Plans for 'Boxpark' Next to Shepherd's Bush Market Rejected by Council

'Container city' would have housed 74 glass front shipping containers

Hammersmith & Fulham Council has refused permission for a 'container city' featuring cafés, restaurants, and artists’ studios on The Old Laundry site beside Shepherd's Bush Market.

The site, between the market and Pennard Road, has been unused for many years and developers u+i said earlier this year that they were planning to revitalise it with temporary food and drink pop-ups and co-working space for the local community, cultural groups and start-up businesses.

The 'boxpark plan' for the original one-acre development site was to add a modern extension to the 103 year-old Shepherd’s Bush Market housed in 74 glass-fronted shipping containers, which would be open until 10pm at weekends.

The developers held a public consulation on the plans in spring, which resulted in almost 200 local residents registering their complaints.

Similar Boxparks have already provied a success in Brixotn and Shoreditch and the project in W12 would potentially have been London’s largest, with plans for events including yoga workshops, children’s parties, and silent cinema screenings in a public square at its centre.

Launching the plans, a spokesman for u+i said: "The overall strategy for our proposals is to start to ensure that Shepherd’s Bush becomes a hub of cultural diversity and artistic talent.

"Our plans are a trigger to really raise the profile of the existing market, so that footfall is encouraged and Shepherd’s Bush Market is a destination market once more.”

A £150 million plan to build luxury flats on the site had also previously collapsed when developers Orion Land & Leisure and the U+I Group failed to secure a compulsory purchase order on a slice of land in Goldhawk Road that they needed to complete their building site.

Location of the Old Laundry site

For more information visit the My Shepherd's Bush Market website.