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The credit crunch isn’t just putting the brake on house prices rises they are going into reverse. In some instances you can sell your home below what it was worth a year ago and find...

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I’ve written about Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown several times before. Most people will know his name, as he was the most influential garden designer of his generation and as his fame grew he also...

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I have written about the first English Orangery twice before, firstly when writing about the home of Francis Carew and an orangery he built at Beddington in Surrey that Elizabeth I visited, and...

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Here are our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar. Even though this was published in 1769; the advice he gives is still most useful, and if you have...

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Apethorpe Hall, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, is a Grade I country house dating back to the 15th century. Its state apartment was rebuilt between 1622 and 1624 to receive James I...

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If you have a Victorian style conservatory, you might like to give it the finishing touch by displaying plants in it that were popular in Victorian times. Many plants had only recently been introduced into England and...

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I wrote about two conservatories, the Palm House and the Bicentennial Conservatory at the Adelaide Botanic Garden some time ago. The first is 130-years old, the...

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If you repeat a story often enough people will eventually believe it. Everywhere I read that the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid’s Parque del Retiro was inspired by the Crystal Palace in London, but...

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The last member of the Wyatt Family Dynasty I shall write about for a while, is perhaps the most famous. James Wyatt, (1746-1813), was the son of Benjamin and...

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Samuel Wyatt was a member of the Wyatt Dynasty that built many homes and conservatories in the Georgian and Victorian periods. Son of Benjamin Wyatt who...

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The name Wyatt often comes up when describing country houses and conservatories of the Georgian and Victorian period, so I thought it would be a good idea to write about this family who...

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Following on from my story about the Tatton Fernery the other day, here’s news about some of the other conservatories there. Glasshouses were built at Tatton...

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This week at the Chelsea Flower Show macrozamia moorei an Australian cycad, caused a bit of a stir when the Duke of Edinburgh saw it. An Australian gardening expert...

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I was going to write about conservatories at Tatton Park in Cheshire, but before I do so on another day, here’s a small diversion on the subject of Ferneries. I’ve written once before on...

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As the vast majority of the conservatories we design are built in oak, I thought I had better write a few words about the oak we use after reading a headline, Many Oak Species Under Threat...

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The first glasshouses at Eden Park were built in the 1880’s to provide the city with plants and shrubs for park and municipal displays. In 1902, a greenhouse designed for public display was opened, but...

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Although building conservatories in a conservation area is covered elsewhere on our website, it’s a topic we frequently get asked about, so I thought I would go over some of the more important...

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An article in the Sunday Times today extolled the reasons for building extensions to a home now that the property price boom is over. Their argument is that to outperform the property market...

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I suppose that now that the football season is almost over and there’s a Test Match on at Lords, we should expect rain rather than the fine weather we enjoyed last weekend! It certainly makes people think...

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Opened in 1996, the conservatory at the Rio Grande Botanical Gardens is made up of two pavilions, one displaying Mediterranean Plants, and the other featuring plants from the arid climates...

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The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is one of the most famous conservatories in the world. I have mentioned it before here, first of all in a story about the conservatory builders...

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I’ve discovered some more old postcards showing conservatories that help illustrate some of the conservatories I have written about in the past few months. The first is an interior...

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A new conservatory is planned for Sinnissippi Park In Rockford, Illinois as part of the centenary celebrations planned there for 2009. This week the halfway point was passed in the fund-raising project to...

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I came across some really old photographs of a conservatory that was once on the west wing of the White House in Washington and thought I’d better research a little more about it so I could...

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In Asheville, North Carolina, you will find a 250-room mansion designed for George and Edith Vanderbilt. An amazing construction built on the lines of a French chateau on steroids, it is...

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Even though the restored Palm House at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden no longer has plants within it, this doesn’t mean that there are no longer any working conservatories in the...

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The splendid looking Palm House in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in New York was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White; probably the leading architectural firm in the...

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Here are our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar. Even though this was published in 1769; the advice he gives is still most useful, and if you have orange trees in your conservatory or...

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The conservatories at Duke Gardens, Somerville, NJ will be closing on the 28th May, so if you wish to see them as the owners originally planned them, you just have a few days left before...

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If nothing else indicates how popular conservatories are becoming, a story from The Northern Echo gives you a good indication. The newspaper reports that thieves have stolen everything of value from a luxury...

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If you really want to open your house into the garden, consider the many benefits of specifying sliding doors or folding doors into your conservatory design. Folding or sliding doors open far wider than...

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The Como Conservatory, now known as the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, in Como Park was built in 1915. The park opened in the late 1880’s after some local wrangling over money. It had been back...

