OUR PATCH FEBRUARY 2014
OUR PATCH FEBRUARY 2014
NEW PLANS FIT FOR A
KING STREET APPROVED
YOUR
SHOUT
New proposals would replace one of the
area’s ugliest blocks and welcome a new
Curzon Cinema to Hammersmith
TIMELINE
Does new town hall
scheme fit the bill?
EARLY 2014
Greater London
Authority set to give
verdict on scheme
END OF 2014
Work starts after site
assembly, tendering
of construction works
and mobilisation of
contractors etc
is complete
BY 2017
Works to west of Nigel
Playfair complete
BY 2018
Everything finished
New shops and restaurants will
breathe fresh life into the western end
of King Street, while a new town
square will be designed for events
4 / 5
After many years of wrangling, H&F
Council has been given the green
light by its planning committee for
its £150million plan for a new-look
town hall and the regeneration of the
western end of King Street.
Goodbye ugly town hall extension.
Hello modern glass box. Goodbye
Cineworld. Hello to the new threescreen Curzon arthouse cinema.
And we’ll also be saying hello to
a new public square, and a new
supermarket and shops, 196 new
homes and new offices.
The Grade-II listed town hall will
have its former ceremonial stone steps
reinstated to link up with the new
public piazza while the replacement
council offices will be built to the
west of Nigel Playfair Avenue. The
developer will also provide £5.25m
towards a regeneration fund to boost
the surrounding area and refurbish
the original town hall, which was
built in 1938.
A previous plan, which included
taller buildings and a bridge across the
motorway to Furnivall Gardens, was
referred to the Mayor of London but
then withdrawn in December 2011
following anger from local residents.
So now, none of the new buildings
in the new scheme will be taller
than the current town hall extension.
The council received just eight
objections to the development and
a further five responses in favour
during the consultation. And even
better, the new town hall and public
square will come at no cost to local
taxpayers as it will be financed by
the sale and letting of the homes and
offices in the larger scheme.
But what do you think?
We hit the streets to find out. And
it wasn’t hard to find locals with
something to say.
“Anything is better than the
way it is now!” said Noelle Healy
of Emlyn Road, Shepherds Bush.
£150m
Regeneration
scheme to
go ahead
And Teresa Taylor of Addison
Gardens, Hammersmith, said: “I’m
in favour of it if it doesn’t cost the
taxpayers. And the money also needs
to be spent on the rest of King Street –
it’s a mess!”
But not everyone was blown
away by the watered-down plans.
John Barrett of Riverside Gardens,
Hammersmith, said: “My mother
lives opposite the town hall and she’s
worried the new buildings will obscure
the light into her flat.”
If all goes smoothly, work will start
at the end of this year, and be finished
by 2018.
Looking across the square