Black Bull Tavern 122a Holborn, 1901 [pubwiki.co.uk]

The Black Bull was modelled in the early 19^th century by Obadiah Pulham from Pulham & Son. In Victorian times, this was a well-known Suffolk-based firm specialising in the production of garden ornamentation for prestigious sites across the country and the material used would have been ‘Pulhamite”, a particular blend of artificial stone they had devised.

Brought into London by Thames barge, the bull’s destination was to serve as the sign for the Black Bull coaching inn at 122a Holborn, an establishment mentioned by Dickens in Martin Chuzzlewit. He adorned the front of that building until 1904 (seen below the second floor window alongside the Black Bull nameplate), when the old inn was demolished to make way for a corner extension to the original Gamages department store. 

Black Bull transitioning to Gamages, 1904, [pubwiki.co.uk]

Reporting this event with some regret as the loss of a favourite destination for American tourists, the New York Times wrote on May 20, 1904: … “the old Black Bull of Holborn was lowered from his perch yesterday, and his retirement from public life marked the demolition of the famous old London inn that bore his name”.

Sir William Bull MP’s offices at 269 King St, bull over entrance [H&F Archives]

But saved from destruction by the Hammersmith MP Sir William Bull, our bull was transported over to King Street and relocated above the entrance of the Georgian terraced offices of the MP’s law firm, then at number 269. There he stood for over half a century until those buildings too were demolished.

Rescued again, he was brought down to earth to be unsuitably positioned head-on, on a plinth in the forecourt of an undistinguished ‘estate-style’ pub called the Ravenscourt Arms, later renamed the Black Bull, built in 1966 on the site next to Vencourt House, now a Premier Inn, at 257 King Street. In recent years, that pub too closed, leaving the Black Bull of Holborn stranded in the tumbleweed, and once more seeking a suitable Hammersmith home.

The Ravenscourt Arms was owned by Charrington, its successor the Black Bull was part of Punch Taverns, but according to the council, current ownership looks to be connected to the hotel adjacent.  Do you know any more?  We, alongside Heritage of London Trust, would like to have him restored, and found a more appropriate home.

The Black Bull in King St. 2022

66 Hammersmith Road – Big Yellow – 2022 proposal

We wrote about this site nearly five years ago, and in summary, our view then was that it was rather overbearing on the listed buildings opposite, and adjacent conservation areas. Since then, Olympia has come along and given us a whole new perspective on large redevelopments in the vicinity. You can see a CGI of their (under construction) theatre block in the foreground.

66 Hammersmith Road – earlier 2017 proposal

The 2017 plans will lapse in November, and though not being pursued, importantly were consented under 2017/04752/FUL a full two years after being lodged. This means that it’s (legally) significantly harder to roll back from such a substantial scale, and goes a long way to explaining why the new proposal bears more than a passing resemblance to the earlier one.

As an aside, we’d urge the planners and developers to spend a little more time meaningfully consulting earlier in the process with LBHF setting a high bar when considering such substantive impacts on the townscape.  Hammersmith Road, like the Town Centre, needs a planning brief so that buildings are not proposed willy-nilly without context. There are several 1980’s blocks along the road where Cadby Hall once stood, and unless forethought is applied, a mish-mash of undistinguished buildings may soon be proposed – notwithstanding the present object – to replace the existing ageing and undistinguished mish-mash. Despite boilerplate sustainability statements, such substantial concrete-and-steel proposals are unlikely to feature as highlights on the council’s Climate Emergency agenda, or tick the boxes of the Architects’ Journal RetroFirst campaign, already in its fourth year. We’re again being “consulted” moments before the public, which begins to look like consultation lip-service, and means that in effect little change can be made.

Architecturally, the expressed external structure introduces an inappropriate visual complexity which at the same time creates a perception of additional bulk at roof level, with an unnecessarily prominent parapet in the sky silhouette.

