vPPR’s Camden Market Canopy

The Camden Market Canopy hosts a new bar sitting aloft alongside the Grade II*-listed Horse Hospital and a railway. The lightweight structure has been delicately positioned above the historic built fabric of the Stables Market on the corner of two busy streets. The design, referencing a row of horses’ heads, draws on the heritage of its location and also acts as a crown, highlighting the north corner of Camden Market. 

The Lucky Club is housed in the new rooftop canopy at London’s Camden Market, which draws on the rich context of the former coal yard site and stables of the Camden Goods Station. Originally created to service the Victorian railway that sprang up in Camden in the early 19th century, the existing enclave of buildings framing the new addition was home to the hundreds of horses needed to service 19th century life.  Although no longer serving their original purpose, vPPR’s addition carries through the spirit of the old through a series of surgical site responses.

Approximately 340m² in size, the site – a long, narrow terrace atop the old roadway to the former Goods Yard – was not without its constraints. Bound to the north by the retaining Chalk Farm wall, it is located on a main road between Chalk Farm Underground Station to the north and Camden Market Underground Station to the south, and bounded by a 1990s wall to the west. Although the adjacent streets are lined with vibrant shops and cafés, mitigating noise spill-out to the nearby residential blocks to the north-west corner of Chalk Farm Road and Ferdinand Street was a design concern. Further complexity was added by the site’s location within the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area and adjacency to the Grade II*-listed Horse Hospital.

The design – a series of structural steel columns – essentially adopts the rhythm of the existing piers of the retaining wall below. Throughout, there are hints of playfulness that stitch the new seamlessly into the old. In places, these take the form of  V-shaped metalwork frames acting as a reference to the triangular openings in the old stables, fashioned to allow horses to poke their heads out for feeding. These gaps, resembling a row of horses’ heads, now supply views out to the busy nightlife in the streets below, the observer now being the observed. 

In some of the openings are vertical grills, taking their cue from the historic hospital, which uses a similar device to subdivide space while still maintaining openness and transparency. Overhead, semi-circular peaks on top of the roof are formed from the shape of the single rose window in the gable elevation of the hospital beyond. Details such as the ribbed texture of the canopy’s datum line allude to the decorative dentils on the hospital eaves. While the roof responds to the massing of buildings behind by and large, it flattens out in front of the hospital to acknowledge its presence.

Planning constraints aside, the historic context itself presented a series of geometric challenges; something the architects skilfully managed with the help of metalwork contractor Helm-X and structural engineers Meinhardt. The result is a delicate structure, lightly positioned above and away from the edges of the historic fabric of the Stables Market. Wrapping around the corner facing onto Chalk Farm Road, the new skeletal form draws on the material and heritage of its location with an undulating steel pattern that acts as crown to the historic walls defining the market edge.

‘The new canopy is offset from the historic walls, so it is designed as an independent structure, minimising its impact on the existing. As a result, the canopy is legible as a new layer of history on the site,’ explains vPPR director Jessica Reynolds.

For all its jauntiness, the structure performs a number of functional roles. From the outset, it was conceived as prefabricated modular steel components bolted together on site. The bespoke horse head-shaped columns are not only decorative but perform a functional role in transferring the load from roof to ground, while tubular columns act as rainwater pipes elsewhere. Throughout, decorative steel capping elements conceal myriad lighting, mechanical and electrical systems. These carry a patinated steel finish, in line with all other exposed elements of the canopy, providing practical space for finishes such as clothes hooks.

On the majority of structures surrounding the terrace, which was  built as part of Camden Goods Yard at the end of the 19th century, both heavy and delicate metalwork feature prominently. This industrial heritage is acknowledged in the patinated gray finish to the steel, which also complements surrounding slate roofs. It becomes dappled in changes of light and looks worn and at home against the historic backdrop of yellow stock brick. 

A new timber composite floor sits above a void of 1m from the existing deck, providing service access. Overhead, the roof covering changes in degrees of transparency, from fully open over the outdoor terrace, to semi-transparent polycarbonate, to opaque coverings over the bar.

As a long, narrow, irregularly shaped platform without a straight line or level surface, the new market addition addresses the complexity of site through an expression that belies the complexity of the existing condition. Straddling the edge of both the market and the busy streets beyond, the sinuous structure ties disparate elements of the site together and provides a slowing-down of tempo, acting as a resting point where two existing historic ramps meet. Here, there is a moment to pause and take in both the world of the market, as well as, in the opposite direction, views towards the city. Integrating itself delicately, the canopy becomes an extension of the market’s existing rhythms, making visible both historic and modern patterns of use.
Marwa El Mubark is an architect, writer and design tutor at Kingston School of Art

Architect’s view

The brief was to create a light-weight canopy that responds to its rich contextual heritage and becomes a strong visual marker for this prominent urban site. From afar, the façade reads as a series of urban rhythms reflecting a busy street. Close up, it is possible to decipher abstracted horse heads in the elevations. Bespoke V-shaped ‘horse-head-like’ columns, inspired by stable design, are capped with ear-like semi-circular roof profiles, the geometry derived from an adjacent rose window.

