Newsletter 23-Aut 10
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! No. 23 Autumn 2010 elcome to the latest edition of our newsletter. Our Historic Riverside As usual, the autumn issue contains a full Two of the oldest and most important historic areas in the W report of the Group’s activities over the past borough are Fulham Palace and its grounds (which year, including our events, which have been well originally included what is now Bishop’s Park) and the supported. The big news this year though is the Hammersmith Upper and Lower Malls. The latter contain publication of PPS 5 replacing PPG 15 and PPG 16. We a rich array of buildings dating from the 17th century, are grateful to have Michael Bussell to elucidate this many listed. Near the Dove pub on Upper Mall is a important new document for us. Elsewhere David Broad spectacular group of listed buildings, including Kelmscott tells the story of his suffragette great-grandmother, John House where William Morris lived and Sussex House, a Goodier spots the local ghosts of two City churches and Grade II* house dating from 1726 (see picture on p. 5). E the Archives look back to the Japan-British exhibition of Berry Webber’s splendid 1930s listed Hammersmith 1910 and a lost house off Wood Lane, now buried town hall looks across Furnivall Gardens to the river. beneath Westfield. There is good news for Fulham Palace and Bishop’s Park with the granting of the lottery application (see below). However, there is great anxiety about the threat to the Chairman’s Report historic Hammersmith riverside from the proposals for the town hall. At the time of writing this scheme MAIN ISSUES proposes: new council offices, 320 housing units in two Major concerns for this past year have been the proposal 14-storey tower blocks; the demolition of the 1920s for the redevelopment of Hammersmith town hall, the threat to our railway heritage, changes to planning policy Below: Hammersmith’s listed town hall from the south-east. and the Building Schools for the Future programme. The proposed A4 bridge and approach ramp in Playfair Avenue Good news has been the confirmation of the lottery bid will be on the west side. They will be positioned close to the for Fulham Palace and Bishop’s Park, new listings and a town hall, which was designed as freestanding building new HBG plaque. surrounded by open space. cinema on the corner of King Street and Playfair Avenue Improvements to Bishop’s Park include the restoration of and its replacement with a supermarket; the construction the ornamental pond and wooden bridge, the café of a pedestrian bridge across the A4; and the demolition building and the terracotta balustrade together with a of the town hall extension and its replacement with an reconstruction of the Edwardian ‘Margate Sands’ (see open space. picture left). The tower blocks will be the same height as the existing A welcome improvement already taking place is the (and highly intrusive) Premier Inn. But because they are demolition of the derelict changing rooms and the wider and deeper in plan, they will be bulkier. In our reinstatement of the path next to Fulham Football Club. opinion they will have a catastrophic effect on the views of and from the riverside and they will overwhelm the Archaeology neighbouring conservation areas and surrounding Archaeology has featured in our work in the last year (see streetscape. As for the bridge, we consider that with its details in last newsletter). An excavation has recently ramp and raised walkway it will seriously damage the been taking place at St Paul’s church, Hammersmith, setting of the listed town hall, a classical composition on where the new extension is being built over part of the a grand scale designed to be freestanding. The landing of old graveyard. We hope to have a full report in our next the bridge on the south side of the A4 will be very close newsletter. to the listed Sussex House and the Dove and will overwhelm Furnivall Gardens, a small but popular park. Railway Heritage Following the concerns reported in our last newsletter about the railway heritage at Old Oak Common, the Group had a most interesting and useful site visit, courtesy of Crossrail, to the former Great Western Railway locomotive depot opened in 1906. We were joined by representatives from English Heritage, the council and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society, and guided by members of Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA) who are compiling an assessment report on the site and its surviving buildings and structures for Crossrail. We saw the last remaining turntable, which we were told is to be moved to the preserved Swanage Railway for continued use, and we looked into a number of buildings, including the A 1905 view of ‘Margate Sands’ in Bishop’s Park, set to be ‘Factory’, a maintenance shed depicted on the cover of recreated as part of the Bishop’s Park upgrade. our last newsletter. The Group was reassured to see that the recording levels being proposed by PCA were The welcome removal of the town hall extension and its appropriate for the particular buildings and other features replacement with an open space is used as justification that we saw. At the time of writing we await sight of their for this overblown scheme, which has grown way beyond assessment report. the original planning brief and which, we believe, will cause irreparable harm far outweighing any gain. This is clearly going to be a major issue for the coming year. We are working with the Hammersmith Society and other local amenity groups who are opposed to the scheme in its present form. Fulham Palace and Bishop’s Park The Group was delighted that the lottery bid for improvements to Bishop’s Park and phase 2 of the restoration of Fulham Palace was approved. We have long been concerned about the future of the walled garden and are pleased that the bothy and vinery, both of which are on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register, are to be restored. We also welcome the plan to dig out part of the moat on either side of the moat bridge at the entrance to the palace. We look forward to more of the moat being dug out in the future, when funding is The one remaining locomotive turntable in the old Great available, and to the possibility of some at least of the Western depot at Old Oak Common in the north of the borough. moat being in water. We hope that it will be possible in The turntable pit is from 1906 when the depot opened. The the current phase of restoration to indicate the route of the large two-bayed building in the middle distance is the 'Factory', filled-in moat on the ground with some kind of the Great Western’s maintenance shed depicted on the cover of permanent marker. our last newsletter. The site now belongs to Crossrail. ! 2 Planning Policy that these listed buildings should be fully restored by A major new Planning Policy Statement PPS 5 on the their new owners and that civic buildings like Fulham Historic Environment has been published (see article on Town Hall and Hammersmith Library should retain some page 5). This replaces PPG15, ‘Planning and the Historic kind of public use as they are symbols of civic pride. Environment’, and PPG16, ‘Archaeology and Planning’. It is an improvement on the draft document of which we, Our work on the Local Development Framework along with most other heritage organisations, were continues. We hope that the final core strategy will critical. We wait to see how effective it will prove to be. support heritage-led regeneration and include We are pleased about the emphasis on recording, enhancement of our conservation areas. something that as members know we have been supporting for a long time, and the guidance that copies Another HBG plaque of research documents should be sent to local archives. was unveiled this year We also welcome the recognition of ‘artistic interest’ as on Townmead Road one criterion for acceptance as part of our built heritage. School (picture in last This would cover public sculpture. newsletter). We are very pleased at the interest The long running and detailed work on the Draft these are plaques are Replacement London Plan continues. We are pleased creating and have others that the Group was called to give verbal evidence to the in the planning stage. examination in public on heritage issues including the The picture here shows policies on ‘local distinctiveness’, heritage assets, mayor Alex Karmel with archaeology, heritage-led regeneration and high buildings the late councillor and views. Antony Lillis, cabinet member for children’s Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas services, at last year’s During the year new listings were Peterborough School unveiling of our D-Day plaque at the old St Paul’s School and the current Queensmill School, which share the site in Hammersmith Road on the event’s 65th Clancarty Road site, and Queen’s Manor School anniversary. Sadly, Antony died shortly after. Antony (previously called Queensmill) on Lysia Street, both now was a good friend to the Group and supported our work listed Grade II. of recording and commemorating the past for the benefit of the present and the future. Before his early death we There was one addition to the Buildings at Risk were discussing a ‘living history’ project with him, which Register: Wormholt Library and Infant Welfare Centre, would have recorded local people’s first-hand memories Hemlock Road, W12. The Group was instrumental in of their life and experiences in the borough and elsewhere getting this listed and we shall continue to press for its during the last world war and in some rare cases in the restoration.