Ginglik Applies for Planning Permission

Former Ginglik nightclub

There may be some good news at at last for much-neglected Shepherd's Bush Green.

The site formerly occupied by Ginglik, the Edwardian loo-turned-nightclub that closed a decade ago, has applied for planning permission to re-open as a restaurant. 

The application states as follows: 
"2020/02747/FUL | Use of the lower ground floor level of the premises to serve hot food (Class E) ancillary to the existing bar/nightclub. | Ginglik Club On The Green 1 Shepherd's Bush Green London W12 8PH".

Zoom Call re Future of Shepherd's Bush Market

Yoo - Market Owners

Yoo Capital, the new majority owners of Shepherd's Bush Market, are hosting a virtual conference to air their early ideas for the market and wider area and to receive feedback. 

The Zoom call will be held on two dates: Wednesday 21 October at 6pm and Saturday 24 October 2020. 

To sign up,  email info@myshepherdsbushmarket.com or call Louise on: 07539 096459.

Japanese Garden Cleanup in Hammersmith Park

Volunteers at work on Sunday

On Sunday October 11 the Japanese Garden at Hammersmith Park enjoyed a much-needed cleanup operation, as local volunteers got to work.

The team was led by Japanese Garden Chair John Gordon-Smith, Mick, the park gardener and five local volunteers including Richard, a gardener from Kew Gardens, who all worked hard to help restore the garden.  Many thanks to all of them for their hard work and dedication.

Thinnest House in Britain for Sale for Just Under £1m

skinniest house in Britain?

The "Thinnest House in Britain" is on the Goldhawk Rd, and is yours for just under £1m.

According to an article in the Daily Telegraph a few years back, the house is just 66 inches wide, and was last sold in 2009 for around £500,000.

Needless to say Faron Sutaria, the estate agents who sold it, said that its small size "adds to its charm".

The house on the Goldhawk Road apparently used to be a hatshop, and there is a nod to this ancestry in the form of the hat still hanging in what used to be the shop window.

Free Covid-19 Testing Today

Our local council are offering free Covid-19 testing from a Mobile Testing Unit at the Phoenix Leisure Centre, today, Wednesday 9 September, until 3.30pm. 

The Unit is located on Bloemfontein Road, White City, London W12 7DB. No appointment is necessary, you just walk-up. 

The test is aimed at anyone who has symptoms, or think they might.

LBHF is asking that face coverings should be worn, and a 2m distance is maintained at all times.

Hammersmith Bridge Protest Tomorrow at 5pm

Hammersmith Bridge 

Hammersmith Bridge is now closed not just to vehicles but also to bicycles, pedestrians and river traffic. This is apparently because of an "increased risk to public safety due to a sudden deterioration in key parts of the suspension structure."

The bridge will apparently remain closed "until the engineers are confident that it is safe to re-open to pedestrians and river traffic".

But when will this be? The bridge has been closed since April 2019, following a long and sorry saga of temporary closures and regular postponement of the necessary repairs.

Tomorrow Thursday 3rd September at 5pm there will be a Hammersmith Bridge Protest Meeting, to be held on both sides of the bridge.

Guests include a cross channel swimmer who will be swimming across the Thames from Barnes to Hammersmith.

If you're fed up with the endless delays and prevarications and would like to see our council do something about repairing the bridge, show up and let your voice be heard.

Why Can't We Clean Up Shepherd's Bush Green?

Shepherd's Bush Green on a Summer Morning

Back in 2014 we first started started posting about the sorry state of Shepherd's Bush Green, and the failure of our Council to do anything about enforcing the law.  Six years on, things are worse than ever.

Walk across Shepherd's Bush Green in the morning and you will see piles of fast food, empty bottles and cans, often dumped right next to the bins.

The worst thing is that there doesn't seem to be any attempt by our Council to enforce the laws against dropping litter. Why not?

BLM Protest in Shepherd's Bush on Sunday

Shepherd's Bush Green

A Black Lives Matter protest is to be held on Sunday at 12.45pm on Shepherd's Bush Green. According to a recent article at W12, the protest will be "peaceful, and socially distanced", as well as "family friendly" and will "include live music and socially distanced dancing".

Many BLM events have begun in peaceful protest and ended in violence. Let us hope, for the sake of everyone in our neighbourhood, that Sunday's protest is as peaceful as promised.

Let's hope it also doesn't leave a big mess behind. Protests don't generally involve live music and dancing - this one sounds a lot like a street party.

To see what a recent street party in White City was like - read this blog post.

Albertine Goes Al Fresco

Albertine - Outside Dining

It's not all bad news in Shepherd's Bush.  Our local wine bar, The Albertine, has at last won permission from our Council to set out some street furniture, allowing customers to sit outside and eat al fresco.

Wood Lane needs a bit of cheering up, and it's worth reminding Shepherd's Bush residents that eating out just got a lot cheaper - thanks to Chancellor Sunak's "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme, which gives diners 50% off the usual cost.

So let's give some help to Shepherd's Bush's struggling businesses and spend some money.

Threshold House Being Demolished

Threshold House, the 1960s office block on Shepherd's Bush Green that used to house the old Post Office, is being demolished.

After many years of legal wrangling,  the Hoxton Hotel group are building a new hotel on Shepherd's Bush Green. The old building is being swiftly - and remarkably quietly - taken down.

