Hammersmith Academy
Helping to establish Hammersmith Academy from an idea on paper to a new school in west London, through sponsorship, governance, funding and the practical business of creating an institution intended to outlast its founders.
Hammersmith Academy is one of the projects I am most pleased to have been involved with. I joined the project before there was a school to govern as one of the founding directors and trustees of the charitable company established to create it. And I remained involved as the idea moved through design, funding, legal agreements and construction to the school opening and moving to a less unconventional school governorship.
Looking back at the story now, what strikes me is how far from inevitable the eventual outcome was. The project changed shape several times, encountered some very real obstacles and, on more than one occasion, came very close to not happening at all.
From idea to building
An early model of the proposed Academy.
The full story is coming soon.
It is a story about much more than a building: two Livery Companies, local and national government, technology, education, money, governance, risk, persistence and - eventually - a school where there had not been one before.