Close by in the next block is the Grade 2 listed façade of Olympia, soon to be joined by dominant neighbours – the jazzy new theatre on the Olympia west side shown above, and the rooftop hotel on the east side.  The busyness of the proposed façade of No. 66 would add to this discord.  CGI images from a viewpoint west of No. 66, and incorporating Olympia G theatre and the retained Olympia façade, would be an instructive exercise in considering the contribution the proposals would bring to the setting of the listed building.

Some good news!

The proposed building is set back a little more than the 2017 version shown, and is not significantly larger. It’s not painted bright yellow, but the developers might like to consider just how far a little red goes.  The public realm is better served by the slightly improved landscaping, and the detailing of the building is better.  Access via Blyth Road is a little better than as currently via the end of Lyons Walk, which allows the latter to be better landscaped (by LDA design), and coordinated with Olympia adjacent. 

There is some community space, which, given the Lyons and LEO heritage, might best serve as a computer club or similar technology education facility, suitably themed, perhaps involving an association with local schools such as Avonmore primary?  The location around the LEO plaque itself is planned to be improved, or the plaque better sited – we’re in contact with the LEO Computers Society who are also being consulted.

We requested the developers look at the space around the bus stop adjacent, the pavement around which is currently very cramped, though changes in the cycle lane alongside, post-Olympia, may change all this.

A public consultation exhibition is being held on 5th October – details are in the diary – and there’s a consultation website with a few more images and details. Let us know what you think.

Members of your committee, affiliates and resident groups around two primary schools – Avonmore and Flora Gardens – were concerned to see the revival of an unreconstructed Community Schools Programme on the recent council cabinet agenda.

Community Schools Programme – proposed Avonmore Primary School. Note that most greenery is actually Marcus Garvey Park

The agenda item was in effect crystallising the May 2022 Labour manifesto into council policy. However, we wrote 4 letters to the council and an article on the subject in 2020, highlighting concerns about the proposal to develop school land, and doubted that the policy was either wise or even justified on a number of specific points of planning and development practice.  Furthermore we are aware that other options have been tabled at both locations and rejected by the council.  Early consultations were curtailed by the pandemic, and specific promises were made by the council to pause and continue the conversation before proceeding.

To date, this has not happened, although some undocumented discussions amongst various parties have taken place. Under the circumstances we saw little option but to make a formal deputation to the council meeting, re-iterating community concerns, and making the following points:

M&S Hammersmith King Street – historic image – 50’s/60’s

You  may have seen the website https://27kingstreet.co.uk recently created for a consultation related to the proposed redevelopment of Marks and Spencer in Hammersmith.  Like many high street shops, this location has become a little tired in the nearly 100 years of its existence, and our M&S has additionally had a curiously broken roofline for as long as anyone can remember, caused we’re told by partial demolition and the machinations of former planning constraints. The above historic photo shows it as it was before its front teeth fell out.

M&S visualisation 27 King St

Fresh from a dressing-down over the proposed Oxford Street redevelopment with Pilbrow & partners, M&S have unsurprisingly chosen a different group to work with here – Reef Group – and with rather different intents. We were provided a fuller picture of the plans for a welcome refurb at a presentation meeting with the developer and M&S in the first week of July.

The plan, though only mentioned in passing on the above website, is a complete rebuilding of the site to create 400 student rooms in a substantial 10 storey block above the store, thereby we assume funding its redevelopment, which like Chiswick’s, would become a larger, but food-only affair of 15000 sq. ft (currently 6000), and based on a market hall concept developed in Clapham. The façade would be retained, the existing gaps filled sympathetically, and the 10 storey block would sit behind and above the façade.  This would considerably improve the food offering, but other offers, such as clothing, would become click-and-collect only.

M&S visualisation with the proposed Landmark House some way behind (22 storeys). The proposal is 10 storeys + podium.

Unfortunately the website visualisation provided (reproduced above) is at such an extreme angle as to mostly hide this substantial building, which is higher than the Broadway buildings, and about the same as the striped glass-clad office building next to the Hammersmith & City Line station, known officially as ’10 Hammersmith Grove’.

