Hammersmith is the home of Hammersmith Odeon (now Apollo) the venue for great music and theatre. It is also about shopping with shops like Habitat, Disney and others in the area and the district is also about culture and entertainment.
Entertainment in Hammersmith can be found at the Lyric theatre on Kings Street which celebrates all things theatrical. With two spaces, a 550-seat 19th century classical auditorium and a 110-seat studio, it has worked in recent years with some of theatres most groundbreaking artists to take theatre in new and bold directions.
The Apollo a venue which has seen some of the great music acts of our time such as David Bowie, Yes, AC/DC, Guns N Roses etc, has also comedy acts like Little Britain and set plays of our time, as that of Sir Cliff Richards "Heathcliff".
The Riverside Studios also offers theatre and music as well. The famous Hammersmith Palais (now demolished) was a great place to go to dance the night away, much remembered by past generations of the place they met their first love.
Much of the area has been used both in films and on television programs such as the "Sweeny" and one of the most notable buildings architecturally in the district is the "Ark" build to represent Noah's ark in the Bible. It can be seen from quite far and is very unusual. Another notable building is that of a Doctors office near the A4 and Hammersmith Bridge called the "Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery", very strange!
The pubs on the River Thames are a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon, to have lunch, or on a summer evening, or maybe to catch the Great Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge which runs between Hammersmith Bridge and Chiswick Bridge.
As in many parts of London, parks are an essential part to any area and Hammersmith is not short of her green zones, the largest being that of Ravenscourt Park with its pond and ducks, its paddling and children's areas, its tennis courts, and coffee shop. On November the 5th it has a large bonfire to commemorate Guy Fawlkes night, in the summer it holds open air concerts, fairs, and children's events. There is also a secluded part of the park which offers a herb and roses garden for the blind and partially sighted and those of us that love the smell of herbs and flowers.
Hammersmith is in west London, and is situated on the north bank of the River Thames. The last 20 years have seen the growth of Hammersmith into a commercial centre and now the area has become home to several multinational companies, which make it a natural centre of activity and the focal point of the district is the commercial centre (the Broadway Centre), which houses a shopping centre bus station, an Underground station and an office complex. Major companies have their offices within the complex such as, Coca-Cola, Disney, EMI, L'Oreal, Sony Ericsson and others.
Many of the 3 star hotels are within the vicinity of the Broadway Centre such as the
Novotel London West Hotel.
Within its area there are two leading teaching hospitals, Charing Cross & Hammersmith Hospital, with each being pioneers in their fields that of Cancer and IVF as led by Professor Winston at Hammersmith and Charing Cross being the serious injuries centre for west London providing complex surgery and plastic reconstruction, treatment for trauma including head injuries and open fractures, head, and neck.
Locations very near Hammersmith that offer shopping and entertainment are
Shepherds Bush and
Chelsea and
South Kensington,
Oxford Street is only 20 minutes by London Underground.
