What do you do if your town centre has no decent area of public space? In Hammersmith they solved the problem by closing a road and paving it over, creating a rectangular wedge of public realm that hosts markets, air filtration and al fresco eggs Benedict. It's called Lyric Square and it used to be the southern end of Hammersmith Grove, a road which now stops early and filters into the one-way system.
Background: In 2000 Hammersmith and Fulham council launched a competition to create a new £750,000 public square on a closed section of highway, just round the corner from the Circle line terminus. 50 applications were received and the winners were a practice with the dangerously unappealing name of Gross Max Landscape Architects. Lyric Square opened to the public in May 2005 and won the Civic Trust Hard Landscaping Award in 2006. It looks considerably less dazzling 20 years later with the fountains turned off.
The square is a broad paved stripe with geometric designs underfoot, most notably a large central circle with a dark outer rim and three sets of drains where the water feature used to be. One reason it's switched off must be cost, but another is that the circulation space to either side has been invaded by patches of outdoor dining forcing everyone else to walk through the middle. Eight stone cubes provide an unappealing place to perch in what used to be the wet bit, so the best place to sit is a bench around a strange ribbed wooden tower to one side. This is a CityTree, a moss-filled tower which supposedly absorbs polluted air and blows out fresh, which may be worth knowing about should you own a patch of public realm in need of livening up with an eco-gizmo.
Background: The Lyric Theatre wasn't always here, it used to be just round the corner in Bradmore Grove. Opened as the Lyric Opera House it was repeatedly enlarged through the 1890s and had a dazzling Rococo auditorium designed by the incomparable Frank Matcham. Demolition was ordered in the 1960s, despite a public inquiry, but the auditorium was thankfully saved and rebuilt on the current site behind a jarringly modern facade. The entrance was redesigned when Lyric Square opened, including a new cafe at street level.
The cafe currently goes by the name Outsider Tart, but they don't open on Sundays so I can't rate their peanut butter chocolate fudge and M&M’s cookies. I can tell you that Dracula opens tomorrow, a feminist retelling taking to the stage before the theatre stages a 130th birthday singalong gala night next month, then it's Jack and the Beanstalk for Christmas. Outside theatre hours the buzz on the piazza comes from the constant wash of shoppers passing through, also the outdoor seating at Pret A Manger, also the beery tables at the inevitable Wetherspoon which is called The William Morris.
Background: Designer anarchist William Morris is claimed by many London boroughs, but Hammersmith has a strong claim because he lived on the Thames waterfront from 1878 until his death in 1896. A stripe of sunken letters embedded in the pavement outside Pret says "William Morris spoke in this square", which surprised me because the square didn't exist while he was alive, but apparently his diary records an open-air meeting on this site in February 1887. "This audience characteristic of small open air meetings quite mixed, from labourers on their Sunday lounge to ‘respectable’ people coming from church; the latter inclined to grin, the working men listening attentively trying to understand, but mostly failing to do so: a fair cheer when I ended." I doubt Wetherspoons would be William's pub of choice.
To see Lyric Square at its busiest come on Wednesday for the market, or Thursday/Friday for the food market, which again I didn't. The local BID team also run events to chivvy footfall for town centre businesses, anything from big screen films to sponsored yoga, and I assume the enormous #HAMMERSMITH plonked at the northern end of the square is their idea of good branding. Even when the piazza's quiet it's still plainly a better use of space than the original road, so the lesson here is that you can always conjure up a decent bit of public realm if you're not afraid of inconveniencing a few drivers.
