Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Warehouse Wednesday: Stafford hothouse

Stafford glasshouse buildings
 
A slightly offbeat building this week. If you take the train to Stafford, just across the road is Victoria Park. In the corner of the park is an aviary and fantastic hothouse. Just the place to escape to when it's cold and wet. Even if the weather is kind, it's a lovely tranquil spot.

Anyway, as well as the glasshouse, there is a civic nursery and these buildings for storing vehicles and stuff. I'm guessing the the Petroleum Spirit sign leads to a council van. An in-town location explains the extra security bars.

What I like is that they are the sort of anonymous structures that used to be everywhere. Built in an era where you did a proper job with bricks rather than a pre-fab, these could be 30s, 50s or even 60s.

This is an unfussy building but that just makes it ideal for modellers looking for a reasonably easy life. Perhaps because of this, you could sit it in the corner of most layouts. It's rare to see one as unmolested as this, not even some signage indicating who it belongs to.

The hothouse itself is simple but interesting.

Stafford Glasshouse

Lots of glass would make it a challenge to build but less so than the more ornate Victorian versions. Inside is lovely and so full of plants, at least that bit of a model would be easy.

Stafford hothouse inside right

2 comments:

Duncan Young said...

That's an ideal nursery prototype! Yes, I agree re the post Victorian glasshouse comment, easier to reproduce in model form and actually more commonplace!I recall a nursery like this at Ponteland when I was small and it had a stationary boiler to help the hothouse element. It might just spur me on.

Duncan Young said...

That's an ideal nursery prototype! Yes, I agree re the post Victorian glasshouse comment, easier to reproduce in model form and actually more commonplace!I recall a nursery like this at Ponteland when I was small and it had a stationary boiler to help the hothouse element. It might just spur me on.