Town Hall Redevelopment November 2018

The revised, and likely final Town Hall plans, filed under ref. 2018/01500/FUL, are being exhibited this Friday 4-8pm and Saturday 10am-2pm – details in our diary.  You are doubtless familiar with the project’s development over the years, and the changes brought about after consultation with members of the public, the volunteer Town Hall Commissioners, this Society, and Historic England.

The following significant changes are listed:

• Reduction in the height of the town hall roof extension by one storey (compare April 2018 version).
• Reduction in the size of the shading around the roof of the new glass extension.
• Improvements to the lighting for the Assembly Hall and Courtyard.
• Addition of new winter gardens on the new homes facing King Street and the A4 to improve air quality.

In the invitation (full details), the leader of the council says:

We propose to demolish the ugly Town Hall extension and bring Hammersmith:

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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.

Town Hall Redevelopment February 2018

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.

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

Town Hall January 2018

We have been advised that there will be an exhibition in the Town Hall to update progress on the scheme. There are two dates for these which are Thursday 1st February (4pm to 8pm) and Saturday 3rd February (10am to 2pm)  – as shown in the society diary (right)

We hope that you will be able to get to one or other of these dates, and we would be pleased to hear any feedback.

The Council Cabinet agreed before Christmas to advance the plans to give many of our green spaces special protection, preserving them in perpetuity for future generations. For each park an individual ‘deed of dedication’ will be created with open spaces charity ‘Fields in Trust’ which is a nationwide organisation (visit www.fieldsintrust.org) and was previously known as the National Playing Fields Association.

The decision follows work by the Council’s Parks Commission set up last year and the Council’s pledge to protect open spaces from being sold off. Each of the main parks in the Borough had resident representatives on the Commission.