More than 400 people gathered at a meeting last night to oppose controversial plans for 14-storey blocks of luxury flats next to Hammersmith Town Hall.
Crowds packed Rivercourt Methodist Church in King Street to bursting point to listen to a series of impassioned speeches from campaigners who have come together under the Save our Skyline banner.
The group is calling on Hammersmith and Fulham Council to rethink what it says are 'monstrous' plans for the town centre, drawn up by developers Helical Bar and Grainger after winning a design competition staged by the authority.
The two firms, operating as King Street Developments, hope to double the height of the existing skyline, pull down the 1920s Cineworld cinema and the 1970s town hall annexe, create a new public square and build a raised footbridge over to Furnivall Gardens with a giant concrete ramp leading down into the riverside park.
Accountant Rajeev Chopra, of Hammersmith Mall Residents' Association, said one third of the most-used part of Furnivall Gardens would be taken up by the ramp, which would be seven and a half metres high in places.
He said: "It was put into the plans to market the 320 luxury apartments as riverside homes with direct access to the river – that was the sole reason. As you walk on this ramp you will be going along the A4 and it's going to be pretty bleak. You will be looking at traffic and the Hammersmith flyover."
Two local school children also took the stage to plead with councillors not to allow the demolition of their local cinema.
Josie, 14, said: "It's one thing to knock down the cinema, but it's quite another to replace it with nothing that we want to use. All it needs is a bit of TLC, and that would draw people in."
Others criticised the inclusion of a new supermarket, claiming it would kill off independent local businesses, and said allowing towers of 14 storeys would pave the way for the intensive redevelopment of the west end of King Street.
Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh listened to the speeches and vowed to take note of residents' concerns, and admitted the scheme had 'grown and got bigger' since the original design brief.
He said: "I didn't get into local politics to make money or to enable others to do so at the expense of local residents."
Closing the meeting, Save Our Skyline chairman John Jones appealed to people to continue working together to fight the plans.
He said: "We are desperately concerned that this is a bad deal for all concerned. We dreamt of having a good attendance, but this was overwhelming."
A planning application is due to be submitted within weeks.
For full coverage see next week's Chronicle.