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Mapperton Hall near Bearminster in Dorset was built in the reign of Henry VIII by Robert and Mary Morgan. Robert was one of a select company of men who were allowed to wear their hats...

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Many of the national papers today ran a story about an innovative eco-friendly home in a Cotswold nature reserve being sold for a £7.2 million. Many of them claimed this was a...

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The 1st Earl of Portland; William, Baron Bentinck, 1649-23 was a Dutch and English nobleman who early in his life became a friend and close advisor of William Henry, Prince of Orange...

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The Lucille Halsell conservatory in the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, Texas, had to be designed with very different considerations than a conservatory built in Europe. While we worry about...

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News reaches me that a builder who was not paid for the £22,000 porch and conservatory he built for a customer has taken revenge by demolishing his own handiwork. I just wanted to reassure you that...

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I read that a plane tree in Mayfair has been valued at £750,000, making it Britain’s most valuable tree. The plane trees in Berkeley Square are supposed to be among the oldest of their kind in central London, having been...

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When I first saw the photograph below, I thought it was a conservatory on the side of a hill. Then when I took a closer look and read more about it, I discovered it was a...

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I have mentioned Frank Lloyd Wright in these pages before, when describing the Boettcher Conservatory in the Denver Botanic Garden designed by Horbein and White and influenced by...

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If you have a Georgian or Victorian style traditional conservatory, you might like to complete its setting by using furniture inside and out from the same period. Metal began to be used for...

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I’ve written about the Great Conservatory in Syon Park before, but I thought I’d write about some of the people involved in its construction; first of all Thomas Cundy, builder of the...

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At Tregothnan Gardens in Cornwall a Wollemi Pine has just produced its first cones. Nothing surprising in that you may think, but the 2 million-year-old Wollemi Pine, was thought to have been...

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They’ve built a new conservatory at Kew Gardens, not a traditional conservatory, but a gallery specially designed to “conserve” Botanical Art rather than plants. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery...

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I was fascinated by a TV programme last night about the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 and went off to find out when the first book on gardening was printed...

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From time-to-time I come across information that will enable me to update the History of the Orangery on our website. I’ve already noted the word "orange" to describe the...

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In our Conservatory Advice section of our website, you will find a section devoted to Garden Furniture, but until I add this to it, there is nothing there at the moment about wire furniture...

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The Gardens at Killruddery House are the oldest in Ireland still surviving in their original 17th century style. The Orangery was designed and built by William Burn, the Scottish architect in...

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I’ve written before in these pages that “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t…!” and the traditional solution has been to go indoors to do whatever you want to do, or...

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Walking around the Glassex exhibition the other day while there to pick up our Gold Award (did I mention that!) in the Conservatory of the Year Competition, I...

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We were delighted to receive two more awards for our conservatories at Glassex 2008 yesterday. Judges in this national competition to find the best conservatories built in the past 12-months...

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Since the Royal Mint announced a new issue of coins last week, a number of coin collectors and old fogies have been up in arms about playing around...

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Here again are our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar. Even those this was published in 1769; the advice he gives is still most useful, especially...

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The Druid Hall Conservatory in the Botanic Gardens in Baltimore is another conservatory I featured a few days ago in the conservatory postcards…

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The original Mitchell Park Conservatory that I illustrated from an old postcard yesterday stood in the park from 1898 to 1955 when due to it…

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Just for a change today, here are some interesting old photographs of conservatories in the USA and Canada, when I find out more about them...

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I’ve mentioned Chance Brothers several times when writing about conservatories of the late 19th century; in the History of the Conservatory and the building of the Crystal Palace. So today…

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Within the grounds of St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, you will find a fine original Victorian Conservatory. I was surprised to find one there as I associate St George’s Park with...

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Marston & Langinger is an old and respected conservatory company that we often come up against when quoting for the design and installation of conservatories, orangeries and...

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If writing about famous conservatory designers, it’s usually to do with some grand design in a botanic garden, but I found this small Victorian Conservatory designed by a famous author for an even more...

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Designing a conservatory is one thing, having the talent and engineering skill to build one is something else indeed. In our business our CAD designers have to translate the ideas of our designers...

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The Climatron, the 24,000 sq ft geodesic dome said to be the first ever used as a greenhouse, is the major attraction of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. It was built in...

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Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden, sometimes known as "Shaw’s Garden" after its founder Henry Shaw, is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the USA...

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I have written previously about the Chiswick House Conservatory, not realising that it should more correctly be described as a Camellia House. It has a central dome...

