Heathrow noise – Airports Commission final report

You may well be aware that the Government published a document on 5th June which would effectively give outline planning permission for a third runway at Heathrow. Parliament will vote on this in next 2 1/2 weeks. As the Hammersmith Society has said repeatedly, a third runway would have significant negative effects on Hammersmith: increased noise (with the health impacts that brings) from more flights and a new flightpath, increased pollution from more traffic on the A4 and A40 through the Borough, and vastly increased pressure on public transport infrastructure going into and out of central London. If you share these concerns, do email or write, as soon as possible,  to your MP who for most of us is Andy Slaughter (), and the Minister for Transport

The Chair of the  H&F Resident-Led Commission on Airport Expansion, Christina Smyth, has written the following blogpost on the Council’s website: 

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.

2018 Nancye Goulden Award: 2A Loftus Road

Riverside Studios – Crisp Road

Planters, Lower Mall

2018 Nancye Goulden Award: St Paul’s Girls School Pavilion

2018 Environment Award: TV Centre redevelopment

2018 Environment Award: TV Centre redevelopment

2018 Environment Award – Helios / TV centre

BT InLinkUK “Phone box”

Capability Brown wears a tiara for the Royal Wedding

Ark Conway Primary Academy

Guerilla Gardening – tree pits in Galloway Road

Westfield extension / John Lewis

White City Place

LAMDA Wooden Spoon in 2018 – opinions are divided ! It wins awards elsewhere

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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.

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

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.

It is with great sadness that we report the news of the death of our Chairman, Tom Ryland RIBA. Tom died peacefully on 9th March in Hammersmith Hospital.

It is hard to imagine the Hammersmith Society without Tom. He had been on the Committee for many years, and Vice Chairman for some twelve years, before becoming Chairman nearly three years ago – a role to which he brought his knowledge as an architect, a lively interest in local affairs and a belief that it was always possible to do things better. His wisdom, and his calm, balanced approach to planning issues were an immense asset to the community.

Working with Tom was always a pleasure. He was unflappable, interested, sociable, kind, and had a wonderful quiet sense of humour. He had a great gift for getting people on his side, and committee meetings with him at the helm were enjoyable affairs. He will be hugely missed by the very many people across the wide range of activities he gave his time to. We extend our thoughts and all our sympathy to his wife Liz and all his family.

A more detailed appreciation of Tom’s contribution to the Society will be included in our April Newsletter.

Further to my News Update last week, we have received notice that there will be an ‘interim’ report to the Council’s ‘Community Safety, Environment and Residents Service Policy and Accountability Committee’ on Monday 29th January at 7pm.
You can see the Report  here

This Committee is open to all and I strongly recommend you attend if you can. (Unfortunately I shall be away).

The report is completely noncommittal and there appears to be no recognition of the considerable local opposition both in Hammersmith and Chiswick where there are various active anti-CS9 groups and petitions.