Sainsbury's supermarket

Sainsbury's supermarket

Built between 1986 and 1988 to designs by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners (architect in charge Neven Sidor), with structural engineers Kenchington, Little and Partners. Grade II listed.

The building is constructed with a steel frame clad in glass and several types of pre-fabricated aluminium panel. The exposed elements of the frame are fireproofed in epoxy-based thick film intumescent coatings, said to be the first large-scale architectural application of this product, which had been developed for offshore and military applications.

The roughly rectangular plan responds to a tight urban site on Camden Road in north London, opposite an early 19th-century terrace. The site's constraints precluded the dispersed layout typical of out-of-town supermarkets. Grimshaw's solution stacks some ancillary functions into first-floor strips running along the long edges, creating a two-storey elevation to street and rear. Staff accommodation and plant rooms are positioned along the Camden Road frontage, accessed via a rooftop link from the back. Beneath and between these two-storey elements sits the main shopping hall, a single-height space requiring a clear span of 43.2 metres—about twice that of Grimshaw's earlier shed buildings. Behind the main building is an ancillary service block within an enclosed yard; goods lorries enter and exit via two separate points on Kentish Town Road.

Entry is via a single-storey vestibule to the west, opening into a curved-roof atrium that forms a through-route from Camden Road to Kentish Town Road. At the rear, an enclosure shelters a pair of travelators descending to a basement car park. The trollies are fitted with a locking device allowing their use on the travelators—a now-widespread technology but innovative at the time. The lower height of the entrance and atrium respectfully defers to the neighbouring Church of St Michael (Grade II* listed).

The exterior expression centres on three elements: displayed structure, a glazed shopfront revealing retail activity within, and the use of contemporary materials—glass, steel and aluminium. Reacting against typical retail blandness, Grimshaw gave the store an assertive, urban presence while matching the cornice line of the opposite terrace.

The design employs an elaborate structural system. Arched roof trusses over the central shopping hall are bolted at each end to the underside of pairs of opposing cantilever girders. These girders are anchored by vertical clusters of four tension rods running down to steel shoes mounted on tall concrete plinths. Secondary cantilever girders above support the roof trusses for the first-floor accommodation strips, anchored to the lower girder by a single tension rod.

The exposed structure breaks the long Camden Road elevation into 11 boldly expressed bays (the fourth from the left contains an external escape stair). The clusters of tension rods create an arcade-like effect, standing proud of the recessed shopfront glazed with deep, fin-like glazing bars. A pierced sheet steel balustrade runs between the concrete plinths, enclosing the basement and bringing light and air to the car park. First-floor accommodation rises from the girder's back edge, jettying out over the shopfront and clad in louvred panels (for plant rooms) and ribbed aluminium panels with horizontal glazing strips. The ribbed panels develop those Grimshaw devised for the Herman Miller factory at Chippenham. Between shopfront top and first-floor underside, a glazed void is spot-lit from within, allowing views from Camden Road through to the curved shopping hall roof and revealing the full length and depth of each girder.

The entrance vestibule and travelator enclosure have opposing mono-pitched roofs clad in aluminium panels. The atrium roof spanning between them in a shallow arc is a more intricate structure formed of translucent barrel vaults supported on gently tapering steel columns. The north and east elevations are clad in aluminium panels between the exposed structural members.

Internally, Grimshaw's principal contribution is the gentle curve of the ceiling, echoing the roof trusses. Inspired by traditional market halls, this simple intervention adds height and spatial interest to an otherwise standardised retail interior where the structure remains unexposed. The car park, interior fittings, fixtures and non-structural partitions (excepting the curved ceiling) are not considered of special architectural or historic interest, though works affecting the building's character may require listed building consent.