We were provided with the adjacent visualisation, still at a rather unsatisfactory angle, and over the long hot weeks since, we’ve been pondering the developer’s coyness at showing the scale of the student blocks, and their effect on the streetscape, light and the Lyric. We’ve asked for ‘Verified Views’ or ‘Accurate Visual Representations’ (AVR) more than once now.

With time passing and the requested visualisations unavailable, we had little option but to use the above information to project our own approximation overlaid onto a Google Earth 3D view of King Street, which is shown below. It uses the above visualisation to project the view at an appropriate angle, showing the approximate scale of the proposal.

With the Lyric on the North side, predominant light from East, West and importantly the South, is not blocked.  By contrast, this proposal would cast a substantial shadow over the street, Lyric and particularly Lyric Square, significantly reducing it’s appeal.

Marks and Spencer proposed redevelopment – approximate 3D overlay onto ‘Google Earth’

It is difficult to imagine when walking round the clean and tidy residential streets of Hammersmith with its shops and multi-storey office blocks that in the 19^th century it was a bustling industrial town taking advantage of the many watercourses and creeks that led into the river Thames to host oil mills, sugar and molasses refineries for the local beer and food industries and a whole host of bustling factories.

Among them was Gwynnes who having made a lot of money when their factory on the Strand became part of the new Victoria Embankment moved their patented centrifuge pump manufacturing business in 1867 to a new factory in Chrisp Road, Hammersmith overlooking the river. In 1920 in the spirit of enterprise the company bought Adam Grimaldi motorcar manufacturers and produced 2250 8 hp and 600 10 hp cars before financial problems stopped production in 1927. Their name still lives on in Hammersmith as Gwynnes Skip Hire Company.

In 1933 the factory was converted into a compact film studio with two stages and a dubbing theatre as part of Twickenham Studios which was in turn acquired by Jack Buchanan who produced such films as We’ll Meet Again with Vera Lynn, The Seventh Veil with James Mason and Father Brown with Alec Guinness.

Dr Who: Dalek in Draw Dock, Riverside

With the arrival of television the newly revamped BBC Riverside Television Studios was opened in March 1957 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The Studios went on to make such classics as Hancock’s Half Hour, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green and the first Doctor Who.

Riverside 1975

The BBC sold the building to Hammersmith and Fulham Council in 1974 who developed it into two large multipurpose studios that blossomed as an international theatre and arts venue where Samuel Beckett directed a production of Endgame and Waiting for Godot and most of Britain’s artistic talent was involved in directing or performing across all the art disciplines.

Riverside entrance 1974-2014

There were also some memorable art exhibitions of works by Eduard Munch, Yoko Ono, Antony Gormley and David Hockney. In addition, the building provided a home the dozens of small film and theatre production companies allowing them to develop their business in a collaborative environment.

2018 Environment Award – Riverside Walk & Queens Wharf

In September 2014 the Riverside was closed for redevelopment following two years of discussions in which your correspondent took part with a neighbouring empty property owned by a Housing Association. The end result was a most imaginative scheme that created 165 residential flats, importantly adding a further link to the London River Walk, increased the size and capacity of Riverside Studios and added a public display area, café’s and a 130 seat Michelin Guide restaurant. We gave the Queen’s Wharf and River Walk our highest Award, the Environment Award, in 2018.

Riverside Studios continues its long tradition of providing the Hammersmith and Fulham community with an outstanding range of theatrical and cinematic experiences as well as first-class production facilities for the television industry.

Long may the show go on!

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On 28th June, the new Local and Affiliate News page (and homepage sidebar) provided news of the parliamentary adjournment debate initiated by the MP for Putney, Fleur Anderson, and contributed to by our MP Andy Slaughter, and Sarah Olney, MP for Richmond Park, on the subject of bridge restoration funding.

What ensued was a familiar ping-pong between the junior minister on one side, relying on a somewhat worn line that because it’s called Hammersmith Bridge it’s LBHF’s responsibility, and in a pincer movement, MP’s on the other side trying to winkle open the Treasury coffers, making the point that the closure effects are widespread in South West London by reference to Putney Society comments and others, and listing other bridges that are funded in different ways, mostly by TfL, in a ‘policy…all over the place’. It was also made clear that stabilisation work had been started at some LBHF financial risk, given the Task Force delays and machinations around the so-called ‘business case’ that we previously reported.

