Government reluctant to pay for Hammersmith Bridge repairs

The Mexican stand off as to who will pay for the repairs needed to Hammersmith Bridge continues.

Transport for London and Hammersmith & Fulham Council have now formally put in a bid to central Government to pay for the full cost of restoration.

In a parliamentary debate last week, MP for Hammersmith Andy Slaughter said: ‘We have to look to Government when major strategic assets fail. That is the case in most of the rest of the country.’

Transport Minister Kelly Tolhurst, standing in for the minister who is responsible for roads, Baroness Vere, replied:

‘The Government support the efforts to repair Hammersmith bridge and bring it back into operation in a cost-effective and speedy manner.

'However, we must recognise that it is for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, as the owner of the bridge, to assess the merits of different funding options for its repair'.

Read more on this story on The Chiswick Calendar website.
 

New pedestrian & cycle bridge announced

Transport for London has announced that a new bridge for pedestrians and cyclists is to be built alongside Hammersmith Bridge.

The structure will be a temporary crossing while work is carried out on the 133 year old suspension bridge. It will enable the 16,000 people who are currently still using Hammersmith Bridge to cross the river, while enabling engineers to carry out vital repairs.

Subject to planning permission, work on the temporary bridge is expected to start in the summer.

Meanwhile Hammersmith & Fulham council has said Hammersmith Bridge will be closed to pedestrians for the Boat Race on 29 March as it isn't safe for crowds of people to be standing on it.

Read more on The Chiswick Calendar website.
 

An Evening with Michael White - tonight

BBC journalist Julian Worricker interviews Michael White, formerly the Guardian's political editor, assistant editor, columnist and foreign correspondent, for The Chiswick Calendar's Media Club.

Michael wrote for the Guardian for almost 45 years and retired from the paper in October 2016. In nearly 50 years as a journalist he has done all kinds of writing but it was politics which fascinated him most. 

He was the Guardian's Washington correspondent during the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the paper's political editor through the prime ministerships of John Major and Tony Blair.

What words of wisdom does he have to pass on, having had a front row seat at so many significant events? What were his greatest achievements and most embarrassing moments? What does he think of Boris Johnson and the current state of British politics? Or of the existential crisis facing the newspaper industry?

Come and find out and ask him a question or two of your own.

Date: Tuesday 10 March at 7.30pm
Venue: Boston Room at George IV
Tickets £10 / £8.00 students and Club Card holders

Why stock up on loo roll?

The one thing which has puzzled me about the Coronavirus panic is why people are stocking up on loo rolls. After all it's flu were expecting, not cholera.

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos, an expert in consumer and behavioural science at the University College London, told Sky News that toilet paper is a sign of 'general panic' rather than 'disaster panic.' 

"In public health issues we have no idea about the time or intensity and we get messages on a daily basis that we should go into panic mode that we buy into more than we need to. It's our only tool of control."

Chiswick residents have followed the pattern of the rest of the country, emptying the shelves in supermarkets of hand sanitiser and toilet rolls, but also feminine hygiene products and  food staples with a long shelf life.

While the supermarkets are making more money and can't restock fast enough, some other local businesses have been very badly hit financially.

One which deals in toys has done no trade with China for months. Previously the trade with China formed a large part of their business.

Manoj Teji, who runs Embassy luxury cars, told me the only emails he's getting at the moment are cancellations. 70% of their work is usually airport related. 

Read more on The Chiswick Calendar website.
 

More planes flying over Chiswick? Heathrow has a Plan B says Ruth Cadbury 

Last week's ruling by the Court of Appeal that the proposed expansion of Heathrow is unlawful is a setback for the airport authority, but Ruth Cadbury MP says the airport has a Plan B.

The Appeal Court ruled their proposed expansion was not legal because it did not meet the Government's international commitments on Climate Change. Heathrow is appealing the decision in the Supreme Court. 

Whether it manages to challenge the ruling successfully in the Supreme Court or whether it has to revert to its Plan B, either way their 'insatiable appetite for more flights' will  mean more planes over Chiswick, she argues.

