The dark concrete space underneath the busy Hammersmith Flyover is to get greener after councillors agreed to spend up to £236,000 on plants and bike parks in a bid to cut pollution.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council will start the work this autumn as part of its bid to become Britain’s greenest borough. It also wants Hammersmith to be a low emission neighbourhood.
It says the work underneath the 1960s A4 flyover near the Hammersmith Broadway shopping centre and Hammersmith Underground station "will help improve the look and feel of the area, while also improving air quality by reducing pollution".
Councillor Wesley Harcourt, who is the council's environment chief, said the project "will make it a much more pleasant area than it is at present".
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The council will spend £50,000 on ivy growing up screens fixed to the existing guard rails under the flyover in Talgarth Road and a further £50,000 for planters filled with a variety of species.
Gardeners will pick plants which will help reduce pollution from cars.
Cyclists will be able to use an £85,000 cycle hub at the junction of Talgarth Road and Fulham Palace Road.
The flyover columns and walls along Talgarth Road are also likely to get a spruce up. The council and Transport for London are looking into a £20,000 project to paint them.
There will also be work done to the garden at St Paul’s Primary School in Worlidge Street which will get new plants designed to attract wildlife.
The council has also staged an online consultation to ask residents what they think of the designs.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council was given £196,000 from the Mayor of London’s air quality fund and put in a further £40,000 from its own local improvement fund.
The council’s cabinet agreed to order the work from its contractors Conways at a meeting on Monday (October 8).
