Shepherd's Bush Market Meeting Abandoned

A meeting this week to determine the fate of Shepherd's Bush Market was abandoned following vocal protests.

The meeting was held on Tuesday at the Shortlands office building in a large meeting room, with space for LBHF councillors and seating for attendees and speakers.  A number of market traders attended, as well as shopkeepers, and also local residents. The meeting was abandoned following noisy protests that made it impossible to proceed.

The Defector's Weld is Back - Tonight is Opening Night

The Defector's Weld is back

The Defector's Weld is back - reopening today after a long refurbishment.  The Defector's Weld is a pub on the corner of Uxbridge Road and Wood Lane, voted the Best Pub in The Bush by the old Shepherd's Bush Blog, as edited by Chris Underwood back in 2012. 

The vote was conducted by readers of the blog, and The Defector's Weld won by a large margin.  

Public Spaces Protection Order for Shepherd's Bush

Shepherd's Bush Tube Station

Our local council, the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, are hosting a consultation on the existing Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in effect in the area outside Shepherd's Bush Tube Station.

The PSPO aims to tackle noise nuisance from busking, street entertainment and amplified public speaking.  The idea is "to stop individuals or groups committing antisocial behaviour in public spaces".
To take part in the consultation, and have your say, follow this link. 

Humans of Shepherd's Bush - No 15

Meet Gary Rawlings, the finest window cleaner in Shepherd's Bush.  Gary knows everyone in our neighbourhood; his family have been in the area since 1880; his great-grandfather was a local coffin maker.

Today, Gary cleans the windows of the Bush with rain water he collects in his garden - purer than water from the mains, and better for your windows. 

Gary is a busy man and his order book is pretty full - but his inside-and-out service is well worth the wait.

What About a Lido for Shepherd's Bush?

Saltdean Lido

Shepherd's Bush film-maker Eddie Morgan has an idea for improving life in our neighbourhood - a Lido.  

Lidos are - so says the Guardian - experiencing a revival in the UK, so why can't we have one in Shepherd's Bush? 

Sponsored Community Cookathon for Shepherd's Bush

On St Valentines Day, February 14th 2021, Shepherds Bush families are taking part in a "Sponsored Community Cookie Cookathon for Streetyltes" to raise £5,000 for a new oven for St Stephens Church in Shepherds Bush. 

The new oven is needed to feed homeless people in Shepherd's Bush, as the old oven is broken, and you cannot serve hot meals without an oven.

New Delina Kitchen at Shepherd's Bush Market

Local chef Nazareth Kelif is opening up a new venture, the New Delina Kitchen, under the arches in Shepherds Bush Market.

The new venture promises "delicious food, excellent cookery classes, and an amazing cultural experience". 

Naz needs to raise £1500 for the setup costs, so she is looking for support at indiegogo.com, hoping to crowdfund the startup costs.

Naz has taken a spacious arch in the market, where she will run cooking classes and serve Ethiopian food.  

Best Nursery in Shepherd's Bush

The Montessori at Brook Green, also known as "Jane's School" is a wonderful nursery. I know this because both of my children go there, and they could not be happier. As a parent, I could not be happier either.

Run by the indefatigable Jane Alwey, founder and head teacher, this Montessori has excellent, caring staff who take a keen personal interest in all of the children.

Shepherd's Bush Next Door is Here

Shepherd's Bush Next Door is a new-ish web platform for local communities that is starting to gain traction in Shepherd's Bush. A tech startup from the US that was launched in 2011, the site has since gobbled up Streetlife and looks to become a useful social media service for local neighbourhoods, including ours. So, what is NextDoor, and why bother anyway?

W12 is "Getting its Mojo Back" Says Evening Standard

White City - how it might look

According to a recent article in the Evening Standard, W12 is "getting its mojo back", thanks to all the new construction work in our neighbourhood.

"Westfield is expanding, the BBC building is being transformed, and Soho House is moving in — W12 is staking its claim as London’s latest hotspot".

To see the full story, follow this link.

New Year's Resolutions for Shepherd's Bush

A tree is not a place to dump your old junk

We all need a few New Year's Resolutions, and Shepherd's Bush is no exception. Whether or not we stick to them, resolutions are a way of occasionally taking a good look at ourselves and seeing how we might improve things, just a little bit.  So here is our list of New Year's resolutions for Shepherd's Bush.

