we consider that the proposals are particularly bland and an opportunity has been missed to make a positive contribution to Shepherds Bush Road. We will be asking for improvements to the design.  The developer's illustration is shown above.