It is not common knowledge as to when the first English Garden Room was built at the bottom of an English garden. It might have been in the late 18th century that architect William Kent’s potting shed spurred the interest in an outside retreat. Or perhaps it was the erection of 2.1 million Anderson World War 2 air raid shelters late in 1938?
The Garden Room has it’s place alongside mother nature herself – an abiding existence with so many forms and functions.
Every garden in the world is determined by its own biosphere. In Asia a historic garden room is the ‘pergola’ where foundations, four posts and a tiled or a thatched roof is the convention. So humid is it that in parts of Asia this works perfectly and allows for quick cover during tropical rain.
In contrast the thickly walled, Scandinavian log cabin has played an important role as a garden room, housing the family sauna or as a barbeque room, in Norway and Denmark since the Bronze era. Due to a shear number of Scot’s Pine Trees available it offers a resourceful efficient building material. The USA and the west inherited a great deal of the building processes from Scandinavian regions and as a result it is a very common garden room style throughout the northern hemisphere of the world.
Here in Britain, life in the garden room varies from region to region. Orchard rooms in Kent, Boathouses in Norfolk, Summerhouses in Devon, potting sheds in Yorkshire, Offices in London, holiday cabins in Scotland, work houses in Lincoln and kiosks in Essex. Garden room use changes by terrain, and the needs of the local people.
In Europe the garden room has evolved from a long history of early ‘AD’ pavilions for religious worship and also, from the 13th century, glass structures are used in to cultivate fruit and vegetables.
Later in European history we find a noticeable third reason for a garden room: to demonstrate wealth through the building of a folly. To create an impression within the grounds of their mansions and estates, the gentry of Europe built everything from pineapples to towers and temples to tree houses. In Europe, the garden room has been built in every shape and form.
Mother Nature has also been at work and has engineered the odd garden room of her own. See has created treehouses, nests, caves, dug outs, hives, tunnels, canopys, natural sunshades and grass houses.
Distant childhood memories provide a further twist on garden room dwellings. . As Beatrice Lillies elaborates in her 1934 record – there are “fairies at the bottom of the garden” and often the garden room takes centre stage. Fairytales and cartoons have fantasized of garden room flower pots in ‘The Wombles’; garden room tea pots in ‘Poddington Peas’ and let’s not forget Goldilocks’s experiences in the mysterious garden house or the adventures of The Three Little Pigs!
Beatrice Lillies You Tube video…
Throughout history the garden room has been more than a functional building. It is room for people to find themselves in, to explore their relationship with their own culture, their gods or themselves. It is a place of work, rest, play and worship.
The garden room protects its owner from demons. Used wisely the garden room protects your from extremes of weather, neighbours and intrusion. If you understand the peace and tranquillity of the garden then the garden room is yours to cultivate, and thrive in.
