Building An Innovative Pop-Up Cafe with Barr Gazetas

The Customer

Home to some of the UK’s most creative businesses, Battersea Studios’ owners were keen to make the most of every square foot of the iconic building at Silverthorne Road, Battersea. 

As a result, London based architects, Barr Gazetas, commissioned S Jones and our specialist engineers and designs to help them realise their ambitions and bring the concept to life using modified containers.

The Challenge

Battersea Studios’ primary aim was to free up the valuable commercial space that the previous cafe was occupying. In introducing a pop-up cafe to replace the previous cafe, the free space would then be able to be rented out to interested parties.

The S Jones Solution

We supplied two modified shipping containers as the basis for the pop up café, so the former cafeteria space in the main building can be redeveloped for additional rentable space.

The containers were designed and supplied together with the access stairs and mezzanine platform, and roof structure with letter ‘B’ sign that sits on top of the overall structure.

The ‘B’ sign, which weighs a considerable 1400kg, is mounted onto a complex support structure.  

It is fabricated from 20mm thick laser cut Corten steel sections to create its ‘dashed’ appearance that becomes strikingly 3D when illuminated at night.

Barr Gazetas’ use of Corten steel for the sign and stair cladding, combined with the corrugations of the containers creates a striking ‘industrialistic’ look – the Corten steel is a specialist ‘weathering’ steel that is typically installed unpainted and allowed to oxidise (rust) to create a patinated finish.

The Angel of the North is made of this material, as are the cladding panels of shipping containers because of the Corten steel’s corrosion resistant properties.