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 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

Hammersmith Study Group: Exhibition: Ravenscourt Park (1970)

There should of course be an obvious answer to the question of what constitutes a park. Summer’s faded into a distant memory, so it’s a good time to take stock, with a season of site visits, reviews of virtual CGI, and actual wooden models of new developments in full swing, showing the newly alluring sunlit ‘park’ images, here in our mid-winter. So far, these suggest that many a developer has rather different idea to us, but perhaps it’s just a naming thing.

Celebrating our parks

Without even considering Wormwood Scrubs, we have several wonderful parks in H&F, the largest of which – Ravenscourt and Bishop’s Parks – provide for almost every conceivable outdoor leisure need, even including exhibitions and Laser shows. From basketball nets in the north to a paddling pool in south, taking in sufficient space to play several team games – of football or cricket – in the middle, tennis courts, toddlers playgrounds, dog exercise areas north and south, popular all-weather football pitches adjacent, and greenhouses and community gardening alongside.  Even a renovated and listed Tea House.  And that’s just Ravenscourt Park. 

Beckett Wharf park

Bishop’s Park has a Grade I listed palace adjacent, the river and riverwalk too.  This gives us a pretty comprehensive idea of the purposes of a park.  We even have possibly the world’s smallest park, Beckett Wharf Park, between the bridge and Riverside Studios. One of our members has recently worked with Kier Construction to renovate it as part of a community contribution.

Ravenscourt Park, November 2023

The Open Spaces Society, to which we’re affiliated, noted recently that parks are under unprecedented pressure from commercial activities, and we see a little of that here with fairs, concerts and so on, but those are modest by comparison with say, Hyde Park, where a good part is cordoned off for most of the summer for the huge ‘BST’ outdoor concerts. Even so, some damage occurs as the photo adjacent shows.

Lewis Cubitt park

New parks

Perhaps we’ll get a better feel for the modern take on a ‘park’ or open space by looking at recent developments? Kings Cross seems a reasonable place to start, with the possibility to do what it likes with public spaces and presumably with few budgetary constraints. The ‘park’ shown adjacent is about the size of a communal garden of the type you might find in Notting Hill, the difference being that this is expected to be shared by a thousand or more people, the original by perhaps a hundred or two. There is perhaps no coincidence that the name of this example is connected to one of the great 18th century builders, Cubitt, rather than a name we might choose, say, Capability Brown.

A review of some proposed new developments we’ve looked at might help.  We don’t have to go far for CGI proposals, and to compare then with some recently built. Mayoral Opportunity Areas, notably Old Oak and it’s environs provide good hunting grounds, in addition to those actually in the borough.  The evidence suggests that developers, rather than producing fanciful CGI’s, might perhaps go and visit some of the many Victorian and Edwardian parks around us to see what they do, and what their public values might reasonably look like.

Earls Court: CGI proposed ‘park’

Westfield Residential: CGI (under construction)

The Grand Union (Alperton – 2023)

The Grand Union (Alperton – 2023)

HS2 Old Oak CGI ‘Parkland’

Original CGI for ‘Old Oak park’

Which one of these new developments has the space to play a team game of some sort or an individual game of tennis? Or any of the other activities listed above? Perhaps one.

Increasing physical activity must be a central part of everything we do

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:

HS2 on Newsnight

If you saw the HS2 story on last week’s Newsnight, you might be surprised at how so much money has been spent, and how much digging done, including in this borough with parts of Wormwood Scrubs being churned up to break ground for Old Oak station, “the most connected station in the UK”, possibly without the project having been fully thought through.

HS2 Ltd has recently applied for a Compulsory Purchase Order on the area where they are doing works to divert the Sanford Brook Sewer, along the northern border of the Scrubs. 

HS2 is the most expensive high-speed railway in the world
– The Economist

The government’s own Major Projects Authority, like longstanding questioners including some of our members, seems have come to the conclusion late in the day that there could be more effective ways to spend huge amounts of capital, such as on East-West and local routes, but this isn’t news. At more than £33M a mile, the more than tripling of the original budget may have swung government thinking, but it was naïve to think this wouldn’t happen, given the expensive optioneering and some fairly obvious gold-plating, plus recent experience with projects like the almost identically overbudget 2012 Olympics – under the same leadership – and Crossrail, now over 3 years late. It is more than a little concerning that such projects continually require a somewhat childish suspension of disbelief, or more politely “optimism bias”, in order to get off the ground, only to wake up with a big government-largesse-fuelled hangover, discovering much of the budget has already been committed and/or spent – quite possibly inefficiently with questionable governance (Oakervee review conclusion 37), and perhaps not in the best place. 

