Go Ahead Given for Hammersmith's Tallest Building
23 storey skyscraper to be built on Magistrates' Court site on Talgarth Road
CGI view of the building from the A4. Picture: Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners
A 23-storey skyscraper hotel will be built over a Hammersmith courthouse, despite a huge number of objections from nearby residents and the local MP.
Developer Dominvs Group was given planning permission on Tuesday, July 21, for its hotel complex that will include a viewing gallery, gym, public meeting rooms and restaurant.
It will comprise two separate buildings, a “south” hotel at five and 10 storeys, and the “north” hotel at seven and 23 storeys.
It will be the tallest building in Hammersmith, which one resident labelled “appalling”.
Combined, they will include 842 bedrooms, just across the road from a Novotel.
It will be built over the vacant Magistrates’ Court building in Talgarth Road which was closed by the Ministry of Justice in 2017, just 27 years after it opened.
The 147 local objectors argued that the proposal:
- Was too tall
- The viewing platform would affect residents’ privacy in their back gardens
- It would block evening sunlight reaching homes
- It would “harm” the setting of Margravine Cemetery
- It could cause traffic problems in neighbouring streets by adding 5,640 vehicle journeys per day
- Hammersmith and Fulham already has 180 hotels
Abel Hadden, chair of Margravine Gardens And St Dunstan’s Road Residents’ Association, told councillors: “Our single biggest objection is the height of the main hotel block.
“The tower is quite prominent as the planning officers say, which at 23 storeys we find quite appalling.”
Mr Hadden continued: “To say that the views of third parties helped shape this scheme is simply not true.
“Consistently we have asked… why the building couldn’t be reconfigured… to reduce the height and overlooking, and we have never received any form of reply, which remains a mystery to us.”
Richard Ward, on behalf of Dominvs, said the hotel would “inject life and vibrancy into the area” and create 400 jobs in construction.
Tuesday’s Hammersmith and Fulham Council Planning Committee also heard that Dominvs withdrew a previous planning application for the hotel in October last year, which had actually been one storey smaller.
Mr Hadden said it “added insult to injury” that Dominvs returned with an even bigger hotel, despite hearing the company pulled its last application because it feared the committee would say it should be smaller.
CGI aerial view of the building. Picture: Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners
Two of the committee’s councillors, Wesley Harcourt (Labour) and Alex Karmel (Conservative) said the previous application represented a “sword of Damocles over our head”.
The council’s head of development management Matt Butler replied: “Clearly the applicant wants to keep that as an option… obviously it’s gone over the determination period as well so it’s likely the applicant would also appeal on the previous application.”
Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter gave a speech at the hearing. He suggested the developer’s eagerness to build such a big hotel was because it bought the site from the Ministry of Justice for £43 million, meaning they were “determined to make a profit”.
Hammersmith Broadway councillor PJ Murphy, who is not on the committee, also made a representation, and called the hotel “an infringement on people’s livelihoods”. “I don’t understand why it couldn’t have been lower,” he said.
However, the council’s planning officers recommended the scheme for approval. They said: “The proposed hotel led development is considered to be appropriate in land use terms and would help to promote the vitality and viability of Hammersmith Regeneration Area.”
If the hotel is built, the council will also receive about £7.5 million from a section 106 agreement with Dominvs, which it will be contractually obliged to spend on traffic calming measures, apprenticeships and investments in local projects.
Councillor Colin Aherne (Labour) said: “I have no intrinsic problem with tall buildings and I look forward to voting for it.”
The committee’s six Labour members voted to approve the scheme and its two Tory members voted against.
It comes two weeks after the Planning Committee gave approval for a hotel to be built in Fulham Town Hall.
Owen Sheppard - Local Democracy Reporter
July 22, 2020