Beach hut sales surge following heatwave

Estate agency Boydens has reported selling 16 beach huts in Essex so far this year, with demand accelerating during the summer heatwave period.

The sales have been concentrated in Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as High Wall, Low Wall, The Leas, and Southcliff.

Zenna Everett, sales and lettings negotiator at Boydens’ Frinton-on-Sea office, said some properties received accepted offers within hours of coming to market. “The level of interest in acquiring beach huts has gone through the roof this summer,” she said. “People like the convenience of a beach hut as it gives them a base, somewhere to relax and to store their things."

Asking prices across the region range from aroud £10,000 to £60,000, depending on location. Buyers are also liable for annual licence fees payable to the relevant local authority. The agency reported that most purchases have been made by families from inland Essex towns including Brentwood, Chelmsford, and Romford, seeking coastal access for children and grandchildren.

Five transactions completed in August, with additional sales progressing in September.

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Friday Finery: Studio / Bunkhouse

This week's splendid finery is suggested by Shedworking reader Benjamin Schneider and is the studio-bunkhouse designed by Cutler Anderson Architects on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and which is the recipient of an AIA National Small Projects Award. Lots more atmospheric photos at the link above.

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Coffice

After 20 years of writing about garden offices I thought I'd heard every portmanteau description (I still like 'shoffice') but in the i newspaper this week there's a new example, the coffice, so-called because the owner describes it as very narrow and a bit like a coffin (pictured above). It's actually very nice inside. Read more at 'We built a £13,500 garden office. It saves £500 in monthly mortgage costs' where you can see some interior shots.

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Amol Rajan: shedworker

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Having left the BBC, my former editor from my time at The Independent newspaper Amol Rajan is building up a new online company called the Amol Rajan Connection. And he's doing it from an orange shed in his back garden as these shots from his instagram account reveal.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amol Rajan (@amolrajanconnection)

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Friday Finery: two cabin festivals

Two festival fineries this week for you, the first Le Festival des Cabanes which is an annual openair architecture festival held in the Sources du Lac d'Annecy region of Haute-Savoie, France including the municipalities of Chevaline, Val de Chaise, Doussard, Giez, Lathuile, Saint-Ferréol and Faverges-Seythenex. Showcasing a range of international architects and their wooden cabins (some of which are pictured above), it's open until November 6.

Finishing on September 28 is the fifth iteration of the Villa Medici's Festival des Cabanes at its home in  Rome. These comprise six original creations like the one pictured below.

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Baumhaus Office

Baumhaus Office is a remarkable build from Munich-based Opposite Office which really puts the garden in garden office. It's essentially a titchy one-square-meter cabin halfway up a tree on the campus of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar which optimistically is designed for up to two or three architects ("the treehouse was calculated with safety factors generous enough to satisfy both physics and bureaucracy" say the designers). Features include a skylight which has a marvellous view into the canopy above. Lots more photos at the link above.

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Studio Flat garden office

An excellent case study from Malvern Garden Buildings focusing on the Studio Flat model owned by chef and writer James Strawbridge who uses it mostly as a garden office, but also as a gym, art studio, and general family relaxation zone. Here's what he says:

“I always wanted it to be multifunctional, but it has become even more versatile than I expected. It’s a rowing room, home-education classroom, editing suite, art studio and a place for banjo lessons. It feels like a proper extension of our home and gives us space for creativity, fitness, music, art, work and mental wellbeing. For me, it’s primarily somewhere to work and create. I can switch off by playing music or using the rowing machine, but it’s mostly a calm, productive space.”

You can read the rest of the interview and see plenty of interior and exterior images via the link above. 

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Friday Finery: Alvaro Barrington's To Be Heard

If you're in the Netherlands any time from now up to October 11, pop across to Arnhem and this year's iteration of the annual public art project Sonsbeek 2026: Ik hoef geen tuin, ik deel een park (I don't need a backyard, I share a park). 

Pick of the attractions in the park is Alvaro Barrington's To Be Heard, pictured above, and this is what he says about it:



Entering the structure, the visitor is invited to sit and allow themselves to hear the world. There is no programmed audio. Instead, what is heard is the rustling of leaves, distant footsteps, one’s own thoughts. Distinctly architectural, the work mediates between nature and shelter, solitude and collectivity. It asks whether hearing, as a deeper attunement to environment and the self, might reshape how memory is formed and proposes that sharing and building space requires learning how to hear within it.

 The whole thing is free for everyone to enjoy.

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First steps to building a shed in France

Longstanding friend of Shedworking Nick Inman who is a long-term resident of France has started a short series about building sheds for the excellent connexionfrance.com site.  Well worth a read and you can catch up with it here.

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Charles Dickens's writing chalet open to public

Now is your chance to have a look around Charles Dickens's writing chalet in Rochester. The ground floor will be open to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme on September 12, 13, 19, and 20 (click link to book).

Visiting hours are between 11am and 4pm at Eastgate Gardens off Rochester High Street where members of the council's Heritage Team, the Friends of Eastgate House and the Charles Dickens Fellowship will be on chat about the building.

There will also be talks and tours throughout each day, full details via the link above. Booking is not necessary. 

Image courtesy Visit Medway 

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Malvern Garden Buildings' ex-display sale

 

If you're looking for a new garden office, this is a good time to peruse the roughly 400 offerings from the various Malvern Garden Buildings' show sites around the country where they are renewing their stock. Reductions are 25% and upwards off the original price, and includes delivery and installation when the garden building is installed within 25 miles of the showsite where it’s located.

According to Malvern, each ex-display garden building is a one-off, available on a first-come, first-served basis, and often finished to a higher specification, having been designed to showcase the possibilities.

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Research reveals importance of solid wi-fi connection to shedworkers

Around one in eight workers in the UK are struggling to work from home because their wi-fi connection is not fit for use, according to research from comparison site Uswitch.

The poll of more than 2,000 people revealed that just over a third felt their home wi-fi connection was poor, affecting their ability to work remotely or from home. Worryingly, 
only 15% said their home office was one of the best rooms for getting a good connection while 9% struggled to get any connection in their home office at all.

A fifth say they they have consequently been forced to work from other rooms, such as the kitchen and their children’s bedrooms, and the same figure had experienced work calls disconnecting.

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UK’s best value beach huts

 

According to new research from Monzo the best value beach huts for a day out are:

1. Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan Council: £24/day
2. Swanage Beach (Spa Beach Huts), Swanage Town Council: £26/day
3. Bournemouth Beach, BCP Council: £30/day
3. Crooklets Promenade, Bude-Stratton Town Council: £30/day
3. Lowestoft & Felixstowe, East Suffolk Council: £30/day
3. Swanage Beach (Shore Beach Huts, Upper Level), Swanage Town Council: £30/day
4. Thanet Coastline, Thanet District Council: £35/day
5. Mablethorpe Promenade, Mablethorpe & Sutton Town Council: £35.95/day

and for a longer trip:

1. Lowestoft & Felixstowe, East Suffolk Council: £100/week
2. Belvedere Beach, East Riding of Yorkshire Council: £130/week
2. Hornsea Beach, East Riding of Yorkshire Council: £130/week
3. Swanage Beach (Spa Beach Huts), Swanage Town Council: £151/week
4. Whitby West Cliff Promenade, North Yorkshire Council: £187/week
5. Swanage Beach (Shore Beach Huts, Upper Level), Swanage Town Council: £190/week

In terms of accessible beach huts, the researchers name East Suffolk as offering the widest range of accessible hire options, starting from £50 per day or £145 per week during the summer. 

Photo courtesy MrMatt1 

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