Former world wars aircraft factory identified as site for new homes

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

Financial services giant Legal and General has submitted plans to turn a former aircraft factory into 76 new flats.

The proposal would see the interior of the site, in Cambridge Grove , Hammersmith, reimagined to deliver the homes, more than half of which are to be one-bedroomed.

A spokesman for Legal and General said the change in use was being requested due to ‘changing market conditions’.

The site was once home to the Alliance Aeroplane Company. Most recently, it has been run as an office campus, with facilities including a coffee bar and work space.

An Environmental Assessment filed as part of the application outlined how the site is understood to have been a Waring and Gillow furniture factory from the early 1900s before being used to manufacture aircraft during the First and Second World Wars.

“Features at the Site are understood to have included a main shop, examination & testing facilities, stores, mills, a metal fixing shop, a machine shop, tool room, assembling zones and later a boiler house and tank tower were present at the Site,” the assessment continued.

It was later turned into offices in the 1970s, with the site largely unchanging since the mid-1980s.

Known as ‘The Aircraft Factory’, the premises consists of a five-storey building which itself comprises three inter-connected blocks. It is a short walk from Hammersmith Broadway station.

In documents submitted with Hammersmith and Fulham council, property company Savills, on behalf of Legal and General, detailed how all 76 of the flats are to be sold privately. Of those, 44 are to be one-bed, 18 two-bed, 10 three-bed and four four-bed.

The development will be car-free, with the exception of eight accessible parking spaces, though will have 128 long-stay and three short-stay cycle spots.

An internal target date to decide the application by the council is listed as May 6.

The Legal and General spokesman said: “In accordance with good estate management practice, we are underpinning the future value of the asset by seeking alternative options in the event of changing market conditions.”

Pictured top: The Aircraft Factory in Hammersmith (Picture: Google Street View)