Hammersmith is a place of contradictions that somehow resolve into one of West London's most appealing neighbourhoods. The roar of traffic around Hammersmith Broadway gives way, within a few hundred yards, to the silence of Upper Mall and Lower Mall — a stretch of Georgian riverside houses that ranks among London's most beautiful domestic architecture. Hammersmith Bridge, the ornate suspension bridge designed by Joseph Bazalgette in 1887, frames views up and down the Thames that have barely changed in a century.
Behind the riverside, the residential streets tell the story of Hammersmith's growth from a Thames-side hamlet to a prosperous Victorian suburb. Brackenbury Village — the grid of streets south of Goldhawk Road — is a textbook example of late-Victorian terrace housing: bay-fronted, generously proportioned, and now among the most sought-after streets in W6. Around Ravenscourt Park, larger Edwardian and Victorian houses line quiet, tree-planted avenues. St Peter's Square, an early Victorian development of elegant succeed houses around a private garden, offers a taste of Belgravia west of Hammersmith Broadway.
For homeowners in W6, the challenge is to honour this varied architectural heritage while creating homes that work for contemporary life. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham takes a moderate but considered approach to planning — riverside properties and conservation area houses face tighter controls, while the borough's general planning policies offer reasonable scope for sensitive extensions, loft conversions, and internal remodelling. Our architects understand what LBHF will support and how to design schemes that respect Hammersmith's character while maximising space and light.
