Church Street is a historic market street in Westminster which extends from Edgware Road in the south-west to Lisson Grove in the north-east. The Triangle is located at the geographical centre of the ward, at the intersection between Salisbury Street and Church Street, demarcating a strategic and economic divide between the more affluent antiques quarter in the north-east and the local market occupying the south-west. The neighbourhood is one of the most deprived wards in the country and experiences the lowest indicators of well-being in the borough. At street level, the weekday market has struggled to diversify its offer, while accessibility was limited by the closure of the half-timbered public toilet.
JKA and Westminster secured support from the the Mayor of London in 2018 for proposals to bridge this divide by re-connecting the Triangle into the physical and social context of the market, bringing vacant shops and the disused public toilet back into use and improving the public realm. Westminster’s wider Church Street Masterplan will bring new homes, retail, community space, public realm and green space over the next 15 years. Meanwhile, these improvements to the Triangle, completed incrementally between 2021-24, provide vital infrastructure to support the market’s food stalls and ensure that residents and visitors alike are able to share vital public space throughout the neighbourhood’s transition.
Each design intervention makes a deliberate new connection across existing physical and social divides. A zinc extension to the public toilet opens a wide glazed entrance onto the public realm to host a café. A pared-back fit-out to a vacant furniture showroom fronting onto the Triangle draws local micro-enterprise into compact workspaces via a new internal ‘marketplace’ operated by Arbeit Studios. Patch repairs and rough underlying finishes remain exposed, acknowledging the space’s layered history and the incremental work of repair and restoration, while glazed partitions draw daylight deep into the plan to provide local start-ups and market traders with a stable and visible foothold.
The Triangle forms part of Westminster City Council’s Enterprise Space programme to provide affordable workspace for the local community. The first resident businesses include local makers looking to scale their operation alongside growing circular economy businesses, from trainer upcycling and sustainable toys to handmade jewellery, accessories and fashion. The café is currently operated by Haven Coffee, a refugee-founded coffee brand with a social mission to support refugees across London.
Outside, a traffic lane has been removed to reconnect the public toilet and café into the Triangle and the market in an expanded public realm. Meandering gabions, filled with old roof tiles from the toilet roof and York stone salvaged from nearby public realm works, provide sociable but informal seating arrangement to support food stalls while also welcoming local residents. Backrests in folded metal ensure that users of varying mobility can comfortably spend time in the Triangle.
The project emerged through collaboration across disciplines and local authority departments to work ambitiously to re-link the life of the square across commercial spaces, public realm, highways and marketplace. Its success will lie in the growth of a firmly embedded and inclusive local business ecosystem which welcomes local residents and visitors alike to the Church Street Triangle.
