Facelift for North End Road

---

Dilapidated buildings will be brought back to life

The southern end of North End Road is getting a much needed facelift, with two familiar dilapidated sites set to be given transformed.

The former Mecca Bingo Hall in Vanston Place, which has become an eyesore during the last year is to be knocked down and replaced by a traditional brick Victorian building.

CP Property Developments UK Limited has submitted a planning application for a regeneration scheme which includes 150 self-contained studios for local law and medical students, postgraduate and PhD academics.  

At ground floor level small shops and possibly also a café are proposed, and the site will be actively managed on a 24-hour basis to ensure its smooth running.

CP Property Developments held public consultations late last year, which were attending by around 70 local people, and also talked to community groups including the Fulham Society and Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group. In response to their comments, there will be no late night uses, such as bars or discos. The site will also be car free.

Twigg Brown, the local architect responsible for designing the new building says the new building, next to the Malt House pub, will return the site to beneficial use and

be in keeping with the style of this part of Fulham Broadway. Hammersmith and Fulham Council is expected to give a verdict on the plans later this year.

Across the road from the site, Fulham's most famous public loos are also being revived.

The Walham Green Toilets were famously sold by auction last October for an astonishing £403,000  - four times the amount expected by the council. Since then, the building has lain empty, but now renovation has begun to turn it into ground floor offices, with a cafe beneath.

Councillor Frances Stainton, of Parsons Green and Walham Ward, says: " I think this is a great idea, and it's exactly what is needed to smarten up this part of North End Road."

Further up North End Road meanwhile, the covers will soon come off the new Travelodge Hotel as it prepares to launch on April 30.

 

March 10, 2009