Shaw's hut and corner on Father's Day

The Shedworking team headed to Shaw's Corner yesterday for its annual pilgrimage to the great man's writing hut. Here are some shots of the pleasant sunny experience, with the hut at the bottom, and the house and grounds below.

George Bernard Shaw's writing hut 2023 visit

The Shedworking staff made its annual pilgrimage to Shaw's Corner on the Bank Holiday to revel in the great man's writing hut. Here's a selection of images from our fun day out including of course the main attraction:

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Celebrating George Bernard Shaw's writing hut

It was the anniversary of the death of one of the 20th century's most famous shedworkers earlier in the month (November 2, 1950) and National Trust volunteers and staff at his home Shaw's Corner in Hertfordshire, just up the road from Shedworking HQ, along with members of the Shaw Society marked the occasion with a wreath laying on his marvellous writing hut, accompanied by three readings.

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George Bernard Shaw's writing hut suffers storm damage

Good and bad news for fans of George Bernard Shaw's iconic writing hut at Shaw's Corner in Hertfordshire. As the picture in sunnier times above indicates, his literary sanctuary now owned by the National Trust is surrounded by trees and when the winds brought down a nearby Scots Pine, it nearly took out one of our foremost shedlike landmarks. The good news is that the tree only gave the hut a mild whack and while it did damage the roof (pictured below and more images of the wreckage in the Welwyn and Hatfield Times), repair work looks like it should not be too extensive.

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Shaw's writing hut opens to the public for the first time

The public were officially allowed in to Shaw's Corner for the first time on March 19, 1951, when the National Trust flung open the doors. The BBC archive has an excellent little video about it which includes a very short piece of footage of the rotating summerhouse in which he wrote that starts at the 3:30 mark. A nice little treat for the weekend.

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George Bernard Shaw's writing hut as you've never seen it before

Last Float around the writing shed @nationaltrust Shaw’s Corner Playwright, politician, philosopher and wit George Bernard Shaw lived in this Edwardian villa for over 40 years from 1906. When he moved in, he was at the height of his fame. @thebrightesthour like @petermckinnon just for fun and to entertain the children. Thx guys the children are super hyped about this #composite pictures #portrait #FoodPhotographer #photographer @photographers_unitedpro #family #identity #humanstoryies #humanencounter #petermckinnon #float

A post shared by Samuel Hauenstein - Swan (@sam_bronx) on Apr 12, 2018 at 1:00am PDT

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George Bernard Shaw's writing shed

The Shedworking staff made its annual summer pilgrimage to Shaw's Corner at the weekend and especially to George Bernard Shaw's writing hut. We're pleased to say it still looks in decent condition - maybe a little mossier on the roof - although we're once again wondering why visitors are not allowed inside... --------------------------------------------------------------------
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George Bernard Shaw and his writing hut

I haven't been able to track down the full text of this article by Alice McEwan on Shaw and his writing hut - George Bernard Shaw and his Writing Hut: Privacy and Publicity as Performance at Shaw's Corner - but the abstract sounds intriguing.

This article will argue that the locus of [Shaw's] fluidity and theatrical imagination was a writing hut in the form of a revolving shelter, built in a secluded part of the garden, hidden from view. Equipped with a bed and a writing table, Shaw fashioned an outside study as an intermediate space. A site for the performance of the self and an advertisement for his socialist ideas, it was particularly constructive in the promotion of health reform. He ensured that his hut gained notoriety worldwide through the mass media in the form of journal articles and photographs, against the backdrop of his own burgeoning interest in photography and the media. Through the Habermasian theory of “audience-oriented subjectivity” and the ideas of architectural historian Beatriz Colomina, Shaw is considered in ways that have not previously been recognized: anticipating the concerns of modern architecture and Modernism, dematerializing boundaries between inside and outside, between privacy and publicity.

You can see a previous photo essay about the hut here though I'm afraid it doesn't mention the Habermasian theory of “audience-oriented subjectivity”  --------------------------------------------------------

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Shedworking merchandise

We're not turning into a shop, but here are a couple of interesting sheddish bits and bobs that have recently made their way to Shedworking HQ. First, the Motorshed t-shirt above, kindly donated to the cause by longtime supporter of this blog Mark Snelling. I've tried it on and I look quite good in it, even if I do say so myself. Snap one up for yourself at Old Guys Rule.

