King of sheds: The man behind Shed of the Year

A nice interview in the Daily Star with my old friend and shed collaborator Uncle Wilco, pictured here awarding this year's Shed of the Year prize. Here's a snippet:

A shed overlord who set out to find Britain's wackiest and most unique outbuildings says the days of them only belonging to blokes are over.

Andrew Wilcox was sinking a pint in 2006 when he decided to launch a competition to find the best sheds in the country, which has since unearthed the weird and wonderful.

Sheds were a love of Andrew's long before 16 years ago and he recalled to the Daily Star how as a kid he would visit his grandad and his retired miner mates in a small village of sheds which they built from scrap metal.

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Garden studio linked to house

As we all know, the first rule of Garden Office Club is that it has to be completely detached from the main home building. It can still be a first rate home office, but if it's part of the home it's by definition not a garden office. But we may have to rethink the history books thanks to this intriguing design from Shape Architecture for a build in Hammersmith, London.

It's a garden studio with a glazed link to the garden flat behind, not yet built but with planning permission granted. Here's what they say about it:

"The studio is a creative response to the garden setting and the glazed link is wide enough to provide further opportunities to sit and admire the garden.  A composition of various types and size of glass panels ensure the studio and link are flooded with light and a wide variety of views are had.  This composition of glass sits well with a series of green sedum roofs that define the various spaces.  The nature of the site also allows for a second entrance to be created off the side street."

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Kent summerhouse in Buckingham Palace's Rose Garden

The summerhouse in Buckingham Palace gardens was built in 1740 during the reign of King George II and is attributed to William Kent. Among its features is a corgi dog made out of wicker in homage to Queen Elizabeth II. This was also where the Brownie pack, formed by King George VI to provide social fun for the young Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, met for their activities.

Photo by KJP1 via Creative Commons

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How to build a garden office using a kit

 

There's an excellent step-by-step guide put together by Ben who lives in Cornwall on his Wood Create blog chronicling how he built his garden office room (which is also a family relaxing and exercise space) using a BillyOh Kent Garden Office log cabin from Garden Buildings Direct. He looks at everything from the very beginning, listing materials and where he got them from, talks about using professional electricians and plasterers, and generally provides a very useful first hand honest account of the build, pictured above during and below after. If you're thinking of going down this route, it's an absolute must read.

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End of an era for George Saunders' garden office

We've mentioned novelist George Saunders and his writing shed, pictured above, several times before here on Shedworking, so we were sorry to read that he has effectively called time on it by moving to California and leaving it behind (it would be a tricky one to move). Here's what he says in his latest newsletter about it:

Finally, I want to say a proper and public GOODBYE and THANKS to one of the best non-sentient pals I ever had, my writing shed here in Oneonta. It was very good to me. I remember finishing Lincoln in the Bardo in there the fall of….2016, maybe? I was out here alone, driving to Syracuse to teach Wednesdays through Thursdays, but then the rest of the week I was racing to finish the book, sometimes fourteen hours a day, feeling everything falling into place in this crazy way I’d never experienced before (all the bowling pins coming down on their own, smiling at me, all of them meaning something, something extra, that I hadn’t anticipated), racing out of the shed to walk the trails when I needed a little time to think, or going over to the house for the excellent creativity blend of Graham crackers plus Wilco or Sleater-Kinney…and, by the end of the semester, the book was done.

And most of Tenth of December was written in there too.

These places, these places, this short and sacred life…

Goodbye, old friend,

I know I’ll dream of you often.

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Road workers help pave the way for entrepreneur's garden office business

Workers carrying out improvements to junction 10 of the M6 for National Highways and Walsall Council stepped in to help when their work brought them into contact with Monzur Mia.

Monzur, who has cerebral palsy and uses a motorised wheelchair to get around and an electronic talk box to communicate, came to the attention of the project team when a pedestrian route had to be diverted for safety reasons during the improvement work and they realised that the diversion was taking him out of his way when he wanted to travel between his home and Walsall.

They decided to do something for Monzur in appreciation of his understanding so Works Manager Steven Adamson arranged for workers to prepare and level the ground and install a concrete path with recycled stone. Six people from the team volunteered to carry out the work over a weekend.

Monzur launched his flower business, Monty’s Flowers, during the pandemic and he sells artificial blooms. He is planning to build a garden office to support the business at the end of the garden and the new pathway will help him achieve that goal.

“I am very grateful for their help," he said, "for sparing their time and helping to improve access for me, preparing the ground for my future freestanding office plans. This meant so much, I want to give a big thanks to all who helped.”

National Highways Project Manager, Rumbi Dzikiti, said: “We appreciate that any roadworks, particularly on a scheme as large as this, can cause disruption for local people and appreciate their understanding while works are carried out. So if we can be a good neighbour and help people in the local community we are happy to do so. The project team got to know Monzur and volunteered to carry out this work in his garden. Hopefully he can now better enjoy the outdoors this summer and ultimately get the office he wants to support his business." 

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Gurinder Chadha: shedworker

 

 

Film dirctor Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it Like Beckham, Beecham House) is also a shedworker. In the video below she shows us round her roof top garden office built by Booths Garden Studios and talks about why she has air conditioning, working at night, and the need to go bespoke to abide by planning issues.

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