Resolution No 1 - Stop fly-tipping
The streets of Shepherd's Bush are not a dumping ground for your bin bags, fridges, and old mattresses. Find some place else to get rid of your old junk.

Shepherd's Bush in 2016 - The Year in Review

Walkabout - how it might look

2016 was a busy year in Shepherd's Bush. Below is a quick reminder of what's being going on this past twelve months.

In January, Dorsett Hospitality International, the group who renovated the old Shepherd's Bush Pavilion and turned it into a successful upscale hotel, opened their doors for the first of a number public consultation on their revised proposals for the old Walkabout pub, formerly the Shepherd's Bush Cinematograph theatre.

The proposed plans are still waiting for final planning permission from our Council, "pending consideration".

Morrisons Shepherd's Bush to Close

Morrisons in Shepherds Bush is to close. The big supermarket in the West 12 Centre is to be shut down with the loss of around 170 jobs. 

Local MP Andy Slaughter described it as "terrible news for the W12 area and to the 170 staff who work in the store".

It seems like an odd decision. Morrisons always seems to be a busy store, with plenty of footfall. What a shame for both local residents and - of course - all the employees who will lose their jobs.

Funfair Returns to Shepherd's Bush Green

Funfair

Pity poor Shepherd's Bush Green - the funfair is returning for two weeks, from 22 July until 7 August.

The trouble is, the big lorries that transport these funfairs cause huge damage to the Green, which even at the best of times often feels badly treated.

You can still see the trackmarks in the grass from the last fair, which left in early April.

Awards from The Hammersmith Society

Last week we reported on The Hammersmith Society's "wooden spoon" awards, for new architecture in our neighbourhood which got it wrong, and missed an opportunity to enhance our streets.

But the Hammersmith society doesn't only blow rasberries. Their Environmental Awards are primarily designed to praise good architecture which enhances our public spaces and adds to the beauty of our neighbourhood. Right now, there is a lot of building going on, and this year four awards were handed out for excellent schemes which helped to make our Borough a better place to live.  

Sex Pistols Return To Shepherd's Bush

In this video from 2008, Sex Pistols' band members Steve Jones & Paul Cook return to Shepherd's Bush, with some not very nice things to say about the neighbourhood where they grew up, especially Shepherd's Bush Market. Cooke's Pie and Mash (sadly now gone) gets a good write-up - it's "the only thing" Steve Jones misses about the Bush, compared with his current life in Los Angeles.

Shepherd's Bush Market Hangs in the Balance

Royal Courts of Justice

The Shepherd's Bush Market traders were in the Court of Appeal last week to contest the latest High Court decision in the ongoing legal battle over the future of the Market.

They have been locked in a five year battle with developer Orion over the future of the site.

The most recent event in this long-running legal dispute occurred almost a year ago, in July 2015, when market traders appealed the 2014 decision by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to uphold a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) over the site.

What's Happening With the Westfield Extension?

Westfield expands northwards

Construction work on the extension to Westfield Shopping Centre is under way, but apparently a bit behind schedule.

Demolition work began in 2015, with the brownfield land north of Westfield (mainly warehouses and semi-industrial buildings) turned to rubble.

Ariel way (the route through Westfield) has been closed off, leading to huge traffic congestion on Wood Lane, as anyone driving in our neighbourhood already knows.  Construction was originally scheduled to continue until October 2017, but the latest estimate of completion is now sometime in 2018.

Funfair Returns To Shepherd's Bush - But At What Cost?

The funfair is coming back to Shepherd's Bush Green from 24 March until April 10.  Good news then for young children and their families.

Trouble is, these funfairs seem inevitably to cause huge damage to the Green, which even at the best of times could use a bit of love and attention.

What with a daily distribution of litter, a generous helping of winos, and now ash dieback killing the trees, the last thing Shepherd's Bush Green needs is huge lorries to smash up the pathways and the turf even more.

Shepherd's Bush's New Park

Proposed public park. 

Did you know we're getting a new public park in Shepherd's Bush? It's all part of the new Westfield development, and that of St James to the north - on the old M&S warehouse site east of Wood Lane.

The whole area is being redeveloped, and the price exacted by the Council from the developers was a new public park. It's not huge and, since it runs below the Hammersmith and City tube line, it will be noisy. But still - new green lungs for our very urban neighbourhood can't be a bad thing.

To imagine what it will look like, see the photo to the left.