Scruffy but homely area of West
London, in the London borough of
Hammersmith and Fulham. Famous for music venues - Hammersmith Odeon and Hammersmith Palais are the big ones, plenty of small ones too - and music celebs, as both
EMI and
Polygram have their offices in the area. The rock band
Motorhead named an album after it - No Sleep Till Hammersmith. The Riverside film studios also have a high celeb count.
For you
Yanks, Hammersmith is the bit you drive through on the way into London from the airport with the huge building shaped like a ship - the Seagram building. There are some nice-looking
Richard Rogers flats along King Henry's Reach and also Ruth Rogers, his wife's, famous River Cafe, selling gourmet veggie food. Nice walks down by the
Thames on a summer's evening, past Hammersmith Bridge, which
IRA people keep trying to blow up. Bloody awful traffic.