Putney is getting new foundations this week – one at street level, one at the spiritual heart of the community.
At the corner of Putney High Street and Putney Bridge Road, surveyors marked up the derelict buildings housing the former Ramna restaurant, Gadget Xchange, and Preto Brazilian steakhouse on Monday ahead of imminent demolition. Workers were already inside tearing the structures apart, with one telling Putney.news “it’s going to be a complete demolition” – speaking with the kind of excitement that suggests he knows he’s clearing away an eyesore.
The site has been a visual and commercial blight for years. After planning permission was granted in 2021 for a 198-room Hub by Premier Inn hotel with ground-floor retail units, developer Mosser Limited appeared to shelve the project, leaving the corner to deteriorate further. The buildings sat largely empty until squatters occupied them in August, running a theft ring from the premises before bailiffs finally cleared them out in September.
Now, eight years after the initial 2017 application, the transformation is finally beginning. Scaffolding will go up imminently, with demolition clearing the site before construction starts in March 2026. The project is expected to complete in 2028, creating a modern stepped building rising seven to ten storeys with three commercial units at street level.
The demolition phase raises the inevitable question plaguing Putney: where will all the trucks park? The site sits at Putney’s most congested junction, and developers have applied for permission to use Putney Bridge Road for construction vehicles – a prospect that fills residents with dread given current traffic chaos. Still, most will welcome progress after years of stagnation.
A quieter foundation
Meanwhile, on Putney Park Lane, St Margaret’s Church has completed a more modest but equally welcome improvement. The church’s pathway has been resurfaced with sturdy resin and gravel, replacing broken concrete that had become increasingly treacherous.
The new path is a marked improvement – solid underfoot and attractive to look at. It’s the kind of practical investment that makes a church more accessible for elderly parishioners, easier for funerals and events, and simply more welcoming to the community.
But the timing is bittersweet. The pathway’s completion coincides with rumours of the departure of Reverend Doctor Brutus Green for a new church and a fast track to bishop – recognition, if true, of his service to the Putney community.
The new path will outlast him, of course. That’s the nature of these things – physical improvements remain while people move on. But it’s hard not to see the freshly laid pathway as a kind of parting gift, a lasting contribution even as he walks a different path.
Moving forward
Together, the two projects capture something about community life: the massive transformations that take years to materialise, and the quieter improvements that appear almost overnight. One clears away blight and promises economic renewal. The other simply makes daily life a bit easier, a bit more dignified.
Putney High Street’s regeneration still faces significant hurdles – two years of construction dust and traffic disruption chief among them. But with Marks & Spencer also renovating nearby for an Easter reopening, momentum is finally building after years of decline.
At St Margaret’s, the path is already there – smooth, solid, ready for whatever comes next.
