The block of properties located at 3 to 9 Junction Rd occupy a key and highly visible site opposite Archway underground station, at which more than 8 million passengers enter and exit each year. Sited at the top of Junction Road, adjacent to the Archway gyratory, forming the most significant of the shopfront projects being undertaken by the practice.

The existing block was found in a very poor condition, with peeling paintwork to the brickwork, decayed shopfronts, redundant cable and services, and missing historical detailing at high level. The project aimed to improve the block as a whole, unifying the elevation and bringing common detailing to the shopfronts. In addition, as part of the work related to the conservation area, the stucco detailing would be replaced.

“One thing we found was that people didn't initially understand the collective benefit of the scheme, says Simon Goode, “the advantage of doing four shops, plus the multitude of units above, adds more than their individual architectural value. We worked collaboratively with each of the owners, so they’d appreciate that we wouldn't be imposing our design ideas on their businesses – built up over several decades in some cases.”

The first terraces appeared along Junction Road in the early 1850s, and there are still remnants of original shop front detailing visible in parts of the building elevation. As part of their assessment of the refurbishment and restoration required, the team looked to historical photographs of the shop, which had been documented in 1904 by Ernest Milner as part of the construction of the Northern Line.

Due to the lack of street lighting, many of the shopfronts along Junction Road had external lamps. This included no. 5, as shown in the historical photo, left. Signs were fitted to the main fascia boards, shop window glass, above the fascia boards, and higher up on the brickwork. A capital, in the form of a scroll or corbel, typically delineated the boundary between each shop.

As with many of the shop fronts along Junction Road, the building frontage had been neglected over the decades and was in need of an up-lift. The decoration was in poor condition and there were a number of unsightly cables and grilles fixed or hanging against the facade. All that appeared to remain of the original 1904 shopfronts are the projecting corbels to 9 Junction Rd. In part, the condition was found to be due to bomb damage, with records showing that two high explosive bombs fell between 1940 and 1941, one in the street in front of the site, and one just south of the site.