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The Quad City Conservatory at Rock Island Illinois, is a contemporary conservatory that opened in 1998. Next to the Mississippi River, the conservatory covers...

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I've discovered a very unusual conservatory with a beautiful roof that could be the inspiration for a contemporary conservatory today. Strictly it is a Fernery and not a conservatory and...

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Wilhelma Botanical Gardens together with a Zoo can be found in Bad Cannstatt, a suburb of Stuttgart. The gardens and the buildings were created for King Wilhelm I and...

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The Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural Society in Edgbaston originally managed the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The Society was founded in 1829 by subscription, when...

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The Palm House in Sefton Park was a gift to the City of Liverpool from Henry Yates Thompson, a local philanthropist and replaced a Band Pavilion that had been...

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Opened on 16th January 1877, the Bournemouth Winter Garden had been built a short distance from the pier in this fast expanding Dorset town that had only been founded in 1810 and where the...

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Continuing the story of the conservatories at Longwood Gardens that I started yesterday here’s some information about the Palm House that’s built also there. Designed by...

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The 22 individual conservatories at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania together create one of the world’s largest connected conservatory structures covering over 150,000 sq ft and rival those at...

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Today I’m continuing on the theme of famous conservatory architects by writing about Victor Horta who worked with Alphonse Balat on Balat’s later conservatories at Laeken...

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Alphonse Balat (1819 – 1895), responsible for the conservatory complex at Laeken, received his degree in architecture in Antwerp in 1838. In 1846 Balat moved to Brussels and...

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What does the new British Airways terminal at Heathrow have to do with conservatories you may ask, well other than being an interesting piece of engineering, let me explain...

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Yesterday I wrote about the Winter Garden at Laeken in Brussels, today it is the turn of the Congo Greenhouse or Conservatory.

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The spectacular Royal Glasshouses at Laeken on the outskirts of Brussels provide a variety of climates in an area covered by nearly five acres of glass...

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It’s been a bit windy the past couple of days in case you hadn’t noticed and if this means it has been a little draughty in your conservatory, you should take a look at our new sister website ReplacementConservatory

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Conservatories get called by other names from time to time, today let’s take a look at a Winter Garden. The Sheffield Winter Garden is one of the largest temperate conservatories to be...

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The Boettcher Conservatory in the Denver Botanic Garden is the largest single structure tropical conservatory in the United States. Commissioned by Claude Boettcher, a member of the philanthropic...

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In Heaton Park, Manchester, there is an orangery built in about 1823 for the 2nd Earl of Wilton. Heaton Park, four miles north of Manchester is owned by the local council and...

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Hyder Ali originally commissioned the Lalbagh Botanic Garden in the southern part of Bangalore in 1760, but his son, Tipu Sultan, completed it. Covering 240 acres the garden contains a glasshouse...

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Opened in July 2007, the Tropical House in the National Botanic Garden of Wales was designed by architect John Belle who donated his services…

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The National Botanic Garden of Wales is the first national botanic garden to be created in the United Kingdom for over 200 years. Laid out on the site of the Middleton Estate, a Regency Parkland in...

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Time once again for our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar that he published in 1769. ” Water your Orange-trees, Myrtles, Bays, Amomum Plinii, and other...

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The History of the Orangery is one of the popular pages on our website. Written about a year ago, it deserves a few updates as our knowledge of orangeries increases. So here’s a new item...

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I recently came across an old photograph of a conservatory at Sandringham House, originally published in the Strand Magazine in April 1893. Delving deeper, I found...

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Although the first botanical garden in Copenhagen was established at the University as far back as 1600 it was nearly a hundred years before...

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A number of articles I wrote early on in conservatory news have for some reason disappeared, so I'm repeating a few of them because of their importance to the history of the conservatory...

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Have you seen the conservatory sequence in the BBC Programme Room 101? In case you’re not familiar with it, each week a guest has to...

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Over 160 years, conservatory design has increasingly influenced the architecture of public buildings and homes. The other day I stumbled across this stunning house with walls...

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Self Build and DIY conservatories and orangeries are a way of saving money on a new conservatory, but it’s not something we can recommend unless you have some building experience...

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The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants. In 1763 it moved to its present site and the...

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The Botanical Gardens in Sheffield were established by local residents concerned about the lack of public open space in their city. They formed the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society and...

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Located in the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin; the Bolz Conservatory is a diamond-domed building that opened in...

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In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada you will find four stunning pyramid conservatories designed by architect Peter Hemingway. Hemingway, who was born in England and moved to Edmonton when...

