Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2026.

landscaping+planting outside Greenside school

The area outside Goldfinger’s Grade II* Greenside school has been transformed with a landscaping scheme funded by the Council’s Green Investment scheme.

The pupils at the school helped design the scheme which has a slightly raised curving path which they enjoy running along.

The planting scheme was by the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (who won a Hammersmith Society award for the King Street rain gardens in 2025) in conjunction with the school pupils.

Nomination for an Environment Award, 2026.

Although we’ve heard a range of opinion, there’s a lot to like in the total refurbishment of Olympia, now complete and open, aside from the theatre, due in 2027. A mixture of well restored and cleaned existing exteriors of the exhibition halls, conversion of the car-park into a Hyatt Regency hotel and Wetherby Pembridge school, and new interior roof build for restaurants and offices, a substantial music venue, plus good planting. The only disappointments might be the roof extensions facing Hammersmith Road which have been commented on as being overbearing.

The project started in late 2017, and we have several articles reporting on the planning process, and with photographic records throughout the build.

Click for full-size images

Olympia tube station

Olympia Way

Olympia restored statue of Demeter, Greek goddess of agriculture

Olympia stairs to Hammersmith Road

Olympia Stairs to Emberton Walk

Olympia Emberton Walk screen

Olympia Hyatt Regency Hotel

Olympia Hammersmith Road

Olympia ICC Entrance

Olympia Lift button

Olympia Escalaors to Emberton Walk

Olympia Emberton Walk

Olympia British Airways ARC music venue

Olympia Wetherby Pembridge School

Olympia Wetherby Pembridge School

There are a few more photos on our Instagram

Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2026.

We received several nominations for the Town Hall redevelopment, these are split – generally positive towards the opening up and refurbishment of the GII listed Town Hall itself and its new piazza, but rather less so of the RSHP-devised scheme around it.

This nomination is specifically for the landscaping by Gillespies in the piazza and around the residential blocks, which is sensitively realised, helping reveal the listed town hall as a building of presence and charisma. 

Of particular note is the subtly inclusive variable-height seating made of curved hardwood, which is genuinely pleasant to sit on, unlike so much public seating these days.  Two wins in one design.

Town Hall Piazza

Town Hall inclusive seating

Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2026.

We’re fascinated by this unusual new building, especially its odd shape, and zig-zag brickwork, directly in front of the Contract Chair Co in Glenthorne Road.

133 Glenthorne Road

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2026.

We received several nominations for the Town Hall redevelopment, these are split – generally positive towards the opening up and refurbishment of the GII listed Town Hall itself and its new piazza, but rather less so of the RSHP-designed scheme around it. There’s a separate Nancye Goulden nomination for the Piazza.

Nominating members reserved particular opprobrium for the unnecessary renaming of the Town Hall as ‘Civic Campus’, now officially ‘The Civic Campus, 1 Unity Square, London, W6 9JU’, lit up 24 x 7 in signage unseen in any planning CGI, as if to deny its documented heritage. Nigel Playfair Avenue has also been stripped of character as the generic ‘Civic Avenue’, and an unmistakable reflection of recent political messaging appears in the name ‘Unity Square’, particularly egregious since an obviously nonpolitical ‘Hammersmith Square W6’ or even ‘Town Hall Square W6’ have long been available.

Name changes didn’t enjoy public scrutiny, the news reminding us that recent similar moves in other parts of the world have received an equally poor reception, and that closer to home, we have become unwitting bedfellows with two other boroughs with their own chequered histories – Newham and Bromley.

Civic Campus AKA Town Hall

Civic Avenue AKA Nigel Playfair Avenue

Despite the welcome provision of some affordable housing in the scheme, according to the nominations, there are too many unnecessary own-goals in a project that promised so much. In summary:

Nomination for a Tom Ryland Award for Conservation, 2026.

Margravine Cemetery Wall at the top end of Margravine Gardens, is opposite the Grade II listed station.  Nominated by a resident who says: “The wall is on a slope and on a curve, and is over 26m long and on the street 2-3m high above pavement, while in the cemetery it varies between over 4m high to 2m high above ground level. We, Friends of Margavine Cemetery, noticed it was cracking at the top and leaning out in 2024, and notified the council, who then fenced off the footway in front. We persuaded them to get the advice of the conservation engineer, advising on the listed Building at Risk structures in the cemetery. The council agreed to have contractors take down the wall by hand and then rebuild it in lime mortar, reusing saved bricks and matching new bricks. The works of demolition took place in Spring 2025, and the wall was rebuilt in July-September 2025. To most people the wall now looks as it did before which is a great credit to all concerned.”

Before and during repair

Margravine Cemetery wall before with lean

Margravine Cemetery Wall under repair

Wall repaired

Margravine Cemetery Wall repaired

Nomination for a Tom Ryland Award for Conservation, 2025.

The Hawthorn

Nominated by a member who says:  “The Hawthorn is on the corner of Thorpebank Rd and the Uxbridge Rd in Shepherds Bush. The pub was first built in 1878 and was taken over earlier this year by Peter Creed and Tom Noest of Publican Pubs  They also run five pubs in the Cotswolds and are well established in the hospitality industry.

They have completely renovated this lovely building, both inside and out. With new sash windows, signage and a traditional coloured paintwork, the building has been give a stylish and very welcome overhaul, and is vastly improved compared to the previous pub. The Inside is cosy and welcoming with butter coloured walls and a newly built bar…They have chosen a really great name, with a historical reference, as their Instagram post explains“

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2025.

The Uxbridge road at its Shepherds Bush end has struggled for some years, and has been nominated for a wooden spoon in a number of respects this year, and by several people. There has been a significant amount of public interest and debate with the council, most recently a petition was put to the council to “Fix the Uxbridge Road”, and there’s been a proposal for a Business Improvement District for Shepherds Bush too. 

The list of issues are:

• Inappropriate retail frontages, often a downgrade on the former and perhaps more traditional frontages – a common problem nowadays throughout the borough – and one that we, and our members have campaigned for enforcement on for several years, as these developments often run contrary to the Local Plan.
• The state of the railway bridge, including its graffiti.
• Anti-Social behaviour.
• Problems with waste management – sacks of uncollected rubbish, often generated by retailers.

The council has agreed to take some actions as a result, detailed in the above cabinet report with petition details and here, and TfL are reported to have agreed to repaint the bridge.

Uxbridge road and environs. The two left-bottom images show predecessors to current frontages

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”.

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2024

Planting at 181 Talgarth Road – the new Premier Inn and PBSA, still under construction

181 Talgarth Road border planting

181 Talgarth Road Premier Inn planting

The small bed which is the first thing you see as you arrive at the Premier Inn from Hammersmith underground station is almost bare, and compares especially badly after the very good planting at The Ark next door.

The planters to mask the new building from the houses in Margravine Road are nearly dead and planted in what looks like builders rubble not compost, which makes it unsurprising that they won’t grow.