This proposal sits on Strand in between Trafalgar square and Charing Cross Station. The project’s aim is to design a facade in the city that incorporates the principles of classical language of architecture while investigating the relationship between interior and facade, the private and public realm, scale and relief. The final proposal is inspired by a market hall that existed in place of Charing Cross station called Hungerford Market in 1845 designed by Charles Fowler. The original market had a large colonnade that acted as an sensational introductory element to the building for pedestrian approaching it from a river footbridge. This idea was used in the proposal for the Charing Cross Forecourt so that the passenger leaving the station experience a colonnade that will express large scale, traditional proportions and intricate classical details specially on the lower part of the building where classical architecture is most perceivable and can be touched or interacted with on a busy street like strand.
The colonnade will consist of a transit market which will replace the shops inside Charing cross station to make way for a larger hall that will serve the dense crowd passing through the station. The colonnade is proportioned with Portland stone columns of the Doric order which hold up brick groin vaults. The shop fronts consist of two Ionic orders sitting on top of each other and these carry the Groin Vaults when they meet with the colonnade. Instead of shops continuing throughout the building like a traditional arcade gaps are introduced to maintain permeability for pedestrians passing through it.