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Westfield Phase 2 is nearing completion and will be opening soon including the John Lewis store. Westfield, Australian owned, are in the meantime selling out both White City and Stratford East to French giant Unibail-Rodamco for the small sum of £18.5billion and the sale should be completed in the Spring.
We were recently invited, together with members of the Historic Buildings Group, to look at proposals for the larger of the DIMCO buildings, the only Listed buildings remaining on site. This one is currently used by Transport for London for storing buses but come the completion of Phase 2 there will be a purpose built facility allowing the freeing up of the Listed shed. The current proposals, still at an early stage, are to convert the building into an entrainment/event venue. Although the the scheme involves inserting of a full mezzanine floor, none of the original fabric will be damaged so that all the interventions will be reversible. We liked the proposals in principle and our concerns were mainly centred on access and egress of up to 3000 people and the capacity of the adjoining streets and public transport system to cope with the potential surge of visitors.
Also in White City we were recently given a presentation of proposals for Centre House. On the site are the rather tired 1960’s buildings on the east side of Wood Lane opposite to old BBC tv centre. The buildings were all used as part of the BBC facility including prop storage, scene building and their engineering department. First sold to Helical Bar, then Imperial College, they will now transfer the site to St James who will develop approximately 520 units of housing, much of it for rent and specifically graduate accommodation for Imperial. It is another large scheme, mainly linear blocks of 9 storeys with a possible towers of 21 and 31 storeys. The architectural treatment has been well considered.
The landscape proposals are potentially excellent although there is limited private or public amenity space. Many of our concerns about scale, height and density and reduced open space have already been eclipsed by decisions already made on White City.
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Proposals for the adjacent site at 66 Hammersmith Road have now come forward as an application. (Ref 2017/04752/FUL).
We are concerned at the excessive bulk of this building and the adverse effect which it would have on the Listed buildings and Conservation Areas nearby. You can read our response to the application as attached.
This controversial topic produced the largest response that we have ever received. Of about 40 responses, only one was in favour!
Your Committee had a follow up meeting with highway engineers from TfL and our Council. Hopefully we were able to help convince them why this scheme is so wrong for Hammersmith.
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Hopefully many of you were able to get to the consultations/exhibition on the new scheme. Reactions from members seemed generally positive.
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In our October Newsletter, we reported that the Council’s Planning and Development Committee had refused permission against officer advice at their meeting in October.
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Now that the Lyric have completed the latest round of expansion and building works, they are looking to overhaul the main auditorium and studio spaces. They have asked us to be involved in consultations which will commence in the New Year. This is obviously important to the Hammersmith Society which played such an important role in saving the theatre from destruction back in the 1970s.
The plans for the OPDC area continue to advance despite the many problems, not least the funding of the massive infrastructure which will be necessary. It is a concern that often the thinking is not co-ordinated between the various agencies. Transport for London (TfL) recently consulted on the design of two of the proposed Overground stations at Hythe Road and Old Oak Common Lane but these were isolated from the adjoining proposals for the Elizabeth Crossrail line and HS2 station at Old Oak Common Lane. At present there is no funding for the TfL stations and the designs seem unnecessarily heavy and clumsy.
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