Victorian glasshouse restoration

[Nemesis]

Came across this site:

http://www.winsfordwalledgarden.co.uk/victorian_greenhouse_restoration.html

The part about Victorian contractors was particularly interesting, with the catalogue pictures.

Here's one I snapped at Sunnycroft, Telford, this summer.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-sunnycroft/

 

[Nemesis]

PS why is it that sometimes there's an 'edit' message and at other times there isn't?

 

[middi]

Lovely to see traditional glasshouses being restored, Evelyn.

It is the first restorations/salvage projects which started off my Orchid growing hobby.

The one's in the pic's would teach restorers of P/P buildings all about victorian glass, putty glazing, linsead oil and the importance of ventilation in humid enviroments.

..... and growing plants of course.

 

[Nemesis]

It's good to see so many being repaired and put back into use. It wasn't so long ago they were being demolished at an alarming rate.

This one belonged to Queen Victoria, Osborne House, Isle of Wight:

 

[middi]

Beautiful !!.

It makes you wonder sometimes how we got derailed so much into thinking that the modern plastic composite substitutes could ever come close to the artistry, elegance and practicality of the original concept.

Never mind, let's dream on.

( lovely flagstones ! )

 

[Nemesis]

One more - too much excitement in one day is bad for you.

I took this pic in October 2005 at Wimpole Hall, Cambs, where the Nat Trust is doing great work in putting the walled garden into productive use.

No orchids though - a spectacular display of squashes instead.

 

[Nemesis]

I found this link to a whole heap of pics of Sunnycroft, which features more of the glasshouses.

http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/gallery/sunnycroft_villa

 

[JanieB]

I often wonder whether my grandmother's hothouse/greenhouse is still standing. She loved her gardening but it got too much for her in latter years and the glasshouse was left unattended. The last time I saw it it was not irreparable. The wood needed some attention and some of the glass was broken, but it wasn't rotten by any means.

It was one long house against a wall of a walled garden. It was split into two with a door about halfway down. The section nearest the house had been a hothouse and the rest a greenhouse.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

One more - too much excitement in one day is bad for you.

I took this pic in October 2005 at Wimpole Hall, Cambs, where the Nat Trust is doing great work in putting the walled garden into productive use.

No orchids though - a spectacular display of squashes instead.

Oh, please miss! please miss! I did that!!!!

 

[Gervase]

Very impressiove Gareth.
All the more so because, unlike my dear wife, you resisted any temptation to disport the squashes in rude and suggestive fashion!

 

[Nemesis]

It's amazing isn't it what can be done with a couple of squashes and an overgrown courgette.

I presume this is the fate of the bloke wot suggested the glasshouse would have been better in placcy?

 

[plumbers mate]

I loved this place when I was in Liverpool and when I took my son there 9 years later, I almost cried when I saw the dereliction.

However check ----

http://www.palmhouse.org.uk/

I haven't seen it since the work was done but it looks smart again.

 

[Nemesis]

SAVE casework News June 2004:

Liverpool Parks

Liverpool's historic parks are rightly famous, the inspiration for many a park across the world, including, remarkably, Central Park in New York. We were rather surprised therefore to learn of plans to build the new City Academy on a part of Sefton Park, which formerly contained its hothouses and more recently a municipal works site. While it is no longer an active part of the park, a more inspired action would have been to have reinstated the site as a part of the park, and put the multi-storey Academy on one of the many sites recently cleared through demolition (of which there are very many). The Academy will also be completely out of character with the surrounding area of modest yet handsome two to three storey late Victorian villas, but such is the way business is conducted in Liverpool that little was going to stop this flagship project going ahead.

A pause for thought also for Stanley Park in Liverpool which faces the prospect of Liverpool Football Club's new stadium being built on a part of it and the Palm House being converted into a shop selling football gear. Oh, and the demolition of about 1200 houses, mostly Victorian terraces, if it goes ahead. The planning committee meets in May.

 

[plumbers mate]

Newcastle Utd tried to take over part of the Town Moor and the Park (which would have reduced the size of the lake and made it unworkable as a lake.) We did it in the end and they were refused permission for their new stadium so had to build up on the old stadium -- would have been better outside the city centre though and made the city a fractionally better place to be on a saturday.

 

[arl]

http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/palmhouse.html

 

[arl]

http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/palmhouse.html

 

[arl]

http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/palmhouse.html

 

[arl]

sorry - my internet had a hiccup

 

[Nemesis]

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/coombe/coombe.htm