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As well as the Palm House I wrote about yesterday, there is also an orangery in the 63-acre park at Bicton. It overlooks the Italian Garden, laid out in...

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Built in the 1820’s the Palm House at Bicton is set in magnificent gardens in East Devon’s picturesque Otter Valley near Exeter. The conservatory is listed Grade l by...

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Following on from my item about the first Schwetzingen Orangerie, here is the story of the second one. When the Elector developed an interest in exotic plants, Nicolas de Pigage had to...

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There are two orangeries in the garden of Schwetzingen Castle near Heidelberg and today I’m writing about the older one. Built for Carl Theodor, the Elector Palatine...

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The Heritage Lottery Fund has just confirmed a final award of £7.6 million towards the £11.7 million restoration of Chiswick Gardens, including the conservatory...

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Hidden in the gardens at Longleat House in Wiltshire, you will find an orangery commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765 - 1837) who employed Jeffry Wyatville to...

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A Grade ll listed Orangery in Lambeth that was once part of the Henry Thornton estate, has recently received a grant of £25,000 to help restore it to its former glory. The Orangery is...

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The Burggarten (Castle Garden) Palmenhaus (conservatory) in Vienna was built between 1901 and 1906 and is an important landmark in the Austrian capital. Its architecture is a mixture of Baroque and...

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After 130 years in the Palm House in Schonbrunn, the imperial "Sisi Palm", named after the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, is going to be cut down. Already 40 years old when it was planted in the...

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Yesterday I wrote about the second largest Orangery in Europe in Vienna; today a short item on the largest conservatory in Europe in the same city...

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The Schonbrunn Orangery in Austria, 189 metres in length and 10 metres wide, is after the one at Versailles, the second largest orangery in the world. There was already an orangery garden...

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The Zwinger in Dresden, Germany is the city’s most famous landmark. A baroque complex of pavilions and galleries, like many of Dresden’s most prominent buildings, it was...

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At Stowe House in Northampton you’ll find a building called a Menagerie, which is sometimes known as an orangerie. If you are confused...

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Croome Park in Worcestershire was Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s first complete landscape design, begun in 1751 commissioned by George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry. The house at Croombe was...

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Time for our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar that he published in 1769. ”If this month proves severe (as it often happens), you must be...

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Warwick Castle was founded in 1068 and has been rebuilt and updated several times. The castle provides a great day out for...

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Sezincote House in Gloucestershire is home to a unique orangery; but more on that in a moment. The word Sezincote is derived from...

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Purchased by the 1st Earl of Shelburne in the mid 18th century, Bowood House and Gardens in Wiltshire have been improved by...

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The house at Wrest Park built in 1834-39 was inspired an 18th-century French chateau and is set in over 90 acres of gardens. Its owner, Thomas Philip, 2nd Earl de Grey...

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Heveningham Hall in Suffolk was designed by Sir Robert Taylor with interiors by James Watt and landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. Based on an original...

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This beautiful Orangery was designed by the well known architect Edwin Lutyens for the Edwardian Garden at Hestercombe in Somerset...

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Did you miss our conservatory news yesterday? In case you did and didn't follow the link to the website you can take a look at it here:

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We've recently updated our sister website which covers the subject of conservatory design to include a short introduction to conservatories, their design and architecture. If you are looking for...

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In the gable above a conservatory or orangery door you will usually find a fanlight, typically semicircular or semielliptical with glazing bars radiating within it from a central floret like a...

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In yesterday’s item about Barton Seagrave Hall Orangery, I mentioned Humphry Repton as being the architect. I also mentioned that the orangery had a...

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The Orangery at Barton Seagrave Hall in Northamptonshire is a Grade I listed building, currently undergoing restoration funded by English Heritage. The earliest parts of the Hall are...

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Many peoples first experience of a conservatory would have been while playing the board game Cluedo and trying to work out who had murdered Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US version called...

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Completing yesterdays story about Monet and the Orangerie, here ’s the building on the opposite side of the Tuileries Gardens from the Orangerie. Built a year earlier in...

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The Orangerie des Tuileries in Paris was built in 1852 during the reign of Napoleon III. Designed by architects Firmin Bourgeois and Ludovico Visconti, you can find it...

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If you have an old conservatory that needs replacement, here are a few things you should consider before embarking on your replacement conservatory project...

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The Great Vine in Hampton Court Palace Gardens is the oldest and largest known vine in the world and is housed in an old-fashioned conservatory that is more like a...

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For the third year running one of our conservatories has won an award at the annual Conservatories Online Awards. Not bad, we have only entered for the past three years and...

