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The Riverside including the Bridge, Riverside Studios – A film studio in 1933, operated by the BBC 1954-1975, Riverside Trust 1975-, rebuilt 2014-2018
Our 12-page newsletter has been published, and printed copies circulated to subscribing members. Subjects include:
If you’re not yet a member, please join us to receive our latest newsletter. All newsletters that are available to download can be found here
Cllr Harcourt describes Hammersmith Bridge problems
At our AGM on 12th June, members of the audience asked a number of questions about the Bridge.
As we reported in our recent newsletter and over the previous 4 years, the bridge has been in trouble for a long time, not helped by a couple of bomb attacks in its history.
Fortunately Councillor Wesley Harcourt (Cabinet Member for the Environment) was in the audience, and offered us an impromptu update on the works to repair it. He made it clear that the Council is committed to repairing it as a fully working bridge, and that final decisions on the scope of work are yet to made as they depend on the level of funding available from TfL (who want to run double-decker buses), and the Government. The two key issues appear to be:
He described the cracks found, and mentioned the details, photos and videos available on the council website here. He also described the effect on traffic on other bridges and roads, notably Chiswick, Putney and to a lesser extent Wandsworth, plus the apparent disappearance of 25% of the bridge traffic, though that may be variability and measurement error. He noted that more environmentally-friendly electric buses actually weigh more due to the batteries, just to add to the mix.
He committed to the council finalising plans and schedule in August, though we have no idea how long the work might take as yet, due to the many variables, and 3 years remains the disappointing figure quoted. We urge the council to embark on the essential repairs as soon as practicable, notwithstanding Government inertia. The outcome of these discussions can’t be resolved soon enough.
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The Special 20-page Anniversary Newsletter has been published, celebrating 30 years of Hammersmith Society Awards. Printed copies are being distributed to subscribing members.
In this edition, as well as news stories, we discuss some recurring themes in a little more depth. Subjects include:
If you’re not yet a member, please join us to receive our latest newsletter. All newsletters that are available to download can be found here
The 12-page Autumn Newsletter has been published and circulated to subscribing members. Subjects include:
If you’re not yet a member, please join us to receive our latest newsletter. All newsletters that are available to download can be found here
Members of the Committee visited this year’s nominations on Sunday 20th May and shortlisted them. They are all shown on the nominations page with just a selection here. If you would like to comment on them, or make suggestions for winners, please use the comment form on the nominations page.
Award winners will be announced at the AGM in the Bush Theatre on 5th July.
Members, guests, and friends will be warmly welcomed.
Hammersmith Bridge 2017, © Jane Bain
Members of the Hammersmith Society, Historic Buildings Group and HAMRA committees met the team in charge of the major works planned for Hammersmith Bridge.
Jane Bain of HAMRA delivered an impressive visual presentation about the effect of surrounding developments on the Bridge silhouette and general loss of visibility over time, using archive photographs (small selection shown below) to support our contention that the paint treatment of the Bridge should be revisited so the Bridge is visible, distinctive and can be fully appreciated in longer views. The agreement of Historic England will be needed to any change in the colour treatment, which may be a challenge.
Hammersmith Bridge 1950 © Hammersmith Archives
Hammersmith Bridge 1964 © Hammersmith Archives
Hammersmith Bridge 1986 © Hammersmith Archives
Hammersmith Bridge 2003 © Jane Bain
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We have been pressing the Council – so far unsuccessfully – for us to be involved in decisions regarding the refurbishment of the bridge which is due to take place later this year. As you will all be aware, the bridge is in need of strengthening so that it can support the weight of double decker buses and some lorries.
This a joint project between Transport for London and the Council who have responsibility for the maintenance of the bridge. Several short term closures have been necessary for temporary works and we understand further closures are necessary to allow detail survey work to be carried out. There still does not seem to be a formal programme for the main works. For obvious reasons we do not expect to be involved in the technical detail and our main interest is in the lighting and redecoration. Since the last lighting upgrade for which the Hammersmith Society gave its Environment Award in 2000 for the ‘blades of light’ created on each side of the bridge, lighting technology has moved on in leaps and bounds so that the individual incandescent bulbs will almost certainly be replaced by strips of modern LEDs.
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No more delays. It’s time the government funded the restoration of Hammersmith Bridge. The temporary bridge could have been built and opened in the time it is taking. I’ve written to @grantshapps together with @hammersmithandy @sarahjolney1 and @RuthCadbury
— Hammersmith Society @(HammersmithSoc) 5 hours ago
Good to see Bill "Rock Solid" with some real economic arguments in the debate. So not a zero-sum game, there are better & more efficient ways to spend COVID-ravaged public (and private) funds to reach #Zero, setting aside populist virtue signalling twitter.com/E_Analytics/st…
— Hammersmith Society @(HammersmithSoc) 17 hours ago
💥 BREAKING NEWS 💥 Hammersmith Bridge | @TfL has announced that a replacement ferry service connecting Hammersmith with Barnes will not be up and running until the summer. READ MORE: buff.ly/2NAuzix #Construction #Engineering #Infrastructure #HammersmithBridge
— Hammersmith Society @(HammersmithSoc) 2 days ago
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