The site for the new development looks much the same as it did after the Magistrates’ Courts were demolished at the beginning of this year.
“UPDATE ON THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE MAGISTRATES’ COURT SITE, TALGARTH ROAD From Save Our Hammersmith Action Forum
We are pleased to give an update on the plans for this major new development in our neighbourhood. Following extensive discussions with the developers, and others, a revised design has been proposed. Whilst still of significant scale we believe it will have a significantly lower impact on the neighbourhood and we have given our conditional support to the project.
BACKGROUND
The site is situated between the flyover and the Tube tracks (between the BP station and the Ark). Following the initial plan submission a group of residents formed a pressure group – Save Our Hammersmith Action Forum (https://saveourhammersmith.com/) – to challenge and seek improvements. Local residents gave their support through signing a petition in 2020 (more than 1300 signatures) and this has enabled us to have our collective voice heard.
HOTEL SCHEME – 2020 PLAN
In 2020 Dominvs Group, a privately owned company which specialises in building hotels, applied for planning permission to build two hotels on the site: a low-rise budget hotel next to the Tube cutting & The Ark, and a 76 metre high tower by Talgarth Road and a lower wing along the BP Station housing a more up-market hotel.
The council received 146 written objections from residents. Most were about the height of the tower, which would have loomed over neighbouring streets and over-shadowed streets to the north, as well as concerns about noise and increased traffic. There were also objections to blocking views of the Ark from the Talgarth Road. Despite these objections from local residents, the council granted planning permission for both hotels.
STUDENT ACCOMODATION – 2021 PLAN
Before any development commenced, the coronavirus pandemic hit and Dominvs advised that consequently they could not secure funding for their planned up-market hotel. Thus, in initial discussions and public consultations, Dominvs proposed instead to build a block of student accommodation on the part of the site next to the Talgarth Road & BP. The budget hotel would remain as planned.
The main block of the proposed student accommodation building would have been almost as high as the planned hotel but potentially larger in bulk, in order to meet the different needs of students (plus a lower wing of student rooms on the east of the site). We believe and advised LBHF Council and Dominvs that this scheme would have been at least as bad as the approved hotel scheme.
Save Our Hammersmith Action Forum
Our efforts to raise the profile of local objections through the petition raised last year were successful. As a result of your objections & signatures and our interventions (and building on the work of the previous 18 months) the Council encouraged Dominvs, with their newly re- appointed architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour (“RSH”), to engage with residents to explore what could be done to lessen the impact.
Earlier this year we raised funds to commission an urban design company to suggest other ways of shaping the main building and ways of mitigating the visual and sound impact on residential streets. These alternative ideas prompted a review of the design by Dominvs and RSH, ultimately leading to a revised and agreed concept.
Details are still being worked out prior to a formal planning submission, which we understand will happen in early autumn 2021. However, key features of the revised design concept (which Dominvs confirmed in writing to LBHF on 27 July 2021) are:
• A lower maximum height for the main “North” building down from 76 metres to about 52 metres, with some of the bulk of the main building transferred to the East wing.
• Although larger than in the original design, the East wing will be of a stepped design, dropping in stages to about 27m at its southern end where it approaches the Tube line, thereby reducing the visual impact on streets to the south (including Yeldham and Biscay Roads, and Margravine Gardens, as well as Beryl and St Dunstan’s Roads) and, importantly, Margravine Cemetery.
• The south facing facades of the East building will be “greened”, to soften the outlines of the building and to help absorb noise and pollution.
• The overall mass of the development will be marginally (3%) smaller than the previously consented scheme.
Dominvs has also committed formally to work with SoH as it finalises its planning application, to agree how the façade design and other aspects can be optimised to lessen the visual, pollution and noise impact on the residential neighbourhoods to the north and south.
We have seen outline drawings of the design concept, and we believe that – if implemented in full and if Dominvs continue to work constructively with residents – they would go a long way in meeting our key objections.
THE NEXT STEPS
Save our Hammersmith has accepted the invitation to engage and will continue to liaise with Dominvs as they finalise their plans for the site. As part of this, we will be discussing proposals to minimise noise from the site – from the terraces and service bay facing the tracks – and landscaping of the plaza.
Dominvs will also continue to hold monthly community liaison group meetings by Zoom, to which all residents are invited (2nd Wednesday of each Month at 6pm). The link to join is permanent: https://dominvsgroup.zoom.us/j/85176751491.
We understand that the final, new design is likely to go to full community consultations in September, before a formal application for consideration by the planning sub-committee is submitted to the Council in October.
We are hopeful that things will continue to progress in this positive vein and will provide further updates as the work develops.
In the meantime, please do get in contact with Save our Hammersmith forum via OurHammersmith@outlook.com should you have any queries.
For future (occasional) updates: Please email us if you would like to be added to our WhatsApp group (we’ll forward a link) or to our email list for (occasional) updates. Follow our Twitter account @OurHammersmith.
Thank you again to everyone who signed the petition, submitted formal objections to the proposals and emailed Councillors and Planning. Thank you also to those who supported us financially and in other ways. This was instrumental in giving a voice to our concerns and showed positively what can be achieved through “the local community in action”.
5th August, 2021.”