Forum Topic

Empire House

The whole street level facade has disappeared behind a hoarding and there's some scaffolding up to high level on the NW corner of the tower. Has development kicked-off at last?

Ken Munn ● 2179d17 Comments

They probably saw the great strides towards a low traffic greener Chiswick and realised their asset was finally going to pay dividends.

Will Watson ● 2178d

Err, no Will.  They have seen the nightmare that Chiswick is becoming and the number of people saying they want to get out because of the destruction Hounslow and Ealing have wrought with these schemes.  As long as they can still tell potential residents of expensive homes they are temporary measures, they have a chance.  If set in stone, they will find the units very, very difficult to sell even at a much lower price.

Claire Moran ● 2178d

So it's a final goodbye to the historic original Blockbuster video shop façade, complete with its original 'drop off' letter box! Try explaining that to the Netflix generation!

Peter Evans ● 2178d

Oh Will, the unintentional irony of your post. If the conversion was already done, the residents would have been able sit on their balconies for the last month and breath in the polluted air from the permanent queue of eastbound traffic on the High Rd. Traffic has eased with lockdown but once things reopen the major reduction in High Road capacity means these queues will be permanent.Then you have the junction with Acton Lane, already very busy and congested before Hounslow forced even more traffic on this route. TFL helped out with the white elephant bus gate, reducing eastbound capacity at the junction and now near permanent queues back past Halfords.What joy not just for Empire House but all the new and still being built flats along that part of the High Road. And the new flats being built on Acton Lane as part of Empire House.And if the residents do cycle, the queues and congestion along Acton Lane, the local High Road and the roads around Turnham Green will make it far more difficult.

Paul Green ● 2178d

...but does anyone know what's actually happening now on the site?

Ken Munn ● 2178d

No, it would suggest some works are beginning. But where these sit in the broader scheme who knows.The added construction traffic once this properly kicks off will be a delight for local residents though on the nicely busy roads.

Paul Green ● 2178d

I spoke to the foreman last week. The cladding (glass to you and me) is being removed and the adjacent shops demolished

David McLoughlin ● 2178d

Thanks David.

Ken Munn ● 2178d

New owners and stated many weeks ago on here that works will start without a time frame given at the time

Julian Pavey ● 2178d

A few weeks ago, there was a person in Sainsbury's surveying/measuring upAnd I asked if this was to do with the forthcoming development, and was told, yes it was,So I guess one of the larger development plans involving Sainsbury's store (and possibly car park?) Is underway in some shape

Claudia Jachtmann ● 2178d

Once upon a time this was all going to be one big development, with Sainsbury's moving to the front to have a road frontage onto CHR, and the residential moving to the back where Sainsbury's was.  But then the two sites and projects got separated, so who knows what we're going to get now!

Peter Evans ● 2178d

Hopefully a development that looks better than what is there now!

James Wright ● 2178d

Could it be that Sainsbury’s are moving their front doors to the High Road instead of Essex place which would mean the demolition of the existing shops space?I’ve also heard that Sainsbury’ s are to close all of their Argos stores.

Rima Jones ● 2178d

I have also seen surveyors inside Sainsbury’s recently.

Rima Jones ● 2178d

The existing planning permission is for Empire House, two new smaller blocks and the townhouses backing onto Sainsburys goods entrance. No application as yet has been made for the Sainsbury site.

Paul Green ● 2178d

What planning permission has been given for the space where the shops were?

Rima Jones ● 2178d

Rima, According to Sainsbury's they will only be closing the 'out of store' Argos stores. apparently keeping the others such as Chiswick and Richmond (alledgedly).

Bob Guyett ● 2178d