245 Hammersmith Road

Built in 2019/20, 245 Hammersmith Road is an 11-storey development situated on the former site of 1980s office block Bechtel House and was part of the wider regeneration scheme: Hammersmith’s Business Improvement District (BID). The building with its striking red facade was designed by Sheppard Robson architects, with landscape design by Exterior Architecture, who describe the project: 'The reconfiguration of the site, in collaboration with Sheppard Robson architects, created an opportunity to step the building back from Hammersmith Road, allowing for a new streetscape that is linked to a large plaza at ground level. The plaza leads through to an elevated podium garden, with a funicular lift mediating the 8m level change between the two spaces.' The completed building is described by its management as a ‘standout destination’ and a ‘re-imagined’ workplace’, the 242,000 sq. ft of flexible, collaborative space was built to inspire and connect people, workers and the public, both inside and outside the building: ‘A landscaped piazza and three roof terraces are laced through the development, while there is street access to a podium park to the rear the size of two football pitches’. The building includes 3 retail units, the public Plaza, 3 terraces, landscaped staircase and rear podium park, The Urban Park. 

245 Hammersmith Road Partnership Ltd is owned by Legal & General (LGIM Real Assets) and Mitsubishi Estate London. The project has won a number of awards: Construction Project of the Year (2020); National Social Value Awards, Social Value Innovation (2021); Hammersmith Society Nancye Goulden Award (2021); Prolandscaper Podium Awards: Commercial (2021) and the RIBA London Award (2022).  

The Urban Park is open to the public for 24 hours a day and is available for public events. It is managed by local environmental charity, Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (HCGA) in combination with the onsite administration staff. There is a lawn with a stage at one end and many raised beds filled with shrubs, trees and flowers. There are numerous seats around the garden. It is accessed from Hammersmith Road by the landscaped staircase from the Plaza, which also has seating and shrubs.  In the words of the landscape architects: 'Working with an existing podium structure provided a challenging landscape that resulted in a number of successful and innovative design responses. Utilising corten steel for planters and high-quality ceramic tile paving, the podium garden is a functional, verdant and aesthetically striking landscape.' 

The Terrace on Ten, a 10th-floor terrace, is a large open space that offers extensive views across London. Designed by Exterior Architecture landscape designers and managed in partnership with HCGA, the terrace seeks to offer users a comfortable and colourful environment ‘pruned to perfection’ with ‘stunning flowers and fresh herb plants’. Bees & Refugees Charity have provided a 245-shaped insect hotel. HCGA volunteers, many with physical or mental health issues that prevent them from working in paid employment, contribute their time to maintain the terrace garden.

Hammersmith United Charities also helps with the management of the green spaces at 245 Hammersmith Road. Hammersmith United Charities was set up in 1923 when a number of charities in the Hammersmith area merged. One of the key charities involved in that merger was the Dr Edwards and Bishop King’s Fulham Charity, which had been established in 1618 after chancellor to the Bishop of London, Dr Thomas Edwards, donated £100 (about £10,000 in today’s money) to the poor of Fulham to buy them lands. Two years later, Bishop John King, Bishop of London, donated £20 for a similar purpose. These two sums were added together and Dr Edwards and Bishop King’s Fulham Charity was established. In 1834, the hamlet of Hammersmith became a separate parish to Fulham. The Charity Commissioners ordered that the income and assets from the combined charities of Dr Edwards and Bishop King should be divided equally between a Fulham and a Hammersmith branch. The Hammersmith branch formed the ‘root’ of Hammersmith United Charities.