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Press & Media Coverage

Click on the pictures to see some recent media & press stories about Hammersmith Bridge

(Some stories might be behind a Paywall or require you to create an (often free) account)

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Feb 2025​

The Impact of Hammersmith Bridge Closure on Journey Times
Basemap

The closure of Hammersmith Bridge has severely impacted bus journey times. Our analysis revealed striking increases in journey durations, particularly between postcode sectors SW13 8 and W6 9.

Before the closure, this route offered a relatively swift and reliable connection, with travel times averaging 9 minutes during peak hours. However, post-closure, passengers now face an average travel time of over 40 minutes, more than a four-fold increase. In some cases, journey times have stretched beyond 50 minutes, depending on the time of day.

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11 Apr 2024

Hammersmith Bridge: 'At least five more years until it reopens', Londoners told on 5th anniversary of closure.
The Evening Standard

 

Londoners have been warned on the fifth anniversary of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge that it will be at least another five years before it can be reopened to cars, even if the £250 million estimated cost of fixing it is found today.

2021_05_19 Standard HB to open but no ca

5 July 2023

Doesn’t London deserve better than the farce of Hammersmith Bridge? 
The Evening Standard

So what then does the perennially troubled Hammersmith Bridge symbolise? Confusion, uncertainty, a lack of confidence, stasis? That gnawing sense of being stuck at a three-way traffic light while simultaneously being placed on hold by a utility company that is experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls?

2021_05_19 Standard HB to open but no ca

19 May 2021

Hammersmith Bridge to reopen in Summer - but still no funding for repair for cars 
The Evening Standard

As part of TfL's latest Government bail-out LBH&F will be asked to reopen the bridge to pedestrians and cyclists in return for cash for the interim repairs necessary to keep it open for them. However TfL’s third Covid bailout won't include a commitment to fully reopen the bridge to motor traffic.

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24 April 2021

The Times' view on a fitting tribute:
Prince Philip Bridge ?
The Times

Nothing today would be more economically important and symbolic of a long Royal tradition than a new Prince Philip Bridge over the Thames, replacing the expiring Hammersmith Bridge, unsafe and closed at huge cost to traffic, pedestrians and all water traffic below...

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4 October 2020

Bridge Of Sighs
 

The Barnes Village Bugle

Oh the bridge. Where to start? So much has happened this month and yet so little too. Barnes is still marooned and so far nobody has come up with any money for a temporary bridge...

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12 September 2020

Decaying bridge Fiasco turns poor old Britain into a laughing stock
THE TIMES

In 92 years Muriel Seaman cannot remember ever feeling this embarrassed for Britain. Causing the shame is a cast-iron suspension bridge over the Thames at Hammersmith, once a monument to Victorian...

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8 September 2020

Why is this a bridge too far...


THE DAILY MAIL

It says everything about modern Britain's paralysis: an iconic bridge across the Thames shut even to boats passing beneath it... because squabbling officials can't agree who should pay to fix it

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27 Jan 2025

“Urgent action needed” on Hammersmith Bridge, say Wandsworth residents.
Wandsworth.gov.uk

The Council has collated its own data as well as working with the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport for London (TfL) in obtaining their information. Snapshot data from the DfT shows that between 2020 and 2023, the overall number of motor vehicles on Putney Bridge was estimated to have increased by 16%, from 32,083 to 37,239.  The Council’s own automatic traffic count data shows a 25% increase in traffic during the morning peak hours between 2019-2023.

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11 April 2024

Hammersmith Bridge Cycle Lane Delayed until at least Next year.'
HammersmithToday.co.uk

At that time, it was announced that the lane would be reopened in November 2024 but now a Freedom on Information request by the local campaign group Hammersmith Bridge SOS has confirmed the project is now scheduled to be completed in April 2025.

2023_05_09 Bugle

9 May 2023

Bugle readers back the bridge-inside-the-bridge solution. 
The Barnes Village Bugle

Two thirds of those who took part in the poll in last month’s Bugle have expressed their support for the Foster Cowi temporary bridge-inside-a-bridge solution for Hammersmith Bridge...... bringing the total of those who wanted a solution that will allow buses and cars across the bridge to around 74% of those polled.

