Plans to turn Fulham Town Hall into hotel get the go-ahead

By Owen Sheppard, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to turn Fulham Town Hall into a 90-room “boutique” hotel and events venue have been given the green light by councillors.

Exterior and interior features of the “ornate” grade II listed landmark, opposite Fulham Broadway Tube station, will largely be preserved.

But blueprints show that the first-floor committee rooms and concert hall will become a co-working office space, and a public restaurant will face Fulham Road on the ground floor.

Its old debating chamber will continue to be used for events such as weddings.

The Town Hall, built in 1890 with Georgian architecture, was last used for council administrative purposes in 1965, when Hammersmith and Fulham councils merged into one.

It continued to be used as a registry office until it was sold by the council in 2014 for £10 million, when it was said to be “dilapidated and water damaged”.

The developer, Ziser London, has also signed a 20-year lease for hotelier Lamington to run it.

Ziser’s planning application was approved on July 7 by a unanimous vote by Labour and Conservative councillors on the council’s planning committee.

Despite being largely in favour of the plans, one councillor, Wesley Harcourt, asked: “What exactly is a ‘boutique’ hotel? Is it something to do with room size, because some of the rooms are quite small.”

A planning officer replied: “It’s a style of hotel. It’s more individual rather than a chain of hotels… a boutique hotel is usually much more specialised with a smaller number of rooms.”

Councillor Matt Uberoi, of Sands End ward, said that although he “welcomed” the planning application, he was “saddened that it’s before us today.”

Referring to the then Tory-run council’s decision to sell the town hall, Mr Uberoi said: “We’re in a different administration now but I don’t feel the building should ever have been sold.”

Included in the application was a plan to extend four storeys of the building into the rear car park, and to have a one-story roof extension which will be stepped so that it is not visible from Fulham Road.

Pictured top: Fulham Town Hall