Visit King Street exhibition

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Visit King Street exhibition

Friday October 15, 2010

Residents can now visit an exhibition where they will be able to learn more about proposals to regenerate the King Street area.

The council has been consulting on proposals to breathe fresh life into the western end of King Street for three years.

Models and exhibition boards are now on display in the main reception of Hammersmith Town Hall with a planning application likely to be submitted by developers, King Street Developers, in the near future.

The exhibition comes as around 400 residents met on Wednesday to voice their opposition to the potential development.

The meeting, at Rivercourt Methodist Church in Hammersmith, was organised by a group called 'Save our Skyline'.

Residents at the meeting were critical of the height of the potential builds and expressed concerns about the possible loss of a cinema. They were also against plans for a new bridge crossing the A4 that would link King Street to the Thames.

The proposals also include demolishing the 1970s Town Hall extension, regularly voted the borough’s ugliest building, bringing back the public square in front of the listed Town Hall with cafes, a supermarket and restaurants and the construction of 320 new homes and a new council office building, built at no cost to the taxpayer.

Angela Dixon, chair of the Hammersmith & Fulham Historic buildings group, told the meeting: "This should be a heritage-led regeneration that builds on what is already good about the area."

Others were also critical of plans for a local supermarket, which they say would 'kill off' local shops.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh pledged that the Council would 'continue to listen to residents'.

He said that the scheme had 'grown bigger' than originally expected because of the downturn in the economy and promised a full independent review on viability to test whether the scheme had to be at the scale currently proposed in order to deliver the regeneration benefits that the western part of King Street needs.

Councillor Harry Phibbs also made the point that the scheme would save taxpayers £17million, which would be the cost of refurbishing the Town Hall extension.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Mark Loveday, cabinet member for strategy, said: “The recent campaign of opposition has been based on misleading imagery which distorts and misrepresents the scheme and exaggerates its apparent height and impact. I urge everyone to see for themselves the accurate model and computer generated views on display in the Town Hall.”

Comments on this article are now closed
I strongly disagree with building all these large tall buildings which are totally out of scale with the surroundings.
We are also losing a well used cinema which is a cultural lifeline in this part of Hammersmith - the only one for miles around.
The developers boast that we will be able to see the north facade - the back - of the Town Hall; meanwhile the ugly bridge will take up much space in Furnivall Gardens and partly obscure the attractive south facade - the front of the Town Hall.
There are no recreational facilities in this scheme or anything that will benefit the existing residents of Hammersmith.
The reduced number of Town Hall staff could well be accommodated in Council owned buildings dotted around the Borough rather than them being sold off.
From Hammersmith Resident on 03/11/2011 at 02:03
King St development plan is completely out of proportion. The high rise blocks, towering over beautiful houses, ruin the views along the river and also detract from the to-be-revealed Old Town Hall. What is the point of replacing one hideous building with several more? Clearly this plan is financially rather than aesthetically based. I am angry !
From Hammersmith resident on 22/12/2010 at 12:16
This web page and its printed equivalent is an outrageous piece of self-serving council propaganda. Local residents are in fact fiercely opposed to these 14-storey monstrosities. Notice how the King Street redevelopment plan makes it almost impossible to see the height of the proposed new buildings. That we could even consider such blots on the skyline shows how utterly out of touch the council has grown. It's all so they can have nice shiny new offices. A complete disgrace!
From Mike Leighton on 22/10/2010 at 20:08
I strongly support the plans to redevelop King Street, including the planned improvements to Furnivall Gardens, which I think will benefit from screening from the M4. I hope that the planned bridge across the M4 will be useable for cyclists.
From john on 16/10/2010 at 16:57