Living in Hammersmith: area guide to homes, schools and transport

Atrractive riverside walks and pubs, a village ambience in Brackenbury Road and Brook Green, good state and private schools — Hammersmith in west London has many advantages.

And after seven years, Hammersmith & Fulham borough looks to have solved the problem at last of what to do with the shabby western end of King Street, the main shopping street.

The council parted company with its first development partners and architects but now a scheme is before planners involving architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and housing association A2 Dominion.

It involves demolition of the council’s ugly Seventies office extension, the restoration of the listed Thirties town hall building, a replacement cinema for the demolished Cineworld, plus cafés, shops, restaurants and a new public square.

There will also be 204 new homes of which 52 per cent are proclaimed to be “genuinely affordable for local people”, a new rooftop bar, art and events space and affordable and flexible start-up workspaces.

A decision is expected very soon, with demolition starting in summer. There has also been a £5 million revamp of Kings Mall shopping centre.

The riverside along Lower and Upper Mall is a peaceful, traffic-free refuge from the frantic gyratory and busy shopping streets of the town centre. This is one of L​ndon’s loveliest spots, with Georgian houses, boathouses and historic pubs.

The 18th-century landscape designer Capability Brown lived here for 13 years and in 2017 a life-size statue of him was unveiled at Distillery Wharf.

Writer, social reformer, artist and craftsman William Morris lived at Kelmscott House in Upper Mall between 1878 and 1896. A small museum in the coach house is run by the William Morris Society.

The most expensive house now for sale in Hammersmith is six-bedroom Beach House, a Georgian beauty in Lower Mall overlooking the Thames, priced £8.75 million.

Local Winkworth estate agent Ben Hunt says buyers in Hammersmith are often families upsizing to a house or first-timers who are either working in the City or buying with the help of the Bank of Mum and Dad.

Prices are now around 10 per cent cheaper than two years ago, with one-bedroom flats starting at about £325,000 and two-bedroom flats at about £450,000.

The property scene

With Georgian houses and period cottages in Lower and Upper Mall and in the surrounding streets, elsewhere Hammersmith is dominated by streets of Victorian houses, from two- and three-bedroom homes in the Bradmore conservation area — known as Brackenbury Village — to three- and four-storey properties in the Brook Green conservation area.

A four-bedroom double-fronted Victorian house in Dalling Road, Brackenbury Village, is on the market priced £1.55 million. In Rowan Road, Brook Green, a five-bed Victorian red-brick semi in need of modernisation is £1.5 million.

St Peter’s Square has classical white stucco houses and Westcroft Square has four-storey Victorian terraces.

There are Victorian mansion flats in Phoenix Lodge Mansions on the corner of Brook Green and Shepherd’s Bush Road; in Digby Mansions in Hammersmith Bridge Road, some with river views, and in College Court in Queen Caroline Street close to the flyover.

Hamlet Gardens near Ravenscourt Park also has Victorian mansion flats, plus Art Deco blocks. Latymer Court in Hammersmith Road is an imposing Art Deco block. There are modern riverside flats east of Hammersmith Bridge and in the town centre in Glenthorne Road.

What's new?

Sovereign Court in Glenthorne Road in the town centre and Fulham Reach in Chancellor’s Road east of Hammersmith Bridge are both by St George.

In Sovereign Court two-bedroom flats start at £989,950 and three-bedroom flats at £1.45 million. Call 020 3883 6266.

At Fulham Reach, one-bedroom flats start at £800,000, with two-bedroom flats at £1,025,000 and three-bedroom flats at £2,065,000. Call 020 3468 4638 for details.

First-time buyer homes

Hammersmith & Fulham council operates a discount sale scheme. Buyers earning up to £90,000 a year, who meet certain conditions, can apply to buy a new home at a discount to the market price.

Renting

Major Hammersmith employers such as Coca-Cola, L’Oréal, Disney and Dunnhumby make this a popular rental area, with everything from studio flats to five- and six-bedroom homes available.

Residential Land has nine one-, two- and three-bedroom refurbished apartments in a Victorian mansion block in Hamlet Gardens with rents ranging from £425 a week to £1,006 a week. Call 020 7408 5155 for details.

Staying power

Families, especially with children at local schools, tend to stay in the Hammersmith area, although Winkworth estate agent Ben Hunt says a move to the country still exerts a big pull.

Postcode

W6 is the Hammersmith postcode although Brook Green falls in the W14 West Kensington postcode.

Best roads

St Peter’s Square has large white stucco houses; Ravenscourt Road has large Victorian four-storey houses, some overlooking Ravenscourt Park.

There are Victorian family houses in the roads around Brook Green and smaller Victorian houses in roads such as Carthew Road, Cardross Street and Bradmore Park Road in Brackenbury Village.

Up and coming

Ben Hunt says West Kensington, even though it is closer to central London, is cheaper than Hammersmith. He also suggests looking for well-managed blocks of social housing where there are plenty of leaseholders. One suggestion is Springvale Terrace off Blythe Road.

Transport

Hammersmith has easy access to the M3 and the M4. Hammersmith Underground station is on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Piccadilly lines. Ravenscourt Park and Stamford Brook are on the District line.