In the case of the London Olympics, significant change or cancellation wasn’t an option of course, and we got new sports infrastructure and the repurposed housing via the Olympic village, plus a huge feel-good factor afterwards.  But HS2 has no medals, and fewer friends, dubbed by Sir Simon Jenkins as a “£100bn vanity project”, or more simply by The Economist “The most expensive high-speed railway in the world”.

HS2 Construction Old Oak/Scrubs [shepherdsbushw12.com]

Can an increasingly poor match with requirements now be blamed on COVID and a supposed waning of travel between cities – often a mainstay of the justification?  Not really, video conferencing has been around for decades, and the needs of ordinary people, now relabelled the levelling-up agenda, were secondary in the requirements – probably the root of the problem.  Members of the Society may have spotted the writing on the wall in the article a year ago where the gambit of high speed rail was set out using international comparators, and the reality of electric vehicles was suggested as potentially undermining its green credentials (if indeed they are as claimed, when the embodied carbon from concrete has been factored in).  We’d like to think Government read the article, but it’s unfortunate if ministers have again been captured by the allure of diggers & Hi-Viz, locally on Wormwood Scrubs, but in many other places too – Hammersmith Bridge excepted.

TBM “Florence” in the Chilterns [HS2 Ltd]

Looking at the situation more positively, and considering what has already been dug, a more appropriate project might be quite the reverse of what is mooted as a new approach – cutting off the northern legs. High Speed rail viability increases with distance up to about a 3hr journey time – the Birmingham route is right on the lower limit of accepted high-speed viability at 100 miles, more a sop to get the project off the ground at lowest(!) cost – the Oakervee Review concurs in conclusion 54.  Distraction by way of mooted “high-speed” links Leeds / Manchester, is muddle – in 36 miles, half the length of Crossrail, “high speed” wouldn’t achieved for long enough to be worthwhile.

Ravenscourt Park Tea House – from 2021/00539/LBCHF

The Ravenscourt Park Tea House, a popular stopping point in the park, has been in a dilapidated condition for some time, and been a concern of the Friends of Ravenscourt Park, as well as being on Historic England’s Buildings At Risk register. It closed in 2019 largely because of its increasingly poor condition.

The Friends, chaired by our committee member Annabelle May, had a very informative and encouraging meeting recently with senior planning officer Steve Hollingworth and head of capital projects Nilesh Pankhania.  Two architects from Burrell Foley Fischer also attended, and showed their detailed plans for total external refurbishments, using the approved materials, with the aim of making the building weather proof and usable again. A stark revelation was the neglect and inappropriate patching-up of past decades. 

Ravenscourt Park Tea House – from 2021/00539/LBCHF

These works also include the much-needed total redesign and refurbishment of all the public toilets on the site.  The planning application has been lodged, and they hope to be able to start works in early summer.  We were told that funding has been identified.

Ravenscourt Park Tea House – 1831 – from 2021/00539/LBCHF

As the Friends have campaigned for a long time about the deteriorating state of this important 200 year old Grade II historic building, this was all extremely good news, and as a focal point in the Park we all look forward to seeing it in use as a café again before too long.

We reported earlier this year on plans for the Linford Christie Stadium site, which is right on the edge of Wormwood Scrubs and which, like the open space itself, is Metropolitan Open Land. Last year the Council held a consultation on the future of the stadium, which resulted – with apparently a big push from QPR supporters – in 80% of respondents supporting a possible 45,000 seat stadium. The Society has consistently supported the views of the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs, that development on that scale is not compatible with the character and development of the Scrubs.

