Nomination for an Environment Award, 2026.

Although we’re 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 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

Members, Mayor, Winners and Rupa Huq MP

Outgoing chair Richard Farthing

Vice-chairman Richard Winterton introduces the awards

Hywel Pratley with the Mayor and Andy Slaughter MP

Richard Farthing with the Mayor

Richard Farthing opens the AGM

New Timber Yard Award Winners: Orla Murray of Thackeray Estates, Sam Langtree & Fiona of Frost Architects

Hywel Pratley with Rupa Huq and committee

Matt Hedges answers questions

Rupa Huq MP

Afsaneh Sladen of HCGA with new chairman, Angela Clarke MBE

Guest Speaker Hywel Pratley with his sculpture

(AGM Photos: Anne Farthing. Click for larger versions)

Award winners 2025

Making up for last year’s dearth of Environment Award nominations, this year we had two excellent nominations, and both worthy winners of our top award: the New Timber Yard off King St., and MacFarlane Place on Wood Lane.

In the smaller project catagory for our Nancye Goulden Award, we’ve seen a number of nominations and winners for Streetscape improvements in recent years. This year it was the turn of the new rain gardens in King Street, partly paid for by the council’s Green Investment Fund, and installed by the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association.  We were particularly pleased to see natural materials replacing the ugly asphalt in the tree pits adjacent, something we’ve long campaigned for, and indeed awarded wooden spoons to the council for, in four of the last twelve years.

There were two Wooden Spoon nominations this year, for the generally dilapidated condition of Uxbridge Road, and the inappropriate redevelopment of The Hampsire Hog, to become The Hammersmith Belle. The committee felt that there was an insufficiently clear target for the many issues in Uxbridge road, but that failing to react to the recent proposals of the ‘Fix the Uxbridge Road’ campaign group, could result in a wooden spoon for the council next year.  The Hammersmith Belle was a popular ‘winner’ however. Further details and photos are on the 2025 awards page.

Hammersmith Society Annual Report 2024-2025
Click on the image to open the pdf

Attached is this year’s Annual Report, reviewing the key activities of the Society, and at least three local megaprojects, this year also providing a reflection on the outgoing chairman’s three year term.

Subjects include:

• The changing face of Hammersmith
• Projects in development 
• Local Plan
• Hammersmith Bridge
• Committee members
• Reflections on Chairmanship 2022-2025

The agenda, accounts and other AGM information are or will be on the dedicated 2025 AGM page.

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

Environment Award Winner, 2025.

Finely detailed brickwork is the feature in this new development on the corner of Macfarlane Road and Wood Lane opposite Westfield, designed by Maccreanor Lavington for Peabody Housing Association. It replaces the former BBC car park with a pair of appropriately-sized mid-rise buildings, providing 142 affordable homes in a mixture of shared ownership, London Affordable Rent and London Living Rent with 68 x 1 bed, 67 x 2 bed and 7 x 3-bed flats.

Macfarlane Place – H&C railway line – Westfield Living in the distance, TV centre tower under construction left

Macfarlane Place for Peabody Housing Association

Macfarlane Place – Wood Lane & public realm

Macfarlane Place – railway line

Macfarlane Place for Peabody Housing Association

Macfarlane Place – entrance

Macfarlane Place – brickwork shutters railings

Macfarlane Road – public realm

There are some echoes of the ‘warehouse chic’ of the 2023 award-winning Hoxton hotel just down the road, plus an echo of the red brick DIMCO buildings on the other side of Wood Lane, which were themselves nominated in 2021.

The use of materials is interesting, and although there is some fakery to the brickwork (common these days), the patterns are original, and the floor to ceiling windows and detailing lift the facades above the ordinary allowing it to not shout ‘social housing’.  Care has been used in the design, and as the RIBA journal notes, it has tenant-friendly touches such as heat-regulating shutters.  The shutters are said to have been designed to reduce overheating, eliminating the need for air conditioning and opening windows onto a potentially noisy Wood Lane, and the Hammersmith & City railway line immediately adjacent. There’s some interesting detailing internally too.  There are a few more photos on our Instagram