181 Talgarth Road – April 2020 RSHP scheme

In April last year we reported on the hotel development proposed for the former West London Magistrate’s Court site at 181 Talgarth Road, a proposal which would include two hotels:  a 442-bedroom, 23-storey luxury hotel, and a 440-bed, 10-storey tourist hotel. Permission for the development was agreed in July, and after referral to the Mayor’ office the consent was confirmed in December.

Since then, with the change in economic circumstances, the developer Dominvs Group has chosen to revise the scheme:  retaining the tourist hotel, but providing Student Accommodation for up to 696 students, possibly linked to the Imperial College White City campus, in place of the 23-storey luxury hotel. 

181 Talgarth Road – March 2021 proposed scheme

Initial proposals are for a student block with massing generally similar to the approved luxury hotel block, but adjusted to reduce the maximum height by two storeys, to 68 metres, and to enlarge the plan to add 2,400 sq. m floor area. We understand that TP Bennett, architects of King’s House at the other end of Shortlands, are to be appointed for this building, and that the accommodation would be run by Scape who are well-known in the sector.

No change is proposed to the tourist hotel design, but the landscaped public realm within the site would become a student amenity space, providing access to the student cycle store – a more mundane provision which lacks the tempietto, restaurant and bar which created a welcome spark in the earlier scheme. The prospect of a revised planning application has revived the considerable public opposition to the earlier development, and the Society is participating in consultations currently taking place.

181 Talgarth Road – 2021 proposed public realm

This new scheme opens a further chapter in the uncomfortable history of this important site. The story began with the sale of the land by the Ministry of Justice, evidently failing to follow Cabinet Office guidelines which require that, prior to commercial sale, sites in public ownership should be assessed for residential, educational or similar public benefit. The sale of the Magistrates Court site was advertised with enticements including ‘precedent for tall buildings’ and reports of ‘positive pre-application feedback from LBHF’  without revealing the LBHF advice received.  It is not clear if the £42m purchase price paid by Dominvs was based on a development valuation gleaned from the ‘evolving’ Town Centre Masterplan – a plan which has been evolving since 2015, but has still not been reviewed through public consultation. The provisional Masterplan currently circulating is based on a plan which incorporates the completed A4 fly-under tunnel, describing a misleading urban context for the hotel site. 

We have reported on the progress on the new Hammersmith and Fulham Local Plan over the last two years.

The revised Plan incorporating several of our comments and recommendations will now be the subject of this Inquiry by a Government appointed inspector. He will be assessing the soundness of the plan and conformity to planning law including the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the London Plan. The hearings will take place in the Council Chamber of Hammersmith Town Hall over a period of six days, commencing on Tuesday 13th June.

Tunnel options

Four of your Committee are on the Council’s Hammersmith Residents’ Working Party (Melanie Whitlock, Rosemary Pettit, Richard Winterton and myself)  : We have had three meetings since its inception, which have included a presentation by Transport for London (TfL) on their current thinking for the Flyunder and the Broadway. Mysteriously, they failed to mention the strategic tunnel proposal (from the A4 in Chiswick and A40 at Park Royal to East London) which the Mayor/TfL announced a couple of weeks later and which in our view puts a very different light on their current lukewarm support for the Flyunder project. See below TfL diagram which shows how a long Flyunder would form the first section of their strategic south tunnel . . .The main objective of the group is to feed in Residents’ views as to how Hammersmith Town Centre should be developed. Our last meeting involved some brainstorming and in the meantime the Council are looking to appoint a firm of Masterplanners. Watch this space . . .