The plan now is to invite potentially interested developers of all three levels of stadium identified as commercially viable – a large scale sports stadium or arena as for QPR; a covered entertainment arena for music gigs and events; an enhanced but smaller community sports facility perhaps managed by Imperial College which would would primarily build the facilities for its students, but also allow Kensington Dragons FC, Thames Valley Harriers and the public to hire them – to put forward their bids. They would also have to say how they would address the planning issue of overcoming the protection of Metropolitan Open Land designation for LCS, and other challenges, including protecting the hospital, the pony centre, and the current users and nature of the Scrubs. There will then be assessment of which, if any, of the proposals should be invited to try to move forward. That is when they will have to focus on planning issues including overcoming the restrictions of MOL – almost certainly leading to a public inquiry and a decision by an inspector, not just an LBHF planning department decision.

‘Hospitality in the Park’ run by Slammin’ Events in Finsbury Park

Meanwhile, festivals promoter Slammin’ Events, has approached the Council with a project to put on a music festival for “up to 10,000” people as a test event in 2021. The attractions of such revenue-generating events for the Council must be obvious, but the location – adjacent to Hammersmith hospital, poorly connected to public transport, and liable to impact for all the neighbouring residential areas is just not suitable.

Save our Skyline – River and King St views

Local residents will remember John Jones, who was for many years Chairman of our affiliate, the Ravenscourt Society, and who died in April.  For several decades he was a formidable defender of his patch of Hammersmith from ill-judged development and Council efforts to sell off land on the fringes of Ravenscourt Park.

He threw himself into the battle against the first Town Hall development plans in 2010-12, chairing a number of packed public meetings on behalf of the Save our Skyline coalition.  The campaign notably led to a Council Planning Committee meeting so crowded with objectors it had to be moved to the Great Hall of Latymer School. At that time, the Hammersmith Society worked with him to successfully see off the 15-storey glass towers around the Town Hall and a footbridge over the A4 which would have very considerably reduced the Furnivall Gardens’ open space.

A barrister by profession, he used his professional and forensic skills in the service of local causes.  His manner was a mixture of the magisterial and the mischievous, backed up by serious local knowledge and commitment. He also chaired public meetings for the Ravenscourt Action Group calling for Council action on anti-social behaviour.

An engaging obituary can be found in The Guardian following this link

The Ravenscourt Society was founded in 1971 and is no longer active, but perhaps there are residents in the area who would like to revive it; a local residents’ association is a good way to stay in touch with what is going on at the Town Hall, channel local concerns, and to build a neighbourhood network.

More: Video describing the SOS campaign

The Council is struggling to finance the upkeep of its school estate, a portfolio which includes over forty primary schools.  Limited funds have been available since the government Building Schools for the Future programme was terminated in 2010, and in March last year the Council introduced a “Community Schools Programme”, proposing to finance the improvement works by the building of affordable housing on school grounds. The programme starts with Flora Gardens and Avonmore Primary Schools.

Flora Gardens School Site

We are concerned at the direction of this policy: the unquestionable priority of good public education facilities does not justify the loss of public open space.

Public open space is sacred, it is a rare and precious commodity, and the acceptance of a practice which permanently removes the open space to alleviate a temporary financial shortfall is a mistake: it erodes the quality of our urban surroundings to the detriment of the public realm, and removes potential sites for future social facilities such as youth clubs and provision for the elderly, but also removes spare capacity essential to accommodate the likely increase in space requirements arising from the current review of school standards. 

The results of the consultation on the future of Linford Christie stadium, situated on Wormwood Scrubs, have been published. The results are startling: over 80% of respondents appear to support Option 3, the 45,000 seat sports stadium and event space. Of some 8,700 responses received, 4,159 came from Greater London excluding LBHF, suggesting that the big push from QPR to encourage supporters to respond in favour of a major sports stadium was successful, QPR would then expect to relocate there.

The Hammersmith Society has supported the views of the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs that a development on this scale is simply not compatible with the character and use of the Scrubs and would place a completely unfeasible burden on local infrastructure (transport, road access, impact on neighbouring Hammersmith hospital). We understand that many people would like to see QPR stay in the Borough, but it should not be at the expense of the quality of life of local residents or the character of an open space of London-wide importance. Our response to the Council can be read here:

Hammersmith Society – response to Linford Chrtistie Stadium Proposals.pdf

The next step is for the Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust (of which the sole trustee is LBHF Council) to review the consultation results in detail and set up an Outline Business case to look at next steps.