Meet our new councillors and Have Your Say
HyPER members are invited to a “town hall” meeting with our newly elected councillors for the Hyde Park Estate: Md Shamsed Chowdhury, Greg Ero and Elliot Keck on Thursday 18th June at St John’s Church Hall, Hyde Park Crescent. We will begin the meeting with each councillor giving an introduction and laying out their vision and plans for the Hyde Park Estate. This will be followed by a fast-paced Q&A session with questions from attendees. It’s very early days, with the new Westminster Council administration still taking shape, but HyPER and our new Hyde Park Estate councillors want…
Next phased launched for St Mary’s consultation
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has launched the second phase of public consultation on their emerging proposals to redevelop St Mary’s Hospital. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a new, modern hospital for the needs of patients, local communities and staff, and also allows the wider regeneration of the site. Following the first phase of public consultation earlier this year, the team has been reviewing feedback and developing the proposals further. More details are now being shared including emerging designs for the new hospital and a wider masterplan. The second phase of consultation runs for six weeks,…
Shakespeare returns to Connaught Square
Shakespeare in the Squares returns to the Hyde Park Estate this year. The team will celebrate their tenth anniversary with a new production of Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy of flirtation, foolishness and the irresistible pull of love. The production will be directed by Toby Gordon and as with previous years will be held in Connaught Square. The show takes place on Wednesday 17th June with tickets available from the Shakespeare in the Squares website. Please check in at the box office desk on arrival even if you are a local resident. The performance will begin promptly…
Hyde Park Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team Event
The police Safer Neighbourhood Team for Hyde Park Ward is holding a Crime Prevention Day on Thursday 25th June from 11am to 3pm. The event will take place at 5 Merchant Square (Paddington Basin) and will include:
Community Consultation on the Transformation of St Mary’s Paddington
HyPER has been taking part in the consultation by St Mary’s Paddington about the transformation of the hospital over the next ten years. At the two-hour workshop about the design of the transformed hospital, we were represented by Chris Gunness. The session, about the patient experience and accessibility, focused on the various spaces inside the new thirty-floor facility – reception areas, waiting spaces, eating facilities, wards, treatment areas and outside spaces, to name but some. The session included local residents as well as patients. Future consultations will engage hospital staff as well as other key stakeholders, such as…
Answers to Local Elections Questions 2026
This year’s local elections take place on Thursday 7th May. This looks set to be a busy ballot paper, unusually with a full 3 candidates standing for the Green Party and Reform, in addition to the normal representation from The Conservatives, Labour and The Liberal Democrats. On this page we outline the candidates for Hyde Park Ward, and provide their responses to the HyPER questions that were assimilated from those submitted by HyPER members. We asked the candidates to provide a photograph and biography of themselves, which we have included below where received. We have listed the parties…
Questions from Hyde Park Estate residents for local councillor candidates
With local elections approaching on Thursday 7th May, we thought it would be good to sound out the candidates on where they stand on key issues that affect our neighbourhood. This looks set to be a busy ballot paper, unusually with a full 3 candidates standing for the Green Party and Reform, in addition to the normal representation from The Conservatives, Labour and The Liberal Democrats. We asked HyPER members for the topics or questions that they would like to be addressed. From all the responses, we picked the main issues and whittled the questions down to 4…
St Mary’s Hospital – Hospital design workshops
St Mary’s Hospital is running a couple of public-facing workshops that will focus on the design of a new St Mary’s. These workshops will be more focused on the patient experience and access considerations around the new hospital and how it will feel for patients and visitors to navigate. They will not include the external design of the hospital, which more will be provided on in the next round of public consultation expected to launch in June. Anyone interested in these initial patient experience workshops can sign up at this link. There will be a morning and afternoon…
Licensing Application from McDonald’s Edgware Road
The owners of the McDonald’s franchise on Edgware Road have submitted a renewed application to operate 24/7. A previous application was widely opposed previously and was rejected. Individual submissions can be made on the council’s website. The last date for representations to be received is 22nd April 2026.
Praed Street Public Art Programme
As part of the High-Streets Paddington-Bayswater programme Westminster Council is developing a series of public art commissions for Praed Street, working with a public art agency. The first commission being taken forward is to select one artist to deliver two 2D mural artworks on Praed Street. An artist Open call for Submissions has been published. A jury panel has been assembled, including a representative from HyPER, who will work with Westminster Council and the agency LACUNA to shortlist and select the winning artists. The purpose of the jury is to: The first jury panel will take place in…
Visitor Information Kiosk in Hyde Park- Volunteers Wanted
The Friends of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens need friendly volunteers for their summer visitor information kiosk at Hyde Park Corner. The season runs from April to mid-October and the main role is helping visitors navigate and enjoy the park. Almost 25,000 visitors were helped last year. The kiosk operates Monday to Friday with two shifts each day (10 am – 1 pm and 1 pm – 4 pm), with volunteers working in pairs. Whether you want to help on a regular basis (once a week, once a fortnight) or just fill in for the odd shift, there…
A40 Westway closed from this Friday
A planned closure of the A40 Westway commences this Friday 20th, to enable vital safety and maintenance work to take place. The closure will be from the Westway Roundabout in North Kensington up to (and including) the Marylebone flyover. Marylebone Road itself will be open. The closure will last until late April. The critical safety work will replace structural joints between the Westway and Marylebone flyovers, which have reached the end of their serviceable life. TfL and partners have been carrying out renewal works for a number of years. This next phase of work involves replacing two joints on the…
Bayswater Road cycle lane proposals
Westminster Council has released plans to upgrade the cycle lanes on Bayswater Road between Lancaster Gate and Notting Hill. The proposals include the addition of protected cycle lanes (replacing the existing painted cycle lanes) as well as upgraded pedestrian crossings. Have you say on the consultation website (closes Wed 4th February).
Updates from Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
HyPER attended the Royal Parks stakeholder meeting on Thursday 19th November. This is an opportunity for the Royal Parks to inform HyPER and its members of news regarding Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, and is also an opportunity to provide feedback regarding residents’ questions and any concerns. Policing Update The meeting started with a briefing from the outgoing superintendent of the Parks Police, Superintendent Owen Renowden. Owen reiterated the amount of work that has been undertaken to ensure a smooth transition as possible from the dedicated Royal Parks policing unit to the replacement of their duties by local…
HyPER succeeds in application to continue pollution monitor
HyPER’s application to continue the provision of our air pollution sensor has been successful. Breathe London, who run the project, had obtained funding to continue, but only with half the number of sensors across London. As such, each owner of an existing node had to reapply, with those groups deemed to have strong community backing and a comprehensive plan for its use being successful in their application. The data from the monitor can be viewed at the Breathe London website.
Farewell to Royal Parks Police
HyPER said its goodbyes to the Royal Parks Police, who sadly disbanded recently, on the 31st October. The farewell took place at the last Safer Parks Panel in its current form, which (given the circumstances) was a lively affair and a good send off for the team. As well as saying goodbye and thanks to old faces, we also met and heard from members of ward police teams who will take on the responsibilities. The Royal Parks police had developed successful tactics to target snatches (such as phones) and they have advised the ward teams on this. The…
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