This project is located at the west end of St. Alphage gardens on the south side of the fragment of London's Roman wall - at what was the west end of the medieval church of St. Alphage London Wall which was demolished in the C16th. Here the ground level drops down to that of the Salter's garden on the north side of the wall with a simple wooden stair connecting the two levels. This project proposes replacing that stair in such a way as to emphasise the connection between the two levels, to dramatise the act of ascending and descending the stair and to recreate something of a west end to the garden which occupies the site of the former church.
The project consists of a steel portico which spans over the stair fixed to the ground at both higher and lower levels. Each column of the portico holds a chime of varying lengths (and therefore notes). The mechanism which strikes the chimes is connected to sensors which record pressure on the treads of the steps. Each time a tread is stepped on the mechanism turns. A set of 1:2 and 1:3 ratio gears then adjusts this for each chime: the first chime will strike every step, the second every third step, the third every sixth, the fourth every eighteenth (the number of steps in the stair - i.e. it would strike once for each person walking up or down the stair), the fifth every thirtysixth (every second person walking up or down the stair) and so on. The last chime (the fourteenth) would strike only after 1296 completed journeys up and down the stair (23328 steps).