Worryingly, the business case is now referred to specifically in terms of the stabilisation works, and a further business case is now being requested for the major works to release the established 1/3 government funding. Given unimpeded government largesse elsewhere, and an excessively drawn-out process previously, this might be seen as a further delaying tactic, the politics of which are unclear. The point was made that a similar debate with a similar ping-pong & result occurred a year ago, and that the current TfL funding crisis is hardly helping matters, given its 1/3 agreed funding responsibility. The full debate text is here.

Reference was made to the Prior Information Notice (PIN), which we tweeted at the end of May for expressions of interest in the full restoration works, providing us the hope and expectation that a contractor and plan can be primed, notwithstanding funding. New Civil Engineer reports that 28 organisations have expressed an interest.

The implications for North Hammersmith of adoption of the OPDC Local Plan by Henry Petersen
Click on the image to open the pdf

Under the banner ‘Taking a View’,  from time to time, we’re pleased to publish articles by members on a subject of their choice, which they believe will be interesting to the wider membership.

Our member Henry Peterson has a a lifetime’s experience in the world of planning, and been a long-term adviser to affiliate St. Helens Residents Association and the Old Oak Neighbourhood Forum.  He’s written on OPDC matters extensively, including for us, and his comments were mentioned several times in the recent Local Plan adoption meeting.

Here he takes the long view of what’s happened at OPDC, specifically in its long Local Plan development and eventual adoption on 22nd June, with reference to the falling-out with CarGiant that unravelled its original aims, and suggests what the plan now means for North Hammersmith.

The alarming vision presented is a land-grab to replace the lost CarGiant area, coupled with yet more ultra high-rises on the horizon in North Acton, and indeed 15-20+ storeys all along the boundary of Wormwood Scrubs with poor local public transport, sufficient for LBHF’s leader to withhold his support for another likely overbuilt Mayoral project.

In Henry’s words: “One of London’s last large brownfield areas deserved better.” 

If you have an article you would like to be considered, please contact .
Articles are unedited personal viewpoints, and may not always represent the views of the Society

Mayor presents Environment Award 2022 to Flanagan Lawrence [Jason Flanagan & Barbara Twine]

Mayor presents Nancye Goulden Award 2022 to Elder Press Cafe [Lindsay and Andrew Elder]

Mayor presents Jane Mercer Award 2022 to Green Project SB [ Maria Helena Scott ]

Mayor presents Jane Mercer Award 2022 to Green Project SB

Mayor and Nicholas Boys Smith at AGM 2022

NB Smith + Chairman Richard Winterton

The Palladium [ Photo: @sbcalling ]

Palladium Plaque

Elder Press Cafe

Sawley Road – Green Project nominated for Jane Mercer Award 2022

Hammersmith Society Chairman + former chairs

Full House at AGM 2022

Andy Slaughter MP at AGM 2022

Members view presentation boards at AGM 2022

members of Green Project at AGM 2022

(AGM Photos: Franco Chen. Click for full-size versions)

Summary

‘Gentle Density’

Our guest speaker was Nicholas Boys Smith, of CreateStreets, and the CreateStreets Foundation, who gave an inspiring presentation, showing why we don’t need 55 storey towers to solve housing problems, and that real people prefer what CreateStreets refer to as “gentle density”.

The Environment Award was given to The Palladium on Shepherds Bush Green. We visited it earlier this year and were impressed with the design quality provided by the same architects, Flanagan Lawrence, who transformed the Dorsett next door, and to whom we also gave our Environment Award in 2015.  This area of the borough has seen significant improvements in the last few years, and we hope that the hotel currently under construction on the North side of the Dorsett lives up to the high standards set.

Unfortunately this year there were no projects of the right type or scale nominated for the Tom Ryland Award for Conservation.

