Blyth beach huts

Friend of Shedworking Chris Routledge has just returned from a weekend in Blyth, Northumberland, and was very impressed with their new beach huts.

"I spent a lot of childhood holidays in Blyth, which is my parents' home town, and a fair amount of time on the beach, shrouded in fog, pretending it was warm. We used to find bits of driftwood and sand it smooth on our goosepimples. Anyway I remember the old beach huts, which disappeared some time in the 1990s I think. They were traditional individual affairs and very nice they were too, but they had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s, when Blyth was one of the most impoverished towns in Britain. Blyth has had a very hard time over the last 40 years or so, but if these beauties are anything to go by it's on the up. They have sedum roofs and seem to be finished to a very high standard. Actually the whole promenade area is much improved, with a top notch playground and an open-air theatre space. The beach - miles of golden sand and glorious dunes - is a gem. If only it was warmer."

The new huts are the work of Newcastle-based Ian Darby Partnership (IDP) to both benefit the local community and attract more tourists to the area. Each of the 20 beach huts measures 2.5 x 3.5m and as well as green roofs feature their own wind turbines: the designers claim they are capable of generating enough energy to run the lights and electricity supply. And the greenness doesn't stop there - the building materials also include reclaimed concrete slabs from the promenade as well as wood from sustainable sources.
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