New beach huts improve Southsea accessibility

Portsmouth's first accessible beach huts have been installed on Southsea seafront by Portsmouth City Council which says the event marks "a significant step towards inclusivity and accessibility at the beach".

Available for booking through its Seafront Services, these specially designed beach huts are equipped with amenities including a kettle, fridge, cupboard, deck chairs, and decorative items, ensuring a comfortable and enjoyable experience for all visitors.

Key features of the accessible beach hut include an accessible path leading down the beach towards the sea, and ramps providing entry from the promenade into the beach hut.

Laura Collinson from the Accessible Beach Campaign group said: “I’m so pleased that Portsmouth City Council have installed these accessible beach huts. Our campaign group has been asking for better access and it’s great to see the results. The shingle beach makes access to the water extremely difficult but we are working towards making this happen with the PCC seafront team."

Cllr Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council said: “It’s great to be able to offer these accessible beach huts. Through these projects we are making sure that when people need additional help to live their lives, it is there for them. This is a really important step into making Portsmouth accessible and inclusive for all."

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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder. 

 

Friday Finery: garden room with cantilever canopy

The Shedworking team has been admiring the look of this garden office from BGR Designs all week. Yes, it's got a rather nice corner bifold and door, but it's the canopy design extending over the decking area that's been impressing us with its copper rain chain detail. 

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Bespoke artist’s studio in Cambridge

Another good example of how small spaces are as good for garden offices as enormous ones. This insulated bespoke artist's studio comes from Cosy Garden Rooms, and measures 3.5m x 2.1m. As you can see, inside there is plenty of space for a desk, easel, comfortable chair, an storage for artist supplies. A roof lantern gives the room loads of natural light, and outside a green roof offers an eco-friendly feature.

The exterior has a two-tone colour scheme, Monetary Taupe to the front and left, Anthracite on the back, right, and footer. There's also a 300mm overhang. Inside, there are white grooved walls, and light grey laminate flooring plus a discreet wall-mounted infrared heater.

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

Cabin Master and Arctic Cabins partner British Speedway

Nottingham-based BBQ Cabin manufacturer and installer Arctic Cabins and Cabin Master have become Premiership Partners with British Speedway for the coming season.

Arctic Cabins has a long history of involvement in speedway, from sponsorship of Youth riders through to fully-fledged Premiership stars. In 2022 they sponsored Great Britain in the FIM Speedway of Nations, before starting a full-scale partnership arrangement in the following season. That support will now extend to the British Speedway Premiership.

Managing Director Gareth Parkinson said: “We’re really excited about our new partnership with the Premiership, building on the relationship we have established with the GB Speedway Team. We know how much determination there is to see the sport move forward, and we’re looking forward to being a part of that.”

Like sister company Arctic Cabins, Cabin Master which specialises in bespoke garden offices and garden rooms, has been fully supportive of speedway at all levels over recent years.

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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

 

Xavier Herbert: shedworker

Xavier Herbert was one of Australia's leading 20th century novelists, the author in 1975 of Poor Fellow My Country, weighing in at 1,463 pages, making it the longest Australian novel (and of course by default the longest Australian novel written in a shed).

He lived for much of his later life in a cottage called Redlynch in Cairns, in the back garden of which was a shed which he built himself, known as "million dollar dog house". Here is how Lynette Warwick, member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Barron River, described it in the Australian Hansard in a speech on April 30, 1996:

"Xavier Herbert built a shed in which to write, while not away at writers' camps around Kuranda. It was an unpretentious iron structure, which local residents say was made from two small sheds taken from the Kuranda railway and moved on a rail car to Redlynch. The shed was reputed to contain a tool bench, some spartan luxuries, a camp stretcher, a deck chair and a low table on which he wrote using an ancient Remmington typewriter. There is also an electrical gadget of his own invention supposed to keep him awake... Poor Fellow My Country was typewritten in the shed."

Sadly it was demolished the summer of 1995. The photo above shows Herbert in April, 1938, on the day he found out he had won the Sesqui Centenary Library Prize. It may have been taken inside the shed. 

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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder. 

 

Friday Finery: Shepherd's hut shop

The Homely Bee is a small home decor and gift business run by husband and wife team Tony and Sally-ann in Staffordshire. They sell online but also have a bricks and mortar shop in the shape of this lovely shepherd's hut in Eccleshall.

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

Garden office with green roof

One of the key claims about green roofs - other than their eco-credentials - is that by adding them to your garden office it then blends into the natural surroundings far better. This Workroom model from Little Garden Offices in Cornwall is additional proof of that fact.

