Chairman’s Annual Report 2024
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Attached is this year’s Chairman’s Annual Report, reviewing the key activities of the Society, plus a look at emerging trends in Hammersmith.

Subjects include:

• Royal Masonic Hospital
• Earls Court
• Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA)
  • 181 Talgarth Road, M&S & 2 Queen Caroline St.
• Town Centre Masterplan / SPD
• Transport
  • Hammersmith Bridge
  • Roundabout consultations
• The Society
  • Prof. Hans Haenlein’s retirement
  • Committee changes & recruitment
  • Hammersmith Weekly

The agenda, accounts and other AGM information are on the dedicated 2024 AGM page.

Nomination for a Tom Ryland Award for Conservation, 2024.

Ravenscourt Park Tea House

Ravenscourt Park Tea House

The Grade 2 listed, 200 year old Tea House was on the buildings at risk register for some time (see related story), but has now been sensitively restored by the council and made weathertight, along with the adjacent toilet block (to the left of the photos).

The interior is now open and has been let to a third party café operator, providing an agreeable stopping point should the weather not allow the new outside seating to be used. We have some reservations about one or two details of the overprominent building services, and the immediately adjacent landscaping could be improved, but these are minor niggles. The rebuilt glasshouse adjacent, home of HCGA, is worthy of a mention too, though not nominated here.

Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2024.

The White City opportunity area has seen a great deal of development in recent years, first Westfield, then the award winning TV centre (2018), Imperial and now White City Place and EdCity. Although the architecture is somewhat mixed and will divide opinion, there are substantive public realm improvements now visible. The L’Oreal building and 1EdCity are especially noteworthy in having active façades.

Developed by education charity Ark in partnership with LBHF, 1EdCity is part of the EdCity campus which includes Ark White City Primary Academy (Ark Swift), community youth zone WEST, and 132 affordable homes.

Click on individual images for full-sized versions

Nomination for a Nancye Goulden Award, 2024.

The elevations of this Shepherds Bush Green landmark have been renovated in a sensitive and attractive manner that contributes to the street scene. Furthermore, the rear extension and remodelling has created an interesting semi-external space to the rear.  The newly tiled façades should be effective in maintaining the appearance of the building in future years.

The Defectors Weld 2024

The Defectors Weld 2024

Nomination for a Tom Ryland Award for Conservation, 2024.

The Leaning Lady was restored this summer, after more than sixty years. Along with other artworks, the statue was a gift to the community from the LCC partly as reparation for the damage caused by the building of the Great West Road through the middle of Hammersmith in the 1950’s. The statue was created by Czech refugee Dr. Karel Vogel in an unusual concrete material that had eroded over time. The restoration project was driven by affiliate SPRA and the council, and managed by Heritage of London Trust who also part funded the project with many local people in a community-driven fundraiser. 

Leaning Lady restored 2024

Dr Nicola Stacey of Heritage of London Trust at the unveiling of the restored Leaning Lady Statue with HRH Duke of Gloucester

Leaning Lady unveiling “Proud Places”

Visit the above links for the charming story of the unveiling by HRH the Duke of Gloucester, in the presence of many local schoolchildren who created their own projects around the restoration, as part of HOLT’s Proud Places programme.

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2024

For the second time in their short history, the Livat planters have been nominated by a member. They were nominated for their effort in cheering up King Street and Ashcroft Square when they appeared in 2022, but on reflection, the committee decided that they didn’t quite make the grade for an award. Since then, little maintenance appears to have been done in King Street, and they have become an unfortunate eyesore. As every council knows, plants, particularly those in relatively shallow planters need watering, care, and maintenance. That bit of the equation seems to have been missed, and instead they have become impromptu ashtrays for the adjacent ‘smoking benches’.

Livat planters 1

Livat planters 2

Livat ‘smoking bench’

However, upstairs in Ashcroft Square, things are looking up, with some new planting. Perhaps there’s been some guerrilla gardening? Enough to save the planters from the wooden spoon?

For comparison, this is a street scene near the back of Victoria station, showing how a little TLC and suitable arrangement of planters can transform a small area into an attractive ‘parklet’.

Victoria street scene

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2024.

True? It certainly looks like it.  First, the popular paddling pool acquired a costly gated cage, a pre-booking requirement taking much the spontaneity out of a summer visit, with numbers, time limits and families frequently turned away. Next, some gates  – function unclear –  have appeared across the busy Ravenscourt Avenue entrance. Ugly and unwelcoming, these gates not only obscure views into the Park but cause maximum inconvenience and frustration to park users who find themselves having to queue to get either in or out. The Friends of Ravenscourt Park were not consulted on either.

Ravenscourt Park – before

Ravenscourt Park – after

Ravenscourt Park Paddling Pool, August 2024

Paddlers beware

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.

Nomination for a Tom Ryland Award for Conservation, 2024

The office of Beata Heuman

Beata Heuman, 188 Hammersmith Road – exterior

188 Hammersmith Road – exterior (night)

See Beata Heuman and House and Garden

Nominated by a member who says  “There are often members of the public taking photos of this building, especially at night, as it is beautifully lit as well as sympathetically restored. It is a joy to walk by. The small “Wildlife” Garden is very well tended and is a great addition to having some plants and greenery to admire along this road”

Nomination for a Wooden Spoon, 2024

Sindercombe Social 2024

The Sindercombe Social has had an interesting makeover for 2024 with a Ziggy Stardust-inspired “youth club vibe”.

Ziggy Stardust 1973

It’s rather a contrast to the work undertaken to The Defectors Weld to improve their façade on the opposite corner of the green, nominated for its improvements. Ziggy famously shocked his fans by falling to Earth with his ‘Spiders from Mars’ in the nearby Hammersmith Odeon, on 3rd July 1973.