eyecatcher

Unusual sites from around the globe

Bradmore House is a true curiosity. Today the facade of what remains of this Baroque country house in picaresque Hammersmith Broadway, London W6, conceals Deals bar and diner, a restaurant with a transatlantic twist that landed this way with the new London headquarters of the Coca-Cola corporation and the complete Post-Modern redevelopment of this hugely busy traffic junction and transport interchange in 1994. Designed by Thomas Archer and built c1710, Bradmore House has been home to the 18th-century actress Anne Oldfield, a school and, as every pre-deregulation busman will know, the entrance front to Hammersmith Bus Garage from 1913 when much of the house was demolished. The sight of handsome red double-deckers passing through the baroque portals of what was left of Bradmore House was, for 70 years, one of the more incongruous and eccentric sites brash Hammersmith Broadway had to show.

To celebrate the unlikely survival of this facade, the Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group has just published a booklet recording the history of this baroque eyecatcher, priced pounds 3.50.

For further information, call 0181-740 0138