Our Patch AUGUST 2014
Our Patch AUGUST 2014
looking
back
THE FLYOVER
H A M M ERS M IT H
I
Hammersmith Flyover
under construction by
St Paul’s Church in 1961
16 / 17
t is more than 50 years since the
Hammersmith Flyover was opened.
The tape was cut on 16 November
1961 by Harold Shearman, chairman
of the London County Council,
accompanied by Ernest Marples,
Minister of Transport, who commented
that ‘it’s quite the nicest flyover that I
have seen’.
Local opinion was – and remains –
mixed. The mayor, Cllr Edith Woods,
thought that the flyover was ‘beautiful’
and that Hammersmith would become
well known because of it. Residents of
College Court Mansions expressed their
dismay about the noise and vibrations
of the continuous traffic which kept
them awake at night.
The Cromwell Road Extension
scheme had been many years in
the planning. In 1953, supporters
cited the ‘three quarters of an hour
of daily frustration for thousands of
drivers as they crawl in vehicle queues
through Hammersmith, Chiswick and
Kensington, with their bewildering
system of one-way streets’.
Opponents, including Hammersmith
resident and author A P Herbert, were
vociferous in their condemnation of
a road. The flyover was intended to
provide the essential link for through
traffic on the Great West and Cromwell
Roads and