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Architects: vPPR
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Lewis Ronald
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Manufacturers: Bespoke, Bradleys Metal Finishers, Cadisch MDA, Q-railing, Saige, Schüco
Text description provided by the architects. The Lucky Club is a new bar in Camden that is perched alongside the Grade II* Listed Horse Hospital, designed by vPPR Architects for LabTech Ltd. The lightweight structure has been delicately positioned above the historic built fabric of the Stables Market, wrapping around the corner facing onto Chalk Farm Road. The design draws on the heritage of its location, with an undulating steel pattern that acts as a crown, signaling North London’s newest hotspot.
The existing enclave of brick buildings was created to service the Victorian railway that sprang up in Camden as it became a mecca for the transportation of goods. This also meant that hundreds of horses were needed to help with the hustle and bustle of nineteenth-century life, and therefore the stables and Horse Hospital became their home. The area has since radically changed but this history has supplied inspiration for the new bar.
The V-shaped metalwork that supports the roof structure acts as a playful reference to the triangular openings in stables that are used to allow horses to poke their heads out for feeding. These gaps now supply views of the busy nightlife that takes place in the streets below. Between the openings, a series of vertical grills take their cues from the historic Horse Hospital, which uses the device to subdivide spaces while still maintaining openness and transparency.
Sculptural semicircular peaks on top of the roof are formed from the shape of the single porthole in the gable end of the Horse Hospital also. As the bar follows the curve of the building, it creates a variety of spaces – thin and wide, covered and open, planted or not planted, metal roof or clear roof – leading people across to the open terrace beside the railway. The venue is accessed via the Horse Ramp, with the bar immediately in view upon arrival.
