• Shed Man 12th Oct 2009

  What do you reckon about working sheds in the garden?

  Ingenious solutions to solve home clutter and improve life-work balance?

  Or sad refuges for escapist men?

  We’ve been debating this. To be honest, the house is full to overflowing. And I love the idea of an outdoor office space.

  But who is this talking? The practical householder in me – or the inner caveman?

  Shed-dwellers have taken plenty of stick in recent years. Especially from female journalists who’ve described them as overgrown boys.

  I suppose I take my cue from Millican Dalton. He lived in a cave nine months of the year, and in a plain hut for the winter months.

  
  Now was Millican escapist? Or was he right to follow through on his love of natural simplicity?

  You do feel closer to nature in a shed or hut. Countless creatives have found inspiration in them.

  Take Mark Twain. His sister-in-law built an octagonal one-room studio for him when he moved to Elmira, NY, in 1874. Twain describes it like this:

  “It is a cozy nest, with just room in it for a sofa and a table and three or four chairs… And when the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lightning flashes above the hills beyond, and the rain beats upon the roof over my head, imagine the luxury of it!”

  
  Or there’s George Bernard Shaw. He had a hut designed on a rotating platform that he could move to follow the sun’s path across the sky. Nice.

  And before Nicky points out that these are both men, what about Virginia Woolf? She wrote from a writing shed at Monk’s House, East Sussex. ‘Nuff said.

  But, seriously, there is a long tradition of men burying themselves in seclusion in sheds. The word ‘shed’ itself apparently comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘scead’, meaning shade or a place of partial darkness or obscurity’. Hence, the image of sheds inhabited by loners.

  Now, I’ve no wish to become a hermit. Some chance anyway with our phone ringing like it does.
  But the fact is that we actually see our shed as a well-lit office for all-year round use.

  And for joint ownership as a couple. Sorry, Millican.

  We’ll keep you posted.

  By Jorrit
  
  

Add your Comment