The Nancye Goulden Award was given to the Elder Press Café which recently opened in South Black Lion Lane, W6. This conversion has been carried out with unusual care and sensitivity – the shop window is retained to bring life and light which animates this little street and the builder’s yard is brought back to life as an outside seating area with fine new timber gates thrown open during the day.

For the first time in several years we presented the Jane Mercer Award for “proactive co-operation, collaboration and communication”. The Green Project, Shepherds Bush provided exactly this, an initiative setup by local residents to make the neighbourhood around Sawley Road W12 greener, and at the same time to bring the community together.

Wooden spoons were awarded to the council for a failure to fully engage with their own green agenda by keeping new street trees alive and overseeing the generally inadequate tree pits partly responsible, which were similarly awarded in 2013, 2014, and 2015; and for an unfortunate lack of inclusivity afforded by the King Street Cycleway, C9, with everyone but cyclists losing out unnecessarily, some significantly.

27 of yore, at Hammersmith bus station

There’s some evidence that politics are again in charge of poor transport policy. Those of you taking note of the words in the article on Cycleway 9 just three months ago, may be rightly disappointed that the gambit proposed – actually somewhat tongue-in-cheek – was in reality already planned.

“Perhaps this is part of the grand plan, to make TfL redundant, the Mayor abandon most of his responsibilities, and the great unwashed go back to using their feet ? “

A logical extension of converting peak-time multipurpose bus lanes into full-time single-purpose cycle lanes – not just in Hammersmith – but across London, with a consequent disbenefit to 97% of the population, was that something like this could well be on the way.

While the Mayor of London blames a 4% central government funding cut, the Transport Minister has responded that the cuts were already planned over a year ago, and there’s some evidence deep in a sustainability plan from Jan 2021 to support that. One side of the political divide may also be playing games with the other, choosing to “park its tanks on the opposition’s lawn” by perhaps imposing more cuts on their supporters patch, and also meaning that our bridge continues to be unfunded as the Cinderella of this melodrama. Overall, the reduction in total peak bus frequency is 424 to 324 per hour, or a 25% reduction in the affected services, according this spreadsheet made from TfL data by Sian Berry, chair of the GLA transport committee, which might reasonably surprise you.

Please complete the consultation by 12th July so that there is a record of dismay, regardless of outcome. The story is covered in local press in more detail, the summary being that some of the oldest routes such as 11, N11, 14, 27, 31, 49, 72 and 74 will be cut, or no longer serve the borough, The 27 is again a pawn in this game, it having already been cut back as the picture above reminds us – it went as far as Chiswick Business Park in recent memory. It’s now proposed to replace the C3 route where it’s never ventured before, and no longer serve H&F at all. 

As we mentioned in the 5G article a couple of years ago, some Freeview TV channels provided by the Crystal Palace transmitter in London are being given over to 5G services, and a further switch-off is happening at the end of this month, OFCOM having auctioned off the 700MHz TV band to EE in 2021. Although little publicised by Freeview themselves, we found comprehensive details here. Update – Freeview have now published the changes.

In summary, the one remaining multiplex in that band is being switched off with the loss of several channels, and movement of others. You may have to manually retune your TV apparently.

Channels closing: BBC News HD, Forces TV, FreeSports, More4+1, NOW 80s, Quest HD, Quest Red+1, QVC HD, QVC Beauty HD, PBS America+1, That’s TV Music, That’s TV UK, Together.

Channels moving: BBC Four HD, CBeebies HD.

5G mast [ photo: Chiswick Calendar ]

Rylett Road cycle cut-through

5G of course brings the benefits of speed to those that need it, and 5G handsets are now becoming mainstream. We covered issues around the oversized base stations last time, and subsequently managed to help the council to see off the specific example at Rylett Road, (which as we suggested at the time, has now become a convenient cycle cut-through instead, as shown).

Our affiliate SPRA was very active in opposing a proposed base station adjacent to the A4 on their patch, and ultimately successful. Having seen the immensity of the masts “in the flesh” (as opposed to just line drawings), and the somewhat outlandish amount of associated street clutter (for the 21st century), this was a good result.