H&F council officers recommend against bidding for restoration of Hammersmith Bridge
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Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) council, which owns Hammersmith Bridge, had begun preparing a bid to the UK Government’s £1billion Structures Fund.
As Barnes2050 noted at the time, nobody knew what the council intended to seek funding for.
Now we do.
A report from council officers ahead of the H&F Cabinet meeting on Monday 6 July recommends against pursuing funding for the Bridge’s full restoration.
Instead it concludes:
There is no financial option available that would allow its full restoration.
The report says restoring the Bridge for motor traffic would now cost around £300million.
Instead, officers recommend seeking funding for a phased repair programme designed to keep the bridge open to pedestrians, wheelers, cyclists and river traffic.
The H&F Cabinet report is available online or can be downloaded below.
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H&F council’s financial pressures
The report argues that full restoration would amount to rebuilding much of the structure.
.. [It] essentially requires a brand-new bridge to be built as all of the Grade II* listed heritage structure needs to be replaced or strengthened or restored.
The cost of a full restoration of Hammersmith Bridge to allow its use for motor vehicles is now estimated to be £300million.
For the council, that cost is simply unaffordable. The report says,
.. the significant impact of the most recent medium-term financial settlement from Government on the Council’s General Fund from 2026/27 means that there are no options within Council funds for repair of the bridge.
Doing nothing is not an option either.
The bridge is officially classed as substandard and, the report warns:
Without significant investment, the bridge is likely to have to fully close again on safety grounds in the short to medium term.
Meanwhile, H&F says it is spending around £1.5million each year meeting its ongoing statutory obligations
Department for Transport (DfT ) advice
The Department for Transport had previously indicated that Hammersmith Bridge would be a strong candidate for the new £1billion Structures Fund, raising hopes among supporters of full restoration.
However, the H&F report says the programme timetable rules that out.
The latest date for programmes to reach completion is 31 March 2030, which precludes full restoration.
Following discussions with the Department for Transport, officers instead recommend submitting a bid focused on the Bridge’s most urgent structural needs. H&F should
.. submit a bid for a phased repair focused on the most critical life-expired elements of the structure, with the immediate aim of keeping the bridge open and safeguarding access for pedestrians, cyclists and river traffic.
The report says the Department for Transport supports this approach.
Notes and thoughts
Assuming H&F council Cabinet approve this change of policy, it marks an important moment.
Vehicles will not be restored to Hammersmith Bridge.
At least for the foreseeable future.
This is only one government funding programme. Others may emerge.
Even so, the direction of travel is becoming clearer.
Unless there is a fundamental change in approach — perhaps replacing the historic bridge altogether — the cost of restoring it for motor traffic is likely to keep rising. This designer will probablt never cost only £300m again.
At the same time, experience suggests that communities often become more comfortable with traffic reduction the longer it remains in place.
There are hints of that in this report.
Traffic modelling in the report suggests that, since the bridge closed to motor traffic, vehicle numbers on Kew, Chiswick, Putney and Wandsworth bridges have all fallen compared with 2018.
That is not entirely new. Barnes2050 has highlighted similar trends using Department for Transport and Transport for London data since 2025.
What is new is that H&F officers are now explicitly asking Cabinet,
.. [to] base future decisions about motor traffic returning to the bridge on objective travel and traffic flow information.
Whither Barnes?
Attention should now turn to the future.
What sort of Barnes do we want if Hammersmith Bridge remains open to pedestrians and cyclists, but not private cars?
What happens to Castlenau?
How should the transport system work on the peninsula?
There will be more about this report in the days ahead.