2021_05_18 New Civil Engineer - Time To

18 May 2021

Is it time to knock down Hammersmith Bridge and start again?
New Civil Engineer

Under the Taskforce’s engineering plan, spearheaded by Dana Skelley, the bridge will not reopen to motorised traffic for at least 6 years. Which begs the question: is it worth it? Retired civil engineer Jon Smith believes its time to “knock down” Hammersmith Bridge and start again.

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23 February 2021

Ferry won’t start until summer - with passengers forced to pay
The Evening Standard

TfL say additional time requested by bidders “means it is unlikely ferry will begin before summer”. Residents say plans to charge £1.55 per trip breach their belief that replacement ferry service would be free

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1 October 2020

Shaun Bailey interviews Grant Shapps at the Conservative Conference
 

Shaun Bailey interviews Transport Minister Grant Shapps about Hammersmith Bridge, and thanks him for "providing the money to repair the bridge long term..."

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10 September 2020

We must end the Hammersmith Bridge Fiasco

The Evening Standard

After nearly a month of enormous stress for tens of thousands of people living near Hammersmith Bridge, yesterday Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced he was launching a government task force to reopen the closed crossing...

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7 September 2020

London Bridges really are falling down

The New York Times

Three major crossing on the Tames are closed to cars - one of them, Hammersmith Bridge, considered too dangerous even to walk across. Even the landmark Tower Bridge was recently shut for two days.

2021_05_19 Standard HB to open but no ca

21 Nov 2024

Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce to reopen the key link across the Thames is being reconvened. 
The Evening Standard

The task force was set up in September 2020 to get Hammersmith Bridge reopened “as speedily as possible”.

At the time, then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, stressed Londoners had “waited too long” for the now 138-year-old bridge to be repaired.

2021_05_19 Standard HB to open but no ca

9 April 2024

Hammersmith Bridge’s role in exposing cracks in global Britain's facade.
The National

​Worse, Hammersmith Bridge is not about leaders who can’t, it’s symbolic of won’t – testament to a political class that says one thing and does the other, who claims it cares but doesn’t. For Hammersmith Bridge read HS2, Post Office, contaminated blood, MPs’ expenses, PPE, potholes and all the other scandalous failures of recent times. They’re about, in their different ways, failure to lead, to accept responsibility.

2023_04_14 MyLondon

14 April 2023

Residents' fury as 'tragic' closure of iconic Hammersmith Bridge stretches on for 4 years.
My London

The iconic 135-year-old Hammersmith Bridge has now been closed for four years, the milestone sparking fury from residents and politicians. The crossing has been closed to buses, emergency vehicles and cars since April 10, 2019.

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30 April 2021

Why can’t London fix Hammersmith Bridge and Crossrail ?
The Evening Standard

One is a bridge which we can’t use. The other is a tunnel which isn’t open.

Hammersmith Bridge and Crossrail: easy metaphors for a city in trouble. The capital needs to get its confidence back after Covid. Sorting out these embarrassments would help.

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10 February 2021

Phantom Sign Swipers, Mental Health, early reopening, TRB and ferry
The Barnes Village Bugle

Articles on our signs, our joint (with the BCA) Mental Health Survey, no early opening of the bridge to pedestrians, feasibility study on the Fosters & Partners TRB and an update on TFL's ferry procurement process

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14 September 2020

Hammersmith Bridge farce is apocalyptic for trade, warn businesses
The Evening Standard

Despairing shopkeepers and restaurant owners based on either side of the crippled Hammersmith Bridge today spoke of how trade had collapsed by as much as half since it was closed to pedestrian and cyclists last month.

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10 September 2020

Hammersmith Bridge: Task force appointed to reopen crossing
BBC

A Government task force has been launched to reopen Hammersmith Bridge.

Cracks in the pedestals led to motor vehicles being prohibited from using the 133-year-old cast iron bridge in April 2019.

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12 September 2020

Hammersmith Bridge: Who will stump up the cash for the repair bill?
ITV NEWS

Furious residents left in limbo by the closure of Hammersmith Bridge are still wondering who will foot the £140m repair bill. The West London bridge has been closed to traffic for over a year and 2 weeks ago all crossings were stopped.

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