Another appalling planning proposal.
This one concerns the site known as the Hammersmith Triangle – 5-17 Hammersmith Grove and 1-11 Britannia House: 3 and 3A Hammersmith Grove and 12-18 Beadon Road. There have been various proposals from its owners Romulus since 2013.
Britannia House is seven storey. The Triangle – is a part 6, part 7 storey. The new building would be between eight and 14 storeys. So the proposal is to replace very ugly buildings with even bigger very ugly buildings.
Also we need more homes rather than more offices.
The Hammersmith Society has objected.
It’s Chairman, Tom Ryland, says the design concept “is almost industrial with its metal cladding – most unsympathetic and alien to both Hammersmith centre and the adjoining Conservation Areas.” The design has a “hard-edged, almost brutal quality.”
Among the other points he makes:
Height: The office block (south and main part of the development) proposition is taller than its neighbours at 10 & 12 Hammersmith Grove (Development Securities), Sovereign Court tower (St George) on Beadon Road and I Lyric Square. The developer advises that the height is justified by the need to provide a sense of enclosure to Lyric Square, but the plans – and illustrations in the Design and Access Statement – show how stark this cliff face will look….
Proximity to Conservation Areas: The site is adjacent to the Bradmore CA, Hammersmith Grove CA and Hammersmith Broadway CA. It is within a few yards of low-rise Victorian residential streets to the north. Despite the stepping back at the upper floors, the proposed building will tower over the residential streets to the north. This is not a happy conjunction between town centre and residential areas….
At present the charming landscaping in Hammersmith Grove carries on the domestic landscaping of front gardens to the north and landscaping around 10 Hammersmith Grove, also set back from the pavement line. Although landscaping is proposed on the cut-back terraces on Beadon Road, these will only be seen and appreciated by the users of the office building, and not by the man in the street.
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
Agreed – it’s a shocker. Hammersmith has to more ambitious than this.
The existing buildings are of an appropriate scale, and whilst never likely to win any prizes they are not offensive to the eye. The sense of ‘enclosure’ of Lyric Square, deemed to be so important, could be achieved by modest increases on only a small part of the site.
This part of town seems awash with unlet commercial space. So it think it’s right to ask whether we are best served in the longer term by allowing this large and damaging speculative office development. A restrained mix of commercial space and new homes would be much better.