All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,404, a rise of 2.9 per cent over last year.

A busy transport hub, Hammersmith has 17 bus routes running round the gyratory with three useful commuter buses.

The No 9 goes to Aldwych via Kensington High Street and Trafalgar Square; the No 23 goes to Westbourne Park via Knightsbridge and Marble Arch, while the No 27 runs to Chalk Farm via Paddington and Baker Street.

Council

Hammersmith & Fulham council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,022.04.

Shops and restaurants

Hammersmith has two covered shopping centres: the Broadway in the middle of the gyratory and Kings Mall in King Street.

The Broadway has branches of Tesco Metro, Bodyshop, Boots, Accessorize and Paperchase among others and chain restaurants Leon, Wasabi and Pret; most unusual is Café de Nata which sells many different varieties of the Pastéis de Nata, the famous Portuguese custard tart. Kings Mall has branches of Primark, New Look, H&M, Sainsbury’s, Flying Tiger, Wilko and Poundland.

Toy shop The Entertainer opened in time for Christmas 2018 and Frame runs a wide range of fitness classes.

In Lyric Square off King Street in front of the Lyric theatre there is a busy street food market on Thursdays and Fridays which tempts local office workers from behind their desks.

The new development in Beadon Road has branches of Bill’s and Byron and opposite Blanche offers fresh salads and La Petite Bretagne has crêpes.

Travelling westward along King Street discover Argos; Bushwacker Wholefoods, a long-standing health food shop; Sagar, an Indian vegetarian café; Steam, serving Cantonese dim sum; smart gastropub, the Hampshire Hog, from the team that used to run The Engineer in Primrose Hill; quaint Patisserie Sainte Anne, which relocated from Paris four years ago; a branch of Taco Bell, one of only two London branches of the American fast-food chain; Coffee Station, an independent coffee shop; Shilpa for Indian food from Kerala; and Yoshi Sushi for Japanese and Korean food.

In Shepherd’s Bush Road there are branches of Wagamama and fish and chip chain Kerbisher & Malt; a fishmonger The Fishmongers Kitchen; Farina & More, a bakery and pizzeria. In the same road Holloways of Ludlow is famous for its vintage and modern lighting.

In Brackenbury Village, The Anglesea Arms in Wingate Road is a long-standing gastropub and The Brackenbury in Brackenbury Road is the ideal neighbourhood restaurant.

In Blythe Road, the little shopping street that serves Brook Green, there is Italian restaurant, Zia Luca, recommended by Winkworth’s Ben Hunt; Scandi Mini, for fashionable children’s clothes, and Betty Blythe vintage tea shop.

Open space

Hammersmith has lovely riverside walks. Ravenscourt Park, the much-loved local park, has a paddling pool and children’s beach in summer, playgrounds, tennis courts, a walled garden, bowling green and café. The W6 Garden Centre is close by in Ravenscourt Avenue.

Leisure and the arts

The Lyric Hammersmith is that rare thing outside central London – a producing theatre. Panto Dick Whittington has now finished; the next show Leave to Remain has original songs by Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and concerns a young gay couple, one with a visa problem.

Riverside Studios arts and live events venue, right on the river, reopens this year after a four-year gap. It will have performance spaces for theatre, dance, music and TV production, a cinema, screening room, events space, rehearsal room and archive, plus bars and restaurants and those riverside views.

Hammersmith has a good choice of private schools and state primary schools and two top state Roman Catholic comprehensive schools.

Primary school

The two go-to state primary schools are John Betts in Paddenswick Road and Brackenbury in Dalling Road, which are both rated “outstanding” by the Ofsted education watchdog.

The other “outstanding” state primary schools are: West London Free School Primary and Earl’s Court Free School Primary (which will move eventually to Earl’s Court but admits local Hammersmith children until then), both in Cambridge Grove; St Peter’s CofE in St Peter’s Road; St Paul’s CofE in Worlidge Street; Larmenier & Sacred Heart RC in Brook Green and Melcombe in Fulham Palace Road.

Comprehensive

The two “outstanding” Roman Catholic schools are: Sacred Heart High (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Hammersmith Road and The Cardinal Vaughan (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Addison Road in nearby Holland Park.

The other “outstanding” comprehensive school is Fulham Cross (girls, ages 11 to 16) in Munster Road. West London Free School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in King Street, the school founded by journalist Toby Young, is rated “good” as is Hammersmith Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to18) in Cathnor Road.

Bilingual

There are two bilingual private French schools: Le Herisson (co-ed, ages two to six) in Rivercourt Road and École Française de Londres Jacques Prévert (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Brook Green.

Private

The private primary schools are: Ravenscourt Park Preparatory (co-ed, ages four to 11) in Ravenscourt Avenue, and Bute House (girls, ages four to 11) in Luxemburg Gardens.

The private all-through and secondary schools are some of the best-known in London. They are: Latymer Upper (co-ed, ages seven to 18) in King Street; Godolphin & Latymer (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Iffley Road; St Paul’s Girls (ages 11 to 18) in Brook Green and St James Senior (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Earsby Street.