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Boulton and Paul Revolving Summerhouse
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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 London’s 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 1920’s 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. |
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