Posted 24th November 2017 by
The Norwich firm of Boulton & Paul, renowned manufacturers of all prefabricated wooden and iron buildings at their Rose Lane works and latter at the Riverside works over the river, produced a range of revolving wood framed shelters during the first half of the 20th century.
Since at least the twelfth century, summerhouses have been a common feature of gardens and parks in European estates and there is mention of buildings in the park of Hesdin in Northern France being on wheels that could be rolled out to the park and turned to face the sun. A 1736 illustration of Londons Kensington Gardens by Bernard Lens the Younger shows what is described as in the title as a revolving summer house.
Around the turn of the 19th century, many hospitals and sanatoria in Britain and Continental Europe had rotating shelters in their grounds, to balance the need for fresh air and sunlight with a basic protection from wind, rain and snow. Kelling Sanatorium for Working Men in Norwich had at least a dozen such buildings each equipped with one or two beds, a locker and a commode. An advertisement for a revolving shelter made by Boulton & Paul appeared in 1912 under the heading Fresh Air for Patients in The British Journal of Tuberculosis in 1912.
These treatment houses are closely related to summer houses or garden houses. The structures often appealed to the eccentric, the artist and the well heeled who sought escape from society or distraction. Rotating summer houses seem to have been particularity favoured by writers and scholars who desired uninterrupted escape and the opportunity to fine-tune their immediate environment to aid creativity. The most famous being George Bernard Shaw, whose revolving writing hut remains in the garden of his house near Welwyn, Hertfordshire. It is here that he wrote some of his best known plays such as Man and Superman and Pygmalion.
Our summerhouse was constructed in the 1920s and was rescued from a garden in the Norwich suburb of Cringleford. It has been restored and repainted, and, although we have replaced a handful of timbers, all the cladding, roof boards, doors, windows and floor are original. The turntable mechanism is in full working order and turns with a push from a little finger.