With events cancelled and therefore fewer things to drive your classic car to let us turn our attention to where it is parked up.
I am not only an optimist but also like to see the bright side of everything. After a bleak 2020 event calendar there might very well still be fewer events to attend also into 2021 or at least in the beginning of the year – but as this less activity also applies to the rest of the society the roads are actually more free and open and generally enjoyable from behind the wheel of a classic car than they have been for a long, long time. So by all means go for a drive – even if there isn’t the usual pub meeting, local classic car event or great racing, rallying or car shows to attend.
But if that fails – let’s think about the shed for a moment. Just as I like British cars, I like a lot of other things from the now independent and once so great nation. Including the very special thing with their sheds. For many Britons, of course, these appendices to their real houses have a practical significance, such as where you store your bulbs, your whiskey collection or – ahaaah! – have your garage. But I have the British more than suspected that their shed is their refuge. Or maybe the good old British saying “my home is my castle” might apply even more to their sheds.
For years the well respected print medium The Daily Telegraph has had an annual competition for “Shed of the Year”, and it is a great honor to be on that list. It is also clear that many of the participants in that competition have crossed the line of when shedding (my word, not sure if the discipline is actually called that in English?) is relaxing and healthy and when it is elite sport, but it is still interesting to observe how decay has a fixed role in the general theme of sheds. Very telling for the British in general, perhaps? But as we have often mentioned here on our somewhat less respected non-print medium ViaRETRO, there can indeed be something very beautiful in decay.
This is how I feel about my future garage in my old stable building. As I moved here a year and a half ago a visitor advised me to tear it all down and start from scratch. However with my fascination of the British shed culture that was never my intention, in fact rather the opposite. With this I mean explicitly in the best British tradition of sheds: In a wonderful decay, with charm and not least a rather authentic style – but still with the potential to become my (and selected ViaRETRO readers, of course) refuge. That was exactly what I wanted with the project. Which it still is now a year and a half later. In fact I challenge anyone in doing projects at a slower rate of progress than mine! As a true project the budget does not hold either even when primarily working to good old DIY principles. On the positive side the shed look promises to be rather authentic and not least hold place for all my cars as well.
I certainly feel inspired. And then it may well be that I have to sell a car along the way to finance the project, but that is probably OK too. Then there will be more space in there, right? And when the space of around 150 square meters (around 1600 square feet) gets tight anyway – well, there’s always the other building. The time, the grief. In the meantime, I’m happily inspired by the British Shed Of The Year contestants from The Daily Telegraph’s annual competition, and it was obvious to think that my favorite was the so-called “Lagonda Shed”, whose name makes sense when you see it with content:
But it seems there is an unspoken limit to the size of such a classic British shed, and that it may only hold one car. Firstly, I can not settle for that – secondly, my building just happens to be bigger. My favorite shed is therefore the old depot building here below. It also holds only one vehicle, but that being a train carriage it could certainly be replaced with several cars instead. However, I would think that the owner is worryingly close to having over-restored both the building and the train car, according to an also unspoken rule of sheds not being too pretty.
Nonetheless there is a lot of inspiration to be found in the Shed Of The Year-competition: I know I am biased by being very fond of this certain shabby chic British style that oozes charm and certainly also sacrifices something on the altar of practicality on that account. In fact that is exactly what I do myself: My project has never been to build the perfect workshop, but to get something sensible out of the existing buildings on a budget. And I will get there. Some time. It wasn’t 2020, but let’s see this year. Follow here on the channel.
In the meantime, just like me, you can be inspired how they do it over in The Land of The Shed and be cheered up by the gallery below. Like all projects shedding is also about knowing when to say stop: The first picture in the gallery is of a man who started buying one old enamel sign from a pub…