I also recently retoured Shaw's Corner, the National Trust property which as you all know also houses George Bernard Shaw's writing hut. They are now producing badges of the hut (not remarkable reproductions it has to be said and my photo isn't great to boot) for the pocket money price of 50p. Here's mine below.

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Inside George Bernard Shaw's writing hut

Not a view the public ever gets to see of the interior of the great garden office at Shaw's Corner in Hertfordshire. For more on Shaw's shed, click here.
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George Bernard Shaw in his writing hut

Marvellous shots of George Bernard Shaw outside, and at work in, his writing hut at his home, Shaw's Corner, in Ayot St Lawrence, on his 90th birthday. From Life magazine.

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It is just you - virtual book tour (and win a book)

As part of his virtual book tour, Steve Stack and his marvellous book It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit (an upbeat and witty riposte to those other books which wallow in the misery of things) appears today and over the weekend on Shedworking. In a rather postmodern take on the book tour (as if doing it online weren't enough), here is an interview Steve did with me about homeworking and shedworking, a longer version of which appears in his book. To win a copy, simply add a comment mentioning something nice about the world and the one I like most will get a copy of the book. Or if you can't wait, you can buy a copy here.

What are the advantages of homeworking?
Generally, a sense of freedom that you simply don't get in a normal office. I'd much rather be a box fresh, free range homeworker roaming free (or at least in a garden office) than cooped up in a pen, nose to nose with the same battery chicks all day. More specifically:
- A greater control over my time - I still have to work, but I can choose an extremely flexible routine which involves, for example, listening to cricket and playing with my sons which wouldn't otherwise be possible.
- I can listen to music (which is great since I've never worked with anybody who's shared my interest in early music)
- I choose how my office looks, can wear what I want to work, and have a 30 second commute (less if I decide to work on the kitchen table rather than go to the shed)

Tell us a little about Shedworking the blog, and The Shed magazine
The Shed is a free bimonthly pdf magazine for shedworkers and people who work in shedlike atmospheres, a lifestyle (sometimes quite aspirational) title rather than one which features nuts and bolts homeworking subjects such as filling in your tax return. I started it because there is a growing community of shedworkers (and homeworkers in general) whose daily experiences and interests are not catered for by any other publication, indeed who by definition tend to work in relative isolation and are not aware of others in a similar position. The Shedworking site is a natural extension of the 'brand', again made possible by new technology and its marvellously free nature. The idea of the blog is to provide a daily update of news and items of interest for homeworkers in general, but with a decidedly sheddish slant (e.g. the list of all the UK shed suppliers which is not available at any other central point). Unbelievably, nobody else does this on a daily basis for homeworkers anywhere in the world.

Shed envy - what's the best homeworking set-up you've seen?
Ooh, that's a very hard one. It might be a bit of a cheat of an answer, but I think you've got to go a long way to beat George Bernard Shaw's revolving hut at Shaw's Corner, just up the road at Ayot St Lawrence, which he could winch round to change the view or improve the light or maybe for a bit of exercise. It had a telephone connection to the house and electrics, and is still in good nick. One of the most admirable is Adam Constantine, a designer, who essentially runs a successful carbon-neutral company from his shed in Shrewsbury but in a modestly understated way.

Any famous shedworkers you would care to impress us with?
A small selection might include Andrew Marr, Alison Pearson, Louis de Bernières, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens (though his was more Swiss chalet than shed), Jeanette Winterson, Philip Pullman, Trevor Baylis, Dylan Thomas, William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson, Roald Dahl, Arthur Miller. Er, Linda Barker.

How do you think working from home changes a person?
It deinstitutionalises them. It can also make them fatter if they can't keep away from the fridge (another advantage in working from a shed rather than a kitchen table).

Historic 'garden offices'

It’s good to be reminded that while the ‘garden office’ is essentially a 21st century creation, people have been working in sheds for centuries. The National Trust has several interesting examples at its properties, including Agatha Christie’s potting shed, three stylishly upturned boats on a titchy Gertrude Jekyll-designed garden in Northumberland, and at Tyntesfield in Somerset a shed where Victorian gardeners used to sleep in bunks over their workbenches. These and others are now featured on the NT site here.

However, one of my favourite sheds is not included, the writing hut of George Bernard Shaw at the NT’s Shaw’s Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire (pictured). Hidden away at the bottom of the garden, it not only had an electric heater, but could be rotated to catch the sunlight or just change the view. Modern garden office designers take note.