Have Your Say about King Street Redevelopment

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Public consultation on new buildings and town square

The public will be consulted next month on plans to redevelop Hammersmith Town Hall extention - the seven storey concrete 1960s building which the council say has been voted the ugliest building in the borough.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council plan to demolish it and replace it with new buildings and a town square at a reported cost of £110 million.

The scheme will include a new civic building, around 350 new homes, restaurants and shops, thought to be led by Waitrose, all set around the new public piazza.

Local residents are being invited to view the plans and make comments at a public exhibition taking place on October 15-17 at Hammersmith Town Hall.

Councillor Mark Loveday, H&F Council Cabinet Member for Strategy, says: " We have already had many meetings with interested and affected groups in the area and this latest consultation is vital to getting the final proposals right."

The council’s development partner, Grainger/Helical Bar has set up a special company, called King Street Developments (Hammersmith) Ltd, and has spent the past few months preparing the essential technical details that will make the project a reality.

The company's timetable includes submitting a planning application in 2010 and completing the project by 2016.

The public square will open up views of the art deco façade of the original Town Hall and be the centrepiece of the ambitious regeneration project.

A competition to select a design for the public square has begun and a shortlist of three architects have until October 14 to submit their entries.

Residents will have a chance to have their say on each of the short-listed schemes before a public square design panel, made up of expert stakeholders and development partners recommends a preferred architect and approach to the council.

The consultation will also include information on the rest of the scheme, which will include a new step free, pedestrian link over the A4 Talgarth Road to the Thames.

Once the current round of consultations is complete, King Street Developments Ltd is expected to hold further events on the detailed design in the early part of 2010 before bringing forward a planning application that summer. At that stage the council’s formal consultation with residents would begin before the planning committee considered any proposals.

September 22, 2009