The redevelopment of Avonmore School will see the homes delivered alongside a new state-of-the-art educational facility
Work to redevelop a West London primary school to build a new state-of-the-art educational facility and 91 homes is now set to go ahead following an agreement on land use.
Pre-work has already begun at Avonmore Primary School in Hammersmith and Fulham following the plans’ approval by councillors in November 2024. Cabinet members have now also agreed to appropriate some of the land from ‘education use’ to housing, a necessary step to enable construction to begin.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council Leader, Stephen Cowan, praised the scheme as a “major success” in bringing much-needed housing to the borough.
The Avonmore redevelopment, for which the council is both the developer and the freeholder of the site, was deemed necessary due to the condition of the school buildings. Of the 91 homes, 45 are to be affordable, with improvements also planned for the public realm.
Cabinet members had agreed in 2019 that Avonmore would be the first project in its Community Schools Programme, an initiative seeking to use funds from new housing developments to revitalise some of the borough’s primary schools.
The redevelopment of the school, built in the 1950s, was not without controversy, with 76 objections received to the application.
At the planning committee meeting in 2024, Richard Farthing, former Chair of the Hammersmith Society, said: “You’re taking away public land for what appears to be at least 50 per cent private gain, and the school isn’t actually that bad overall.”
Approval was granted, following which staff and pupils relocated to the former Queensmill School on Mund Street to enable construction work to begin.
Because the project involved constructing homes on land designated for educational use, it also required Government sign-off, which was given in December 2025.
At a Cabinet meeting this week, councillors gave the final nod to designate the land for planning purposes, allowing construction to proceed.
In a report, council officers wrote: “The redevelopment’s aim is to create a lasting and positive legacy of a well-designed, inclusive, accessible school and residential development with energy efficient buildings, to transform the locality into one that caters for the safety and wellbeing of local residents as well as offering social and economic benefits including employment and training during the construction stage.”
Cllr Andrew Jones, Cabinet Member for the Economy, told members that the new school will deliver an “enhanced learning environment” and replace the existing “defunct” site.
Cllr Alex Sanderson, Deputy Leader with responsibilities for Health and Social Care and Children and Education, said: “This is a really welcome milestone after quite a long journey for the Avonmore School community. We are replacing an outdated post-war building with a modern, sustainable, and really inclusive school with much, much better facilities for children with SEND, new spaces for learning, for playing, for community use.”
She added that the scheme will also deliver 91 homes, “which makes much better use of the site”.
Cllr Cowan praised Cllr Jones’ work on the project, which he described as “a major success”.
“You talk to anyone in the building industry, and they will say there’s not a lot of building going on at the moment. You talk to anybody in other councils, and they will say they’re struggling to get stuff out of the ground. And yet here we have yet another scheme.”
He said the redevelopment will deliver “a state-of-the-art building, with the latest facilities”, adding: “It will change children’s lives, but also it will provide much-needed housing that is crucial to the London economy.”
A council timeline uploaded online notes that the main building and the homes are expected to be completed in late summer 2028.
A spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham Council previously said: “We are excited to start rebuilding Avonmore Primary School to create the new, state-of-the-art learning spaces that both pupils and teachers deserve, especially with new facilities for pupils with special educational needs.
“We have a strong record of educational success in Hammersmith and Fulham with some of the highest performing schools in the country. And we’re building a record amount of affordable homes locally.”
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