Friday Night - Trouble in White City

Friday Night in White City

On Friday night, the White City Estate was the site of an incident of some fairly serious public disorder, the latest in a series of illegal street parties turning into riots - and violence against the police.

Anyone trying to get some sleep in West London on Friday night can hardly have missed the noise of the Police helicopters circling overhead. 

According to BBC news, "seven police officers were injured after police tried to break up an unlicensed music event in west London."

But if "Unlicensed music event" sounds to you like some innocent fun on a friday night, think again. Local resident Adam tells the story.

Guerilla Gardening in The Bush

Flowers in Macfarlane Rd

Every now and again, amidst all the noise and grunge of Shepherd's Bush, someone does something that makes you think our neighbourhood is pretty decent after all.

In Macfarlane Rd, one of our neighbours has anonymously and quietly planted flowers in the street next to one of the municipal cherry trees.

This is a quiet act of public-spirited optimism, in part because even flowers often get stolen in Shepherd's Bush. 

Macfarlane Rd - Meet Your Neighbours on Sunday 5th July

Macfarlane Rd

Residents of Hopgood St, Wood Lane and Macfarlane Rd are cordially invited to come and "Meet Your Neighbours" on Sunday 5th July at 5pm, and celebrate 75 Years of the NHS.

The Corona virus hasn't brought us many benefits (less traffic?) but it has brought some communities closer together.

In Macfarlane Rd, the indefatigable Belinda Mitchell-Innes organised leaflets, a Facebook Group, and a WhatsApp Group to help keep an eye on the most vulnerable and make sure local people stayed safe. This weekend, she is inviting neighbours to a "Street Meet and Greet" at 5pm on Sunday 5th July.

Albertine Re-Opens on 4th July

Saturday fourth of July is not only American Independence Day but also re-opening day for many restaurants and pubs in the UK.

Our local wine bar, The Albertine is to re-open, and are hosting a soft launch/private opening for their neighbours on Saturday 4th July from 5pm to 7.30.

Under the new rules there are 22 tickets available and people will be seated at tables.  You can buy a ticket on the Albertine reservation system for £15.00. 

Corona Testing Comes to Hammersmith

A new Corona testing centre has opened up in Hammersmith, housed inside the Hammersmith Club in Rutland Grove. They've even bagged the handy url www.coronatestcentre.com. The test they use, which I took this morning, is the Boditech Antibody Test, a test developed by a South Korean company.

Google "Boditech Antibody Test" and not a great deal comes up; there is no Wikipedia page yet, for example.  So is it the real deal - is the test worth having?

Listed Buildings in Shepherd's Bush - Wood Lane Post Box

Listed building on Wood Lane

Think of Listed Buildings and you tend to think of Georgian mansions and stately homes. Here in Shepherd's Bush we have few of those, but we do have a few buildings worthy of preservation.

To find them, follow this link to the listed building website, which gives a handy little map of the architectural high points of our neighbourhood.

Some of them are slightly eccentric, including this Listed Post Box on Wood Lane, which most people probably walk past without giving it a second glance.

On further inspection, it is a very handsome post box.

And woe betide anyone who tries to tear it down. This post box is protected with the full force of the law.

When Planning Goes Wrong

1A Macfarlane Rd Before (left) and after (right)

1A Macfarlane Rd is a newly built property in Shepherd's Bush which is mainly of interest because the owner, having got planning permission to demolish the old two storey Edwardian structure and build a new four storey building, built something that was quite different from what was approved.

It's an interesting case because most builders follow the approved plans pretty closely. In this case, the owner made significant changes to what was approved. The question now is - what to do about it? Our Council have requested changes to the building, but the owner has now applied for retrospective permission to vary the original plans.

New Wood Lane Tower Proposed

Proposed 227 Wood Lane

A new 25 storey tower (see photo, left hand side) is to be built on Wood Lane, near the A40, just West of the ziggurrat tower recently built on the Imperial College London campus in White City.

Architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris have designed a new 29-storey tower block to the north of the A40 at 227 Wood Lane (see photo, left hand side).

The proposed tower would replace Browning House, which is a four-storey social housing block owned by Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH), a housing association providing specialist accommodation.

The Hammersmith Society, guardians of good architecture in our neighbourhood, is against it, but the area has arguably been ruined anyway.

Albertine Wine Bar Still Open - Now Doing Home Delivery

Allegra McEvedy at the Albertine

The Albertine, Shepherd's Bush's excellent local wine bar founded and run by celebrity chef Allegra McEvedy, is tenaciously fighting to survive the economic consequences of Covid-19 - by re-inventing itself as a take-out and home delivery kitchen and food shop.

According to a recent article in The Times, the Corona shutdown forced a complete re-invention of one of Shepherd's Bush's favourite wine bars.

On March 17th, when the shutdown began, as McEvedy put it: "on a night we might have taken £1,200, we took just £63." So began the fight to save the business.

Covid-19 Update from Macfarlane Rd

Macfarlane Rd

In Macfarlane Rd, my local corner of Shepherd's Bush, the indefatigable Belinda Mitchell-Innes has been organising leaflets, a Facebook Group, and a WhatsApp Group to help keep an eye on the most vulnerable and make sure local people stay safe.

Belinda also posts a weekly newsletter, offering the latest on how to survive the lockdown in the Bush. See below for Belinda's full local roundup.