The buildings which make up the Hammersmith Town Hall site loom large in the local imagination, the town hall’s civic architecture, a 1930s cinema and the unloved 1960s concrete extension to the town hall. Rather than create another gap in the streetscape with a public square, this new scheme revives the 1960s building with an imaginative glass intervention – a mix of retail and cinema creates a new cultural focal point for King Street. Around 200 new homes and new council offices complement the neighboring buildings and respond to the needs those who live and work in the area.
The masterplan emerged through a lengthy process of consultation. Housing flanks the existing town hall, creating quality housing and a private courtyard amenity at a height appropriate for the site’s proximity to the town hall and river. A new civic office building sits on King Street, creating a prominent location for council services. The new cinema makes use of the existing void beneath the town hall extension, with the auditoria suspended in hanging boxes and clad in a veil of rippling translucent white metal to further express the volumes.
Cafes and restaurants enhance activity on King Street and compliment the cinema and nature of the town hall site. Further housing on King Street flanks the scheme and ‘closes’ the masterplan around a public piazza which both reveals the frontage of the listed town hall and provides high quality public space.
