King Street regeneration

By Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council

Friday December 2, 2011

Walk down King Street today and you will see a town centre that is struggling.

Get to the bottom of it and you will see Hammersmith Town Hall extension – an act of 1970s architectural vandalism that drags the area down.

It is not just a blot on the landscape. This carbuncle would cost you, the taxpayer, £18million in years to come just to keep it standing.

That is £18million which the council does not have, especially in this day and age.

The development approved this week will give Hammersmith a vital shot in the arm.

The monstrosity of a building will be replaced by a new Civic Square which the whole area can take pride in. This will include new, energy efficient, council offices built at zero cost to the taxpayer.

When people say the council ‘is only interested in free offices’ this should be translated to ‘the council is only interested in keeping your council tax bill as low as it can possibly be while protecting frontline services’.

New homes will be built and the area will finally be reconnected to the Thames. You will not have to walk through a urine-riddled underpass to get to it.

I am absolutely convinced that, in years to come, the overwhelming majority of people will say this is good for the area.

However, I understand that people have concerns. Many say the buildings are too big, others were concerned about the loss of a cinema.

The developers listened to the concerns on height, hence the plans have been slimmed down.

The cinema, unfortunately, is not economically viable in its current form and had no future regardless of these plans. In this day and age the public demand is for multiplex cinemas, with all the comfort that comes with them. Hence people were already voting with their feet and flocking to the multiplex barely a mile down the road in Shepherds Bush.

Doing nothing would have meant that the area continued to die. Coming up with a viable plan to breath new life into King Street is not just an option - it is a must.