The demolition of one of west London’s ugliest “carbuncles” has been given the green light as part of a £150million regeneration scheme.
The five-storey “outworn and unattractive” concrete extension to Hammersmith Town Hall was built on the site of a small landscaped park in the early Seventies and has been regularly voted one of the capital’s most hated buildings.
It is now scheduled for destruction after councillors gave the go-ahead to a scheme to revive the run-down King Street area.
It will be replaced by almost 200 homes, a new public square, offices and a Curzon cinema. The original Grade II listed 1938 town hall, hidden from view by the extension for almost 40 years, will also be refurbished.
The scheme replaces a previous plan that generated a storm of objections from residents, including acting stars Vanessa Redgrave and Colin Firth, because it included a cluster of towers up to 14 storeys high that would have blighted Thames views.
Nicholas Botterill, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, said developers could now get on with “breathing new life” into the area.
