Cake shed controversy

Around the country the latest trend in shed-based businesses is Cake Sheds, small, often self-service, wooden sheds/huts which offer homemade baked goods on a commercial but more informal level. 

However, local newspapers have been reporting on various issues arising from them in terms of approval/interference from local authorities. 

Among these is Bassetlaw District Council in Nottinghamshirehas which has reconsidered its current approach to the licensing of ‘Cake Sheds and Cupboards’ following feedback from residents across the district.

The Council has now paused enforcement of its Street Trader Policy where it specifically relates to ‘Cake Sheds and Cupboards’ while the Licensing Committee considers the wider implications of the policy on potential traders and members of the public.

This means that residents who trade using ‘Cake Sheds and Cupboards’ on their own land will be able to continue to do so without a licence until further notice. 

Cllr June Evans, Cabinet Member for Governance, which includes Legal and Licensing, said: “We have seen the public reaction to the introduction of this policy and the impact that it could potentially have on residents who provide ‘cake sheds or cupboards’. We also recognise the community benefit these enterprises can have in some areas.

“Having considered our current approach, we have decided to pause all enforcement action that relates specifically to ‘cake sheds and cupboards’ while this part of the Street Trader Policy can be reviewed by our Licensing Committee, including any fees and charges.

“The Street Trader Policy still remains in place as it guides and licenses other forms of street trading throughout the district. We will also continue to monitor the situation, especially where we receive complaints from members of the public that relate specifically to ‘cake sheds and cupboards’, and where there could be serious concerns raised around their impact on other members of a community, food safety and hygiene, and issues including electrical, gas or fire risks."

Image courtesy of The Cake Place Cake Shed, Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

 

Studio #1

A lovely build by Freddy Tuppen with Willem Hampson and Will Thomson for a garden office in East London which is carefully built around a tree and its roots. Features include  ground screw foundations, wood fibre insulation, untreated timber, a clerestory window, large front-facing windows, and a lightwell surrounding the tree. Inside are tailormade furnishings include a Shedworking favourite, a day bed. Lots more atmospheric photos at the link above.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

 

New exhibition focuses on architect Wenche Selmer’s ideas about simple cabins

Oslo's National Museum of Norway's new exhibition - Wenche Selmer: What Can You Live Without? - looks at Norwegian architect Wenche Selmer who cultivated an ideal of a rich life lived with simple means using drawings, notes, photography and a full size cabin.

Running until October 4, the exhibtion concentrates on the Norwegian cabins and wooden houses that Wenche Selmer (1920–1998) designed as part of her approach to architecture; she regarded the cabin as a metaphor for a simple, good life, asking her clients “What can you live without?”.

The museum has made use of the exhibition space's considerable size by installing a full-scale version of Selmer’s prototype Beach house cabin inside the exhibition. Visitors can enter the cabin, go upstairs, and even lie down on the bed.

Pictured above, the full-scale cabin, photo by Andreas Harvik. Top image: Summer House for Aarnæs (1952) photo by Jens Selmer. 

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Monday's posts are sponsored by Smart Modular Buildings, the UK's best garden room company

Friday Finery: Sheds at RHS Malvern

There's a new RHS judged category at the Malvern Spring Festival this year called Floral Tablescaping. Floral designers have been competing to style the interior of a garden shed with attractive table settings inside, themes including 'woodland restaurant', 'fairytale woodlands' and ';storybook settings'. More images here - the show continues until Sunday.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information 

 

Garden offices a key way to avoid work distractions, says new study

A new study from Durham Business School warns that remote working can damage work-life balance, wellbeing, and productivity unless clear boundaries are in place.

It found that interruptions at home - what they call “cross-domain interruptions” such as domestic tasks - can disrupt focus and recommends that people can reduce interruptions by creating a defined workspace, such as a garden office, rather than working from shared areas like the kitchen table. Other suggestions included taking proper breaks to rest and reset, rather than using that time for household chores. 

The study analysed daily diary entries from 87 remote workers across sectors including teaching, finance, IT and public administration. The findings reveal a pattern of rising stress and a greater need for recovery when work was interrupted by home life. Workers also reported lower levels of wellbeing. Blurred boundaries also made it harder for employees to switch off at the end of the day.

Image courtesy Smart Modular Buildings

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

 

Coppice Sauna

Shepherd's hut specialist Plankbridge still produce a marvellously elegant shepherd's hut, but in recent years as regular Shedworking readers know the Dorset-based hutters have expanded their offering into other hut-shaped builds such as tack rooms and garden privvies.

This new offering, the Coppice Sauna, comes in at at 2m x 2m, and is clad in black-painted timber (inside it's Scandinavian aspen lining), coming with a large window and glazed door. As you'd expect there is a two-tiered timber seating inside with an 8kw electric stove, a spruce ceiling, and fully insulated 70mm wall cavity to ensure a smashing sauna experiece.

It also comes in an off-grid version, fitted with a wood-fired sauna unit and solar panels. Decking is an optional extra.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

 

The Philosophy of Sheds is published today

Available everywhere good books are sold, ideally from your local independent bookseller, and online at the likes of Blackwells. It's published by those fine folk at the British Library who have this to say about it:

At a time when it feels like every year buildings get larger and more impersonal, sheds remain a beacon of ergonomic simplicity. Maybe it's the nostalgia of the ancient huts from which humanity evolved, or the sense of focused calm produced by shutting yourself away in one, but around the world and across generations we have found comfort in our sheds. They are wooden repositories for our inner lives: cheap, multifunctional spaces ready to be filled with the passions, tools and ideas of the individual.

In these pages you'll find rotating sheds, sheds on wheels and holy sheds, as Alex Johnson uncovers the universal lure of these tiny structures. Also detailed are some of the big ideas these little huts have birthed, from inventions and philosophies to literature, art and increasingly eccentric answers to the question: what exactly can a shed be? The Philosophy of Sheds also includes a gazetteer of famous and unique sheds of the world and is illustrated with archival imagery from the British Library collections.

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Monday's posts are sponsored by Smart Modular Buildings, the UK's best garden room company