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In January many conservatory manufacturers and installers offer conservatory sale prices and conservatory discounts to attract customers. For example...

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The Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, USA celebrates the centenary of its opening this year. Four and a half acres in size, it replaced three earlier conservatories on the site...

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The Conservative Wall at Chatsworth, so called because it was designed to conserve plants was built by Joseph Paxton in 1848. It is a series of greenhouses running...

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Further to my item on Another Type of Conservatory – A Camellia House at Wollaton Hall the other day, here is another one at Culzean Castle, a...

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Towards the end of his life Sir Joseph Paxton was in much demand for as a garden designer and builder of conservatories and orangeries. By this time...

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There are a number of Camellia Houses around the country and the first I will write about is the one at Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire. The Camellia first arrived in Europe at...

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Sir Jeffry Wyatville was born on August 3, 1766. Both his father, Joseph and his uncle’s James and Samuel, were architects. At the ages of twelve and fourteen he...

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I often write about a conservatory having to complement the property it is attached too; using a Georgian style for a Georgian period or neo-Georgian building for example. And I have also...

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2008 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Andrea Palladio on 30th November 1508 and during the course of this year you will probably...

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Time for our monthly words of advice from Philip Miller, author of The Gardeners Kalendar that he published in 1769. Here's the top of the page that...

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Here are the answers to our New Year Conservatory Crossword. I hope you enjoyed having a go at it...

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If you are at a loose end before the New Year celebrations start, have a go at our Conservatory Crossword Puzzle...

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We already have a comprehensive History of Glass and its influence on conservatory architecture on our website, but here is an update based on some further research...

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As we approach the end of the year, here are just a few of the conservatories we have designed and installed in the past 12-months. They include Sunrooms; Victorian Gothic and Contemporary Conservatories...

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I’uve just discovered an orangery that was part of the manor that stood at Wimbledon for many centuries. It was crown property until the reign of Henry VIII and for a...

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Belton House near Grantham in Lincolnshire was built for Sir John Brownlow between 1685 and 1688. It is built in the Carolean architectural style...

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Here are the answers to our Conservatory Christmas Quiz:

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If you’ve been reading this for the past few months you should find our Conservatory Christmas Quiz a breeze. Good luck and Merry Christmas to you all...

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I’m running out of Lord & Burnham conservatories and greenhouses to write about, so this item about the conservatory at Sonnenberg Gardens and...

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Garden lighting has increased in popularity in parallel with the development, availability and increasing illumination quality of solar-powered garden lighting and today they are a worthwhile investment...

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In case you’re imagining that this is another story about me lazing in the conservatory drinking, you’re completely wrong. This is about how coffee has been harvested at the Eden Project in Cornwall to...

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Apparently global warming is allowing the Oak Processionary Moth Thaumetopoea processionea to survive in the UK. If you haven’t heard of it before, allow me to...

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In a previous story about The First English Orangery, I noted how Queen Elizabeth I had visited Sir Francis Carew in 1599 and probably seen and...

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The Orangery at Versailles is a well-known building and I will write about it at some length another day. But in the meantime, I’ve managed to find some information about the original orangery...

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How long will a timber conservatory survive? Well, a collection of 19 metal vessels from the late Roman period has recently gone on temporary display at the Museum of London that might...

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Last night the winner of the The People’s £50 Million Lottery Contest that I wrote about ten days ago was announced. Unfortunately, the project for the Sherwood Forest Trust...

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After a really cold and frosty night, you can appreciate the work that goes into ensuring that conservatory insulation has been well taken care of. Starting from the...

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The transformation of the Orangery to the Conservatory probably lasted 100 years and the names were interchangeable depending on how...

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Towards the end of the 1840’s great rivalry existed between gardeners to grow the first Victoria Regia or Victoria Amazonica in England.

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I have written some brief stories about the conservatory at Chatsworth House before and also about the life of Joseph Paxton its designer. But...

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Here is an interesting story about a conservatory built in 1824 at The Grange in Hampshire. It played a small part in WWII and is now the home of Grange Opera.

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This week will be a big one for oak conservation. On 3rd December ITV will begin showing a series of programmes to promote The People’s £50 Million Lottery Contest, in which Brian Blessed will be...

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The Gardeners Kalendar was written by Philip Miller and first published in 1769. As I have written before, it is as relevant today as it was then and contains much useful advice for today’s conservatory gardener...

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Today is the anniversary of the Crystal Palace being destroyed by fire in 1936. At six o’clock in the evening, the manager of the Crystal Palace noticed...

