Historian and friend of Shedworking Catherine Clarke often posts about her Dorset beach hut on Instagram and BlueSky, a much loved long term lease from the council. She also works in it from time to time, including on her excellent new book A History of England in 25 Poems which is out next week.
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We obviously like to feature case studies of garden office builds on Shedworking but this is something new to us, a case study virtual tour. In this case it's of a shed and office space (shoffice) from Cosy Garden Rooms in Melbourne, Derbyshire, for the Findon family, a multipurpose space replacing a summerhouse which was getting a bit long in the tooth.
The build itself is a 6m x 3m garden room on a concrete base with an internal partition wall to create a storage area, clad with composite slat cedar cladding and Hardie board composite, with s Anthracite UPVC doors and windows, 3m-wide double sliding patio doors, a full-height corner window, and a 300mm overhang along the front and right-hand side of the building.Click the link to have a play with the virtual tour thingy.
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Pink Floyed guitarist David Gilmour has been ordered by Camden Council in London to take down a newly-built shed after a planning row with neighbours.
Pictured above are the summerhouse and sheds that previously stood on the footprint before the musician had them removed and replaced with a new shed build 2.5m x 1.9m x 2.9m. However, Hampstead Hill Gardens Residents’ Association called for his retrospective planning application to be refused with neighbours complaining that it was “overbearing” and “intrusive” and not built on the original shed footprint.
The council has now demanded that the existing structure be moved and rebuilt further away from the back fence.
Back in 2011, Gilmour was told by the council to pull down a yellow beach hut at his
£3m seafront mansion in East Sussex which he used to house
his bicycles as it was an "eyesore" in the Hove conservation area (though it looked fine to the Shedworking staff).
Photo credit: Whiteacre Planning Ltd/Camden council
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You don't often see aerial shots of garden offices and this is a particularly interesting one to focus on, Dylan Thomas' writing shed in Wales which has famously fabulous views.
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Today's Finery is this beautifully rounded build from the appropriately named Curve Garden Rooms. incorporating its curved fibreglass insulated roof design.
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There's a brief but useful guide for those considering going down the shedworking route about how long it takes to get your garden office set up on the Smart Modular Buildings blog. Here's a snippet:
You can read the rest of it here.
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The idea was to create a professional space that feels completely separate from the main house which is ideal for welcoming the client's personal assistatn without the need to come inside the main home.
The structure is built on a steel core frame with screw pile foundations and finished in Millboard cladding.
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Woodlands Home & Garden Group has launched its latest Tiger garden building show site at Tong Garden Centre, near Bradford, marking the 18th location in the retailer’s growing national network (double the number it had at the start of 2025).
The new display site is the fourth Tiger outlet in Yorkshire, and features selection of premium garden buildings on display, including sheds, summerhouses, and log cabins, including the new 70mm Obsidian insulated log cabin with extra thick timber walls and insulated roof and floor. Stuart Davison, Commercial Director at Woodlands said:
"As a Yorkshire company through and through, this is a fantastic moment for us and for customers across the region."
The new site at Tong Garden Centre, Tong Ln, Bradford BD4 0RY, is open 10.30am - 3pm Monday to Saturday, and 11am - 3pm on Sundays. Tiger has also launched a virtual showroom at https://www.tigersheds.com/modular/showroom/
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In an unusual fit of humanity, we've given the interns a few days off so Shedworking HQ will be a bit quiet over the next few days while we enjoy some annual leave.
An item of good news. It's been a while since I've written a book about sheds (Haynes Shed Manual, co-authored with John Coupe in 2019), and even longer than my first one on the subject (Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution, 2010), so I'm delighted to announced that in 2026 the trilogy will be complete with The Philosophy of Sheds.
It will be published by the British Library in spring next year as part of its Philosophy of... series, what it describes as "a thought-provoking range of books which take a deep dive into niche topics" and features subjects such as curry, puddings, cider, cheese, tatoos, beards, and Christmas. "With their gorgeous colourful covers," continues the British Library, "the titles are great for gifting, or those curious to learn more." I hope you'll enjoy it.
Research by Regency Living suggests that the average price of a beach hut has soared by as much as 100% in some seaside towns in recent years.
According to their figures, in West Sussex,the going rate for a beach hut currently stands at £33,044. This marks an increase of 102.1% over three years. Meanwhile, in Dorset the average beach hut price is £102,451 having increased by 66.3% since 2022. In Essex, the price tag is £45,878, followed by Kent (£43,661), Hampshire (£32,655), and East Sussex (£30,784).
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