Reprieve For Hammersmith Park?

Hammersmith Park - worth saving?

There is good news at last about the future of Hammersmith Park, which has (until recently) been threatened with a proposed new development by Play Football which would see one third of the park effectively privatised and turned into pay-per-use football pitches. According to our redoubtable local campaigner Virginia Ironside, Play Football has agreed to a full consultation on a new scheme for the park that will keep it in public ownership and also upgrade its facilities. So, good news at last then?

Can the Historic Palladium Theatre Be Saved?

How The Green Might Look

In January we reported the threat to The Shepherd's Bush Palladium, (more recently known as the Walkabout Pub), which was facing demolition and redevelopment.  Formal planning permission has now been sought by its owners, the Dorsett Regency hotel, to demolish the old cinema, even though the building lies within a Conservation Area, and replace it with a sixteen storey tower (see above).  So, the question is, will the developers get their way, or can one of Shepherd's Bush's most historic buildings be saved?

Free Stuff to Do in Shepherd's Bush - Ravenscourt Park

Former stable block of Ravensourt House, now a cafe

Ravenscourt Park, like its more glamorous W11 cousin Holland Park, used to be an aristocratic estate. You can still see elements of its former elegance in the former stable block-turned cafe, and the well landscaped open spaces that invite you to take in its length and breadth in a broad circuit. Ravenscourt park is local, attractive, well managed, and completely free.

Flowers on the Statue of St Volodymyr, Patron Saint of Ukraine

St Volodymyr

St Volodymyr, known in the west as Vladimir The Great, stands watch outside the Ukrainian embassy on Holland Park Avenue, wreathed in flowers.

Should it Be a Crime to Pee in Public?

Charming in a fountain, less appealing in your street. Photo: Wikipedia

You might think that public urination is already a criminal offence, but it turns out that it is not.  At least, not yet. The person peeing against your garden wall might be committing trespass, or even a public nuisance, but there is no criminal sanction for public urination (or worse).  Now, our Council is looking to change the law. If a new measure gets passed, people caught publicly urinating and defecating in Shepherd’s Bush could be given a £100 fine. So, should we support this new law?

Is Shepherd's Bush a Terrorist Target?

Westfield in Shepherd's Bush - targeted by Al Shabab?. Photo: Wikipedia

Should we be worried in the Bush?  The Westfield shopping centre has apparently been named by terrorist group al-Shabab as a potential target.  In a 76-minute video, a man claiming to be from the Al-Qaeda linked terror group says that Oxford Street should be targeted as well as “any of the 100 or so Jewish-owned Westfield shopping centres dotted around the Western world”.