If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Because the spinoff from architect George Clark’s Amazing Spaces show, Shed of the Year, begins its second series on Channel 4 tonight. And some of the structures on show are bound to stoke shed-envy. Some, indeed, seem to flout the very definition – “a simple roofed structure used for garden storage, to shelter animals, or as a workshop,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary – of what a shed should be.
A shed is no longer a simple shack where grandpa kept his tools and his pots, and sometimes retired for a contemplative pipe and a bit of solitude, it seems.
There are nine judging categories in this year’s Shed of the Year, including Eco, Historical, Unique and the perhaps unsurprisingly popular Pub. This year’s nominees – judged by a panel including architect, writer and presenter George Clark - include a shed with a solid oak frame designed to look like a medieval hall house, a shed-servatory (ugh!) with an open roof for stargazing and a recreation of a Japanese tea house complete with ornamental bridge.