The column arrangement adopts the rhythm of the piers of the existing retaining wall below, while the roof rhythm responds to the massing of buildings behind. Details such as the ribbed texture of the canopy’s datum line allude to decoration on the Horse Hospital. 

In order to mitigate noise from the bar for local residents, a discrete acoustic glazed screen is inset on one edge, defining a small, quiet exterior terrace that activates the corner, as viewed from the street. As the bar follows the curve of the building, it creates a variety of spaces for visitors – thin/wide, covered/ open, planted/covered – leading people across to the open terrace beside the railway.

The complexity of the site benefited from a systematic approach to ensure buildability. The metal structure was bolted together on site and has a patinated finish in keeping with the existing architectural language of Camden Market.
Jessica Reynolds, director, vPPR Architects

Engineer’s view

The majority of structures surrounding the terrace where the canopy was constructed were built as part of Camden Goods Yard at the end of the 19th century. They were erected as gravity retaining walls to create a marshalling yard at the same level as the North London Railway line and designed to resist train surcharge loads, with a 2m-thick wall at the terrace location.

The site did not essentially change until 1990 when part of the Chalk Farm Road wall was demolished to develop a petrol station and a new road to the north of the site. These works turned the existing wall at a right angle, adding a massive concrete wall faced with yellow brick. Along with the original construction, it resulted in level changes across the terrace and presented a degree of uncertainty with respect to the foundations for the canopy, which is therefore designed as a standalone structure independent from the surrounding existing structures. Vertical and lateral loads are transferred onto the existing ground and retaining wall, which was able to support the relatively light load from the canopy and its associated imposed loads. The ground beneath is clay, with a 1m chalk hardcore on top, according to historical drawings.

The steel canopy comprises a steel frame resembling details on the Horse Hospital’s stables. It was formed from hollow box sections, which provide the best balance between visual appearance and the required stiffness. Some areas of the roof are braced by solid steel infill plates or cross-bracing to ensure the overall stability of the system. The canopy is supported on a series of bespoke columns, which transfer the loads to the foundations. 

The bespoke columns comprise a top curved plate supported on a square hollow vertical stem. All columns were analysed in detail to ensure all the requirements of a flat plate curved member would be met, in particular the major challenge from the risk of out-of-plane buckling. 

The canopy was manufactured as a kit of parts and then assembled on site. This method ensures a higher degree of construction safety and a minimum impact on the surroundings during site operations and is the most sustainable approach to construction.
Sanjay Patel, operations director, Meinhardt

Working detail

The venue re-uses what was originally a transitory site for working horses to transport freight between the railway and the canal. The new canopy is legible as a new layer of history on the site. The contextual historic materiality and form was analysed to inform the form and specification of the structure.

The blackened steel patina finish references the steel/ wrought iron historical features that exist throughout the market, tying into the industrial heritage of the site - slightly contrasting the multicoloured stock brick in the listed wall while connecting to the dark tones in the pier stone copings. 

The detailed design was carefully thought out to be as resourceful as possible: bespoke horse head-shaped columns transfer the load from the roof to the ground, straight circular structural columns are used as rainwater pipes – transferring the rainwater from the roof to below the decking.  Services and cabling are concealed within or behind the secondary decorative steel elements. The prefabricated structure is designed as modular steel components which can be disassembled and assembled elsewhere in the future if required. The level decking is 88 per cent recycled material. 

The systematic approach to designing a building ‘inside-out’ has led to intelligent solutions that have evolved from the site constraints.
Jessica Reynolds, director, vPPR Architects

Project data

Start on site June 2021
Completion January 2022
Gross internal floor area 485m²
Construction cost Undisclosed
Architect vPPR Architects
Client LabTech
Structural engineer Meinhardt
M&E consultant Michael Jones & Associates
Principal designer Cameron & Payne Associates
Approved building inspector SOCOTEC Building Control
Steelwork contractor Helm-X
Lighting designer Light Bureau
Planning consultant Gerald Eve
Acoustic consultant Big Sky Acoustics
Main contractor DFL Construction/Helm-X
CAD software used Vectorworks
Annual CO₂ emissions Not supplied