Could days be numbered for Hammersmith’s most distinctive feature?

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

Hammersmith and Fulham council have approved new planning guidance which includes potentially replacing its 1960s flyover with a tunnel.

The local authority is also looking to add nearly 3,000 homes and implement a range of public realm improvements in Hammersmith over the next decade.

The borough’s Hammersmith Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which adds detail to policies in the council’s Local Plan to help guide future decision-making, sets out a vision for the area up until 2035.

Among the SPD’s ‘key outcomes’ are building 2,800 homes, creating 10,000 new jobs, and demolishing the flyover.

In its place, a new ‘flyunder’ would be built, for an estimated £811million, to improve the townscape and release land for development, alongside other benefits.

The council has said it would need to work with Transport for London (TfL) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to deliver the scheme.

A ‘comprehensive’ redevelopment of Hammersmith Broadway is also among the plans, as is a ‘Hammersmith High-line’. Similar to the high-line in New York, the council would look to reactivate the disused railway viaduct and turn it into a walkable elevated park, linking the arches to Beadon Road.

At Monday night’s cabinet meeting, members unanimously approved the SPD for adoption. Conservative Councillor Jose Afonso, an opposition councillor who does not sit on the cabinet, asked whether the ‘flyunder’ is anticipated to be introduced before Hammersmith Bridge is repaired, “or do we expect it in 2050?”

Council leader Stephen Cowan responded by claiming the closure of the bridge in 2019 on safety grounds had been politicised by former Chelsea and Fulham MP Greg Hands, and that the local authority has submitted a plan with the Government to try and get the crossing reopened.

He added the proposed ‘flyunder’ would be paid off by the council monetising the land freed up by the removal of the flyover, though acknowledged the project would require input from a ‘more interventionist Government’.

“So our proposal to them is we will give you the plan, and if you can, we would like to do this,” he said.

A member of the public attended the session to ask for clarity about potential works on the Hammersmith gyratory, to which an officer responded saying the council has no firm plans in place as to how the system may be reconfigured.

Prior to the vote, Cllr Cowan praised the SPD as something which “strengthens our planning powers and sets the tone for where we’re going to go in the future”.

The prospect of replacing the flyover with a tunnel is nothing new, with several schemes proposed over the years.

Richard Farthing, chairman of Hammersmith Society, previously said: “The ‘flyunder’ was always financially and logistically challenging and depended on large long-term cash injections, plus commitment from TfL.

“It’s hard to see how the numbers stack up now with all the construction inflation, some saying as much as 25 per cent, it’s more on the wish list now. A plan B that doesn’t rely on it is needed.”

Pictured top: The Hammersmith flyover over the town gyratory (Picture: LDRS)