The Developments Set to Transform Hammersmith & Fulham
One of London's smallest boroughs is also one of its fastest changing
CGI of the plans for the new Civic Campus in Hammersmith. Picture: RSHP
August 26, 2024
Perhaps defying its status as one of London’s smallest boroughs, Hammersmith and Fulham is nonetheless a seemingly endless hive of activity. Home to sporting institutions such as Chelsea and Fulham football clubs plus world-class facilities including Imperial College’s White City campus, the West London locality is rarely short on both new and developing initiatives.
Looking ahead, the borough continues to have a run of projects likely to have a profound impact on the area. From a revamped town hall to a £1 billion-plus transformation of an historic exhibition space, below are some of the schemes changing the face of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The Olympia, which is right on the border with Kensington and Chelsea, has been a prime London venue for 130 years, hosting artists from Jimmy Hendrix to Pink Floyd as well as events such as Crufts and the Ideal Home Show.
It was bought by real estate investment firms Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance International in 2017, and is in the midst of major revamp to turn it into West London’s latest ‘cultural landmark’.
The plans include a range of new bars and restaurants, plus hotels, a theatre, and a 4,000-person music arena as part of the redevelopment. The council has approved a slew of licensing applications already this year, ahead of the site’s planned opening in 2025.
Visualisation of Olympia London's planned £1.3billion redevelopment
One of the council’s own major schemes currently progressing is its Civic Campus project on King Street. Approved by Hammersmith and Fulham in 2019, it will see the Grade-II listed art deco town hall ‘revitalised’ as part of a wider series of works, including public squares, restaurants and a cinema.
The new campus will also deliver 204 new homes, 52 per cent of which are to be ‘affordable’. Work was set back in 2022 when scaffolding fell on-site, injuring two men.
In a comment on the project’s website, Council Leader Stephen Cowan said: “The award-winning architects RSHP have taken our ethos and vision for the Civic Campus and given us stunning new public amenities which breathes new life into our borough.
“We have benefited throughout from the commitment and wisdom of local volunteer commissioners. I am forever grateful to them and to all the people who attended the exhibitions offering their insights and advice. It is a beautiful, environmentally positive and accessible new quarter where people can live, work, play and relax.”
No date is given for its completion, though a council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) earlier this year that it is ‘coming along nicely’.
The 110-year-old Shepherd’s Bush Market is earmarked to undergo redevelopment after Hammersmith and Fulham Council approved plans last December. Applicant Yoo Capital, which owns the site and is also behind the Olympia scheme, is looking to introduce new stalls, a nine-storey commercial building, and aesthetic works such as new entrance signs. The council is also to get 40 social homes on the adjoining Old Laundry Yard as part of the scheme.
Concerns were raised by local groups including Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market, in particular relating to the extent of the support promised to existing traders, and the leases they will be offered under the plans.
Visualisation of entrance to market showing nine storey building. Picture: Yoo Capital
London Mayor Sadiq Khan was petitioned to halt the proposals ahead of them going before him earlier this year. City Hall however announced last month that it would not be calling in the plans, with Andrew Thorpe, Managing Director at Yoo Capital, saying the company is looking forward ‘to continuing to work with the traders on the next part of the process towards construction’.
Another council initiative, this time in collaboration with education charity Ark, EdCity is a scheme designed to provide facilities including homes, an office building, and community services to White City.
The project’s website details how, once completed, a new ‘education hub’ will deliver benefits to the area through a new school, Ark White City Primary Academy, Harmony Nursery, and the Adult Community Education Centre, plus a new OnSide youth zone.
A total of 132 affordable homes are also planned for the site, all of which will be managed by the council. Of these, 33 will be at London Affordable Rent.
A timeline indicates the entire EdCity is hoped to be completed in 2025, though some facilities, such as Ark White City Primary and OnSide, are already open.
This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, with some doubting it will ever see the light of day, though the prospect of the Hammersmith flyover being replaced with an underground tunnel has been given fresh impetus.
In a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) published earlier this year, the council detailed its vision for Hammersmith Town Centre. This included building nearly 3,000 new homes, adding 10,000 jobs, and creating a Hammersmith high-line, similar to that introduced in New York. Perhaps the most eye-catching proposal, however, was that of knocking down the 1960s flyover and building a tunnel in its place.
According to the SPD, this would remove an ‘eyesore and physical barrier’, ‘significantly’ enhance the townscape, lessen the impact of through traffic, and release land for development.
Hammersmith Town Centre Regeneration
Replacing the flyover with a flyunder has been considered on a number of occasions previously, though never got off (or under) the ground. Richard Farthing, Chair at the Hammersmith Society, previously told the LDRS: “The flyunder was always financially and logistically challenging and depended on large long-term cash injections plus commitment from TfL. It’s hard to see how the numbers stack up now with all the construction inflation, some saying as much as 25 per cent, it’s more on the wish list now. A plan B that doesn’t rely on it is needed.”
Ben Lynch – Local Democracy Reporter