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We recently completed this stunning looking conservatory for a client in Devon. Perched high with views across the countryside and the sea beyond, its huge expanse of glass...

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The biggest shake-up of planning laws for twenty years may allow the building of more kitchen and conservatory extensions without planning permission. The Planning Reform Bill published this week will...

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Over the last weekend we made the first of a number of new changes to our conservatory website to make it more interesting to our many visitors. We have a new...

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Designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the Orangery at Chateaux de Sceaux was built in about 1684 and is one of the oldest in France. It was built for...

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Continuing my investigations into the introduction of oranges into England, today I have a sort item on Orange Flower Water. The earliest appearance of this phrase is noted...

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I promised to write more about the Grecian Conservatory advertised for sale in Loudon’s Gardener’s Magazine. At the end of the letter advertising it from Roberts the Gas, there is a...

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Described as a chaste specimen of Grecian architecture, but looking to me something that we now recognise as a Georgian Conservatory, I found this conservatory for sale in...

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Edward Lloyd IV, a wealthy planter with Welsh ancestry, purchased what was to become Wye House in Talbot County, Maryland in 1658. He named the house...

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The Nash Conservatory at Kew Gardens is one of many of John Nash's famous designs, but he was also responsible for a number of other conservatories, including one at...

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Our conservatories are bespoke made in oak using timber from sustainable sources. We use oak because its great strength allows us to...

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I never cease to be surprised at how someone can be allowed to erect a dreadful building close to a magnificent one or in beautiful surroundings. But despite planning requirements and...

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I’ve written before that the word ‘conservatory’ had been used historically to describe what we might recognise as a greenhouse or orangery today and that in the mid...

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I know that we all get behind in our reading from time-to-time and the pile of unread magazines gets higher and higher, but that isn't the reason I've just finished reading The Gardener’s Chronicle from 5th July 1851. And...

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Richard Turner was the Ironmaster at the Hammersmith Iron Works in Dublin that he built in 1834 and was thus in good position to enable the building of conservatories and...

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Decimus Burton was the designer of the Palm House and the Temperate House at Kew Gardens. He was...

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As well as conventional conservatories at Kew Gardens, there are contemporary conservatories as well and the most stunning of these is the Alpine House that opened in 2006. There have been three Alpine Houses at Kew since...

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Here's a rather nice illustration and advertisement for a Georgian Style Conservatory I found in a copy of the Horticultural Register published in 1861...

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Tucked away in a corner close to the Princess Diana Conservatory at Kew Gardens, you’ll find the Secluded Garden, an area much more like a domestic garden than other parts of Kew where everything is...

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Last month I wrote about The Gardeners Kalendar, written by Philip Miller and first published in 1769. The book is as...

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Today is the anniversary of the closing of the New York Crystal Palace in 1854. Following the success of the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, a group of New Yorkers decided that they too wanted to host an International Exhibition to...

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As mentioned in my item on Owen Jones the other day, Matthew Digby Wyatt was partly responsible for decorations of the Crystal Palace when it moved to Sydenham. Before that he had been...

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I was looking for something on haunted conservatories to write about to prepare you for Halloween and stumbled across...

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I mentioned Owen Jones in my item on St Pancras Station and Conservatories the other day. He also influenced the Wentworth Castle Conservatory with its...

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Wandering round a Garden Centre the other day, I stumbled upon several pots of pineapples for sale and thought they would be amusing to grow in the conservatory at home. Four hundred years ago the pineapple was...

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Eurostar services will shortly be using the restored St Pancras Station as its terminal and thousands of people using it each day will marvel at its great roof. Designed by William Barlow and Rowland Ordish, the single span roof is...

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Wentworth Castle in the village of Stainborough, near Barnsley in Yorkshire has a Victorian Conservatory in its grounds much in need of restoration. The conservatory featured on the BBC’s Restoration Series in 2003, but...

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Many thanks to the person who sent me this extract from Hot-Houses, Greenhouses, An Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. by George Tod. Apparently, Tod was a surveyor and Hot-House builder and...

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Lord & Burnham are probably the most famous maker of greenhouses and conservatories in the USA. The business started in 1849 when a carpenter named Frederick A. Lord began building greenhouses in...

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With much colder nights now I’ve brought in a few plants in from the garden to over winter in the conservatory and add a splash of bright colour. Within a few days I noticed that some of the plants had been attacked by...

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We look at all sorts of Victorian architecture to get ideas for the design of new conservatories and with half-term next week I thought I had better write about a place the family can visit that might entertain young and old alike...