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

Return-to-office moves risk disadvantaging more than a million disabled workers, claims new study

New figures suggest that five years on from the first Covid-19 lockdown, access to remote and hybrid work has become essential to many people who are disabled or have long-term health conditions, enabling them to stay in work. 

The findings are part of a report led by researchers from Lancaster University, the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Universal Inclusion, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

One in five UK workers (6.64 million) mainly work from home, and analysis shows that nearly a fifth are disabled (1.16 million). Survey findings of more than 1,200 disabled workers with experience of remote and hybrid working reveal that working from home had a positive impact on 80% of those in fully remote roles when it came to managing their health. This proportion reduces to 38% for those who work remotely less than half of the time, suggesting that the benefits decline if people are expected to work onsite very regularly.

The study also reveals that 85% of disabled workers surveyed feel that access to remote and hybrid working is very important or essential when looking for a new job. In addition, nearly one in three disabled workers (30%) who are already working in a hybrid way want to spend more of their work time working at home.

“Remote work is not an ‘optional extra’ for many disabled workers but is vital to enabling them to get into and stay in work,” said Rebecca Florisson, Principal Analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University. “A recent Government study showed that a quarter of those out of work and claiming health and disability benefits state they might be able to work if they could do so remotely. Yet recent calls by employers to return to the office overlook the critical perspectives and experiences of disabled workers who now account for almost one in four working age people in the UK.”

Despite the increase in demand from workers, the study reveals that remote and hybrid roles are difficult to come by – and arbitrary ‘return-to-office’ mandates could make things worse. Researchers examined the roles available to job seekers through the Department for Work and Pension’s Find a Job portal in one month in the UK (8 December 2024 – 7 January 2025) and found 94,827 new jobs were advertised. However, only one in 26 job adverts had the option of hybrid or remote working (3.2% of the roles were hybrid and 0.6% were fully remote).
 
“This new evidence clearly tells us that if a job isn’t advertised as hybrid or remote, the vast majority of disabled workers who require access to homeworking won’t even apply,” said Florisson. “This may be non-negotiable for them so they can better manage their health and stay in work. If employers are shortsighted and ignore the rising demand for flexibility in roles, they are missing out on a vast pool of talent that could benefit their organisations, while further distancing disabled workers from the UK labour market.”

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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

KIM_oflage Studio

We've featured the wonderful Don't Move, Improve! competition run by New London Architecture several times before on Shedworking since it throws up some remarkable builds in its bid to encourage top design in everyday life in London. Now in its 12th iteration, this year's crop of entries is no exception. Pictured above is this marvellous design from Delve Architects which is a multi-use timber frame shedlike atmosphere combining a garden office with fold-down bed guest accommodation, lavatory and kitchnette in Lewisham. Glazed green tiles help the exterior to blend in really well to the back garden. Lots more photos of the interior at the Don't Move, Improve! site here.

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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder. 

Friday Finery: Ghorfa #13

A fine build by Moroccan artist Younes Rahmoun whose exhibition of sculptures and installations 'Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now' is currently on display at Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts. The shedlike atmosphere abover is called Ghorfa #13 and is made from wood and glass (with metal hinges), coming in at 214 x 236 x 185cm.

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

Shepherd's hut commute

A swift video below showing the lovely little commute of leatherworker Louise Gelson based in Devon who produces luxury handmade products including handbags, wallets, belts, and dog accessories at her LG Leatherworks business.

 

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

Attaching a garden room to your house

There are exceptions, but in essence a shed needs to be detached from your main property to count as one. However, the same is not true for a garden room which certainly can be attached to your house. If you're thinking of going down this route, then you need to jump through all the usual planning/building permission and regs hoops, consider design and structural issues, plan any potential utilities (electricity, heating, plumbing), and consider how the garden room will be accessed from the main house.

"We frequently get asked if a garden room can be attached to a house like a conservatory or extension," says Louise Jones from Cosy Garden Rooms which built the example pictured above. "The answer is a simple yes, they can. It will still be counted as an extension to your property which means you will need all the relevant planning permission and building regulations, as you would for adding any room in your house. Also, it will take longer to build and install as a garden room that is attached to your home is a more complex and costly job. In our honest, professional opinion we think a separate garden room offers more benefits."

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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

Garden office with swing

 

 

Keeping our sunny side up following the lovely weekend, here is a garden office with a swing from Trew Turner which opens out beautifully onto the garden in Highbury, London, where it stis.

 

Asked to come up with "a peaceful, light space to work in, away from the house, which incorporated its surroundings" this build with large bifold doors exactly fits the bill. Features include an oak floor, wrap-around decking, and underfloor heating.