Read what she has to say about it on The Chiswick Calendar website.
 

'Guide dog' raises £10,000

The local Guide Dog Group would like to thank the people of Chiswick and the Eye Studio for raising more than £10,000 in donations from the life sized 'Guide Dog' looked after by the Eye Studio on Chiswick High Road.

Guide Dog owners and volunteers turned up with their real dogs for a photocall with Eye Studio co-owner Andrew Harman and the life sized Guide Dog collecting box.

"The 'dog' has been collecting for Guide Dogs 'rain or shine' for over 15 years and has become a bit of a landmark over that time" said Chiswick Guide Dog Coordinator Tim Mack.

The Eye Studio helped to raise over £10,000 with this and other activities.
 

Anthony Burgess blue plaque bid

Academics, historians and local residents are backing a fresh bid to secure a blue plaque for the house in Chiswick where the writer Anthony Burgess lived in the 1960s.

The author and composer, best known for his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange, lived for five years at 24 Glebe St, between 1964 and 1968.

Current owners of the property Tracey Logan and husband Richard Szwagrzak told me they were very excited when they found out they were living in his house, as both had read his novels. 

They bought the house in 1994 and found out from the neighbours on either side, who have since died, but who remembered Burgess and his wife Lynne.

They were a colourful couple, by all accounts. Their first act on moving in was to buy a crate of Gordon's gin from the local offie.

Supporters of the late writer tried once before to get him a blue plaque and were outraged when they were told by English Heritage his significance as a writer was 'not strong enough' to warrant a blue plaque.

Read my feature on The Chiswick Calendar website about Lynne picking fights in the local pubs, Anthony living the high life with his literary pals and why the academics, including local resident Professor Graham Holderness - and Tracey and Richard - think it's high time his literary achievements were recognised.
 

An interview with Phyllis Logan and Kevin McNally

The Chiswick Playhouse has appointed actors Phyllis Logan and Kevin McNally as patrons, along with Director of the Chiswick Book Festival Torin Douglas MBE.

Known the world over as the housekeeper in Downton Abbey and pirate Joshamee Gibbs in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, the actors are known locally as a married couple who have lived in Chiswick for many years.

In between playing pirates and serving the landed gentry, there's work to be done promoting our local theatre. I talked to them both about what they're working on currently and why supporting their local theatre is so important to them.

Read my interview with Phyllis Logan and Kevin McNally on The Chiswick Calendar website.
 

Guess who's coming to dinner - Torin Douglas invites his fantasy dinner party guests

Torin is well known in Chiswick as the Director of the Book Festival and a prime mover in the organisation of the Bedford Park Festival.

Less known is the fact that when he was at school he was a keen amateur actor and wanted to be a playwright. 

As a teenager he was inspired to put on plays, “and to believe – quite wrongly as it turned out – that I too could write entertaining and clever dramas”.

Who were his role models? His inspiration? 

Read 'Guess who's coming to dinner' - Torin chooses the three people who have most influenced and inspired him, who he would invite as the perfect guests to a dinner party.
 

Consultations open on Grove Park Piazza and Kew Bridge step-free walkway

The proposal to create a new public square by the shops at Grove Park is now open for consultation.

The idea, initially proposed by the Grove Park Group of local residents in 2015, is to make the area more attractive by widening the pavements, improving the crossings, introducing new seating and planting and installing better parking facilities for bikes, electric vehicle charging and new lighting.
 

Hounslow Council is also consulting on plans for step-free access between the Chiswick and Brentford sides of Kew Bridge.

Residents of Strand on the Green have long wanted the ability to continue walking along the Thames path on level ground. 

At the moment pedestrians have to mount several steep steps to continue walking along the tow path under Kew Bridge.

Hounslow Council is making the third archway available as a walkway and has offered two options for how it will look.

We have until 31 March to make comments on plans for the Piazza and until 30 March to look at the options and comment on the Thames path access.

Read more about this on The Chiswick Calendar website, including details of drop-in sessions to speak to council officers about plans for the 'piazza'.
 

Unveiling new art work on W4th plinth

The next community art work to be shown on the wall of the railway on Turnham Green terrace - aka the W4th Plinth - will be unveiled this Saturday (14 March).

Members of the public have been voting on one of four options to replace Sir Peter Blake’s collage of the Chiswick Empire music hall.

The contenders are: Penny the Orangutan by David Kimpton, Chiswick House Dog Show by Alfred Daniels, Oh Vincent! by Flor Ferraco and We are all Characters by Suzan Inceer.

The unveiling, by organisers Abundance London, will be at 1.00pm. Free pizza and samples of cider available. 
 

Man in the Middle 

What to do with the elderly parent you know in your heart of hearts can no longer cope living alone? That is a dilemma for many people.

Our regular column 'The Man in the Middle' is the musings of a middle aged man on living with his family and aged mother. If you would like to read the columns in order from the beginning, you can read Episode One: The Letter, here. 

No. 24 Blue Suede Shoes

This week's battles on the homefront are of a sartorial nature. The Man in the Middle runs interference to save his Daughter from inter-generational criticism of what shoes she should wear to an interview.
 

Emery Walker's House reopens 

Emery Walker's House, the beautifully decorated and furnished Arts & Crafts house in Hammersmith, reopens this Thursday (12 March).

The house is kept more or less exactly as it was when Emery Walker - engraver, photographer, printer, a leading light of the Arts and Crafts movement and friend of William Morris - used to live there. 

It was refurbished a couple of years ago and is absolutely gorgeous, but you have to book to see it, as the tours, on Thursdays and Saturdays from spring to autumn, are strictly limited to small groups as the house is so crammed full of lovely things and not suitable for entertaining crowds.
 

With Love from Ella

Our next Jazz night - an extra special one, over and above our usual monthly jazz at George IV sessions - will be on Thursday 19 March. Helen Theophanous sings the songs of Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella Fitzgerald was one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. Helen Theophanous is well known on the London jazz scene, including a Sunday lunchtime residency at The Jazz Room at the Bull's Head Barnes.

This special performance showcasing the songs of the legendary performer sees Helen with her top quartet, brought to you by The Chiswick Calendar and Live Music To Go.
 

Mother's Day, Sunday 22 March

We all know it's a commercial confection, designed to guilt your nearest and dearest into buying you chocolates and flowers.

I used to tell my kids not to bother with Mother's Day when they were younger, unhappy with the materialist manipulation of their tender emotions.

Now they're older I say yes please, lunch and bunch of daffs will do nicely, and to mothers everywhere I say: milk it for all it's worth!

The Pilot pub in Wellesley Rd has a new chef who is hoping to delight you with his new menu. As well as their signature Sunday roast menu, he has some special dishes in mind for Mother’s Day.

The Pilot is part of the Club Card scheme and usually offer 15% off all food and drink, at any time. The discount does not apply on Mother’s Day but they are offering all mothers a gift of a mini bottle of gin and tonic and a ‘Mum’s Night off Certificate”, production of which will result in a free main course on their next visit

How you prove you're a mother is another matter. I'd suggest to women over 18, just grab the nearest child and bribe them to call you mummy if the waiter asks.
 

Jazz at George IV Spring Line-up

We have a great line-up for you at George IV this spring.

Thursday 19 March - With Love From Ella
In addition to our monthly Jazz at George IV sessions, for this special cabaret night Helen Theophanous sings the songs of Ella Fitzgerald, backed by top quartet of piano, saxophone, double bass and drums.

Buy Tickets

Thursday 2 April - Jazz Mondays
Chiswick based 13 strong band famous for their eight strong ‘wall of saxes’. Their eclectic repertoire ranges across Jazz to Soul, Ska and Funk, from Dizzy Gillespie to Amy Winehouse.

Buy Tickets
 

2020 At a Glance

Planning an event in Chiswick this year? Don't want to clash with a big event such as the Chiswick Book festival or the Chiswick House Dog Show?

Find out the dates of the big events which happen in Chiswick each year in our 2020 At a Glance guide.