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The Pagoda Conservatory style refers to the roof of the pagoda or steeple; which is usually either pointed or ball-shaped. The design is inspired by Buddhist architecture that, via China, influenced British design from...

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A report in The Times tells that the Palace of Westminster may soon be getting its own courtyard conservatory as part of essential work required to repair...

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If you read my Acorn Bread recipe the other day you might be interested in a few more specialist Acorn recipes. I'll start off with one that was popular in many parts of Europe during...

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We use oak to make our bespoke conservatories and orangeries and some of our clients use these as an extension to their kitchen making a kitchen conservatory or orangery. We love oak for its strength as...

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I usually try to give you details of one conservatory to visit each week in case you want a day out and to get inspiration for your conservatory or garden. As I've spent so much time talking about John Evelyn...

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Lead sheet is often used for the flashings needed on conservatory roofs and specified for lead roofs on orangeries. Lead is in fact one of our oldest roofing materials and was used by...

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Yesterday I promised you more information about how John Evelyn introduced conservatory heating. Underfloor heating had been used in at least one conservatory before...

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John Evelyn (1620-1706) was a writer and a noted gardener. The Oxford English Dictionary credits him as the first to use the word conservatory, referencing as the source for this his book...

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As well as the orangery at Hampton Court Palace I wrote about the other day, there is an orangery at Hampton Court near Leominster in Herefordshire. Except that this orangery was originally described as a conservatory in...

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"A Green-house, Orangery, or Conservatory, ought, if possible to be attached to every suburban residence." Sage advice from The Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion, by John Claudius Loudon and...

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I’ve just come across a book published nearly 240 years ago with conservatory in the title and plenty of conservatory advice within. Published in 1769 the book was written by Philip Miller who was gardener for the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries at...

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When I wrote about the restoration of the Lower Orangery Garden at Hampton Court Palace a little while ago, I didn't have a photo to accompany the story. So as the sun was...

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If you fly into Oklahoma City and ask a cab to take you to the conservatory, you could easily end up in a rock music venue rather than a botanical garden. I discovered this when searching for conservatory in Google and...

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The oldest surviving orangery in the UK is at Ham House near Richmond, Surrey. Built around 1670 the orangery is based on classical Dutch architecture. Orangeries of the...

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This Lean To Hardwood Conservatory in Oak has recently been completed in the garden of a clients period property. As well as...

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Here are some conservatory quotations I thought...

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Today marks the anniversary of the signing of the contract in 1850 to build the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition and begin the Victorian love affair with conservatories. Actually, such was the speed with which the building had to be completed...

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First established in 1924 to commemorate the coronation of Emperor Taisho, the Kyoto's Botanical Gardens are the oldest in Japan. The gardens fell...

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If you've been considering adding a conservatory to your home to increase its value, here's some valuable research recently released. According to the Halifax Home Improvement Survey...

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Ensuring a client is happy with their conservatory design and installation takes time…sometimes more than a year; that's not because we are slow builders or that things go wrong, but because...

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When I wrote about the Belle Isle Conservatory yesterday I hadn't realised that there is another one with a very similar name, but Belleisle not Belle Isle, in Scotland. Belleisle conservatory is part of...

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Described as the oldest conservatory in the United States, the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory can be found in Detroit, Michigan. When I first saw it I wondered why it looked so familiar, but apparently it is...

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I mentioned Fox Talbot's 'heated stove' a few days ago and thought I should explain what I meant by that. While the word 'conservatory' had been used in architecture to describe what we might recognise as a greenhouse or conservatory today, in...

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One item often overlooked in conservatory design is the use of correct period door furniture to match the style of conservatory being built. Someone once described doorknobs as...

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We design and build oak conservatories because we love the look of the timber and the strength it has. But oak has a history in folklore so we gathered these together into eight interesting facts you...

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Following on from my item about Fox Talbot, I believe I may have found the earliest surviving photograph of a conservatory. The story...

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I was looking for some early conservatory photographs and started by researching the work of William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the positive/negative photographic process and who...

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After I wrote about Victorian Encaustic tiles the other day someone asked me if they were still available for conservatories today. In fact they are and there is an interesting story associated with them...

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A popular place for wedding photography in New York is the Central Park Conservatory Garden. But before it was a garden there really was a conservatory there from 1898 until 1934. In those days the conservatory was used to...

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Conservatory lighting and ventilation in Victorian times were not straightforward matters. I recently came across an article from the Scientific American Supplement published in 1885...

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Continuing my current theme on Victorian conservatories and decoration, I have found a splendid property managed by the National Trust that combines three great loves of Richmond Oak. Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival property near...