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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder. 

Friday Finery: Garden studio with slide

What do buy the shedworker who has everything for their birthday? Why a slide into the swimming pool of course, pictured here by a Warwick Buildings garden studio. It's going straight onto my Want list. 

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

Garden office with extra height

Although most garden offices are bought pretty much off the shelf, you can of course bespoke them up if you're keen on a particular feature. This build from Haon Garden Rooms is an example in Oxfordshire where the hotelier client wanted a garden office with extended head height. Features include cedar brown composite exterior cladding on the front and right side and anthracite Hardie Plank to the left and rear, large anthracite French doors, and a split top hung window.

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

Shed saunas

 

 

We've covered shed saunas before on Shedworking but I thought readers might be interested in one of my shed columns that appear in every issue of the Idler magazine (the latest edition features a nice piece on ice shanties). Here it is, from the back end of last year:  

 

Shedlife is as subject to trends and fashion as any other part of society. 2008 was the year of the green roof. In 2009 it was micro pods (and then again a couple of years ago) and in 2018 ‘round’ was the shape to be seen in. Over the last 20 years we’ve seen the welcome rebirth of the shepherd’s hut, the greenhouse as a mixed-use space, and even an unexpected uptick in roofless garden offices in 2021. Now, the sauna shed is having its moment in the sun. 

 

There’s certainly growing interest in saunas in general and back garden “wellness sanctuaries” in the UK. In May this year, the British Sauna Society organised its first Sauna Summit, bringing 250 delegates from all over the country and as far afield as the US, Norway and Finland. And at the start of the year English Heritage gave Grade II listed status to a purpose-built wooden sauna in Aylesford, Kent dating back to the 1948 London Olympics and donated by the Finnish Olympic team. Catherine Croft, Director of the Twentieth Century Society, commented: “More spartan than today’s pampering-led spa-based saunas, this modest prefabricated structure is evocative of Finnish national identity and hard sporting graft, a kind of performance enhancing shed!” 

 

It’s easy to see why. On the most basic level, they’re simply a lot of fun, but there are numerous health benefits too, from claims to helping with relaxation and improved sleep, lowering stress and helping with depression, to a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's, skin condition management and lower blood pressure and pain relief pluses (though do remember that there are some risks involved, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions). 

 

Shepherd's hut specialists Plankbridge which is based near Dorchester has seen a major surge in customers interested in outdoor saunas, so earlier this year came with a 14ft design aimed at people with private gardens, as well as glamping and hospitality businesses. Features for the four person-sauna include a sustainable Scandinavian aspen lining sourced from Sweden, separate changing area, under-bench storage, and either wood-fired or electric, all with a hard-wearing corrugated-steel exterior cladding.

 

"The growth in the wellness-at-home market has definitely been reflected in the number of enquiries we’ve received at Plankbridge over the past year or so for saunas, hot tubs and treatment rooms," said Plankbridge founder Richard Lee. "And while we’ve designed various bespoke sauna huts for customers before, including one for a ski lodge in the French Alps and another which is now sitting beside a swimming pond in Herefordshire, this is the first time we have taken an existing Plankbridge hut model, the Snug, which is based on the proportions of the Victorian originals and the most traditional of all our shepherd’s huts, and used it for this very specific purpose."

 

Wildhut is one of the new sauna suppliers on the block. It was set up by British female entrepreneurs Thaisa Box and Lisa Deller in 2021, offering outdoor saunas handmade in West Sussex to order. Exterior cladding is natural FSC certified wood, with 100% sheep’s wool insulation, long letter box or large picture window, and options such as a mobile app for remote controlling the sauna. There are various models, the smallest coming in at just 2.2m wide x 2.5m high x 1.94m, rising to one sufficiently capacious for eight people. 

 

The family-run Arctic Cabins (one of its sauna models is pictured top) has a much longer history, operating since 2001 when owner Gareth and his Finnish wife Virpi took the plunge and brought the traditional BBQ huts of her homeland to Blighty. In the same way that these huts provide a sanctuary from the winter elements, so do their Arctic Sauna Cabins models. Initially imported from Scandinavia, they’re now all built in Derbyshire. Their leading cabin seats five with a 3.7m x 3.9m spec, a genuine Finnish-made 6KW electric sauna heater, external porch area with cool-down seating, and the all-important integrated two-tier bench seating.

 

Arctic keep up a hectic schedule of appearing at dozens of regional and national home and garden shows throughout the year so you can easily have a chat with them, and they also have a show site in Nottingham. 

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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder.