Top Architects Launch Campaign to Save Hammersmith College
Along with petition aiming to stop demolition of iconic Gliddon Road building
Top names from the world of architecture are campaigning to save West London College's campus in Hammersmith's Gliddon Road from demolition.
After being turned down for listing by Historic England, the the building’s owners West London plan to close the site and demolish the building next year, selling the land for commercial housing.
Among those calling for the iconic 1970s red brick building Piers Gough, Owen Luder, Angela Brady, Rowan Moore and Owen Hatherley have all backed the campaign.
A petition has also been launched to save the campus, which was designed by Bob Giles of the Greater London Council (GLC) Architects department.
The petition says: "We the undersigned, call on Hammersmith and Fulham Council and Historic England to prevent the demolition of Hammersmith and West London College. This architectural masterpiece by Bob Giles ARIBA, then one of the in-house architects for the GLC, deserves to be listed. Demolition would be environmentally, architecturally and educationally disastrous."
It also says: "This college is a wonderful example of modernist master planning, inspired by Scandinavian models from Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen and other designers in the functional tradition.
"It deserves to be listed and to retain its function as a college. It reinterprets the English quad in an ingenious way. Demolition would be a catastrophe architecturally, for education in Hammersmith and environmentally.
"The architect of the college was Robert Giles ARIBA, then one of the in-house architects for the GLC.
He has had a distinguished architectural and academic career and was up until recently Vice-President of RIBA and Chairman of the British Architectural Library. He was a founder partner of the Architects Workshop London. He also practised with Jurubina Bertiga International Sdn Bhd Kuala Lumpur, Moxley Architects London and University Partnerships Programme London.
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Aside from the WLC, two of his most well-known designs include: the Bromley Hall School for the Physically Handicapped London (Recently Grade II Listed by English Heritage as a building of special architectural interest) and the Marinara Tower Kuala Lumpur."
In 2016, local MP Andy Slaughter expressed fears for the future of the future of the 'Hammersmith landmark' after the college, then known as Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, presented plans to demolish the building and rebuild on a small part of the site, to the north of Talgarth Rod. You can read the full details here.
October 23, 2019