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If you are planning to install a Victorian Style Conservatory, you should consider a Victorian Tiled Floor like the one shown in the Victorian Gothic Conservatory we pictured the other day. There were two types of tiles used in Victorian homes...

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This recently completed Victorian Gothic style conservatory includes many design features familiar to anybody with some knowledge of the Victorian Age, some of which we talk about elsewhere on our website at the Victorian Conservatory page...

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We are proud of our green credentials and are continually looking at ways to build conservatories so that they have less impact on the environment during construction, when you use them and...

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When I wrote about Georgian Conservatories the other day and the use of the "double cube" in Georgian Architecture, I threatened to talk another day about the Golden Ratio. The golden ratio is used in maths and the arts, including design and...

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Let's start off by looking at the word "carpenter", a word derived from the Old French word carpentier that was in turn derived from the Latin carpentrius (artifex) - carriage (creator). So interestingly the carpenter was...

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Choosing the appropriate paint finish for your conservatory is an important decision. Unfortunately, it is not always a decision that you are left alone to take. If you live in a Listed Property, in a Conservation Area or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), you may have to...

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Next weekend 15th and 16th September, one of the great free events of the year happens once more in London. Open House London is an opportunity to visit homes and offices to view architectural and design that is often unavailable to see at any other time of the year - free. So for example...

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I read that the UK's highest orangery may soon be built as part of a 422 feet tall skyscraper in Croydon. Along with the orangery it's planned to have...

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In the conservatory advice pages of our website there's an item on Georgian Conservatories that talks about the interior size using "the double cube proportions so loved by Georgian architects". Somebody asked me what this meant, so here goes. First of all I need to introduce you to...

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If you enjoy listening to music as much as I do, you’ll quickly discover that a conservatory is not an ideal space in which to crank up the loudspeakers on the hi-fi. You get more reverberations and it can annoy the neighbours. This is quite easy to understand I suppose if...

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I have an interest in the development of the conservatory and my knowledge of Georgian Conservatories has just been expanded after finding an old gardening book published in 1823 that contains an interesting few pages about the use and technology in Georgian Conservatories of the time. It was written by...

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On 11th June 1811 the Prince of Wales, later to be George IV, held a lavish event in his newly completed Conservatory in Carlton House. The Prince's advisor was...

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If you think you have a home that would make a good setting for a TV or film why not register it with a company that searches for suitable locations for filming? What they are usually looking for is a property with...

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In our conservatory glass history on our website, we describe how the Roman Emperor Tiberius had out of season cucumbers grown for him in a cold frame, probably using mica for the glazing. I have now researched this a little more and...

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To keep your conservatory looking smart here are a few tips for cleaning conservatory window and roof blinds. It’s best not to leave cleaning as a six-monthly or annual chore, far better to clean often, especially Venetian Blinds. This can be done...

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One of the problems with any large expanse of glass are birds flying into windows and doors. Tinted and clear glass are invisible to birds and if they see...

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Choosing conservatory lighting is more difficult than doing so for internal rooms of the home. The lights in your conservatory have a different type of ceiling to contend with and then there are...

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Choosing your conservatory accessories means looking at practical accessories that no conservatory should be without as well as accessories that might be nice to have now, but can always be added later. So let’s take a look at some conservatory accessories...

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One of the most searched for items on the Internet recently has been "scientists hail frozen smoke." I was intrigued by the article in The Times that started this frenzy and decided to investigate further as I was...

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If you are looking for a day out, let me recommend to you the Horniman Museum, because if you pay it a visit you’ll also see a wonderful Grade II listed conservatory. The museum was founded by Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman and...

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If you live, or aspire to live, in a Georgian home you may be aware of the work of the The Georgian Group , a national charity for the protection and preservation of Georgian buildings, monuments and landscapes. Founded 70 years ago, they...

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Pavilions, Garden Studios and Summer Houses were popular additions to properties with large gardens in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sometimes with a veranda attached, they were places to relax and rest in often in...

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An item about conservatory furniture that I wrote for our website recently has on rereading, a complete lack of understanding about how an interior designer would approach the subject...

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I’m indebted to the Daily Telegraph who recently described Orangeries as the new conservatories. All the smart gardens have gone citrus crazy, they say...

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In December Cunard’s new liner the Queen Victoria built at a cost of £300 million, including conservatory, will make its maiden voyage...

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No less a person than Mrs Beeton, writing in her Book of Household Management, reminds us of the importance of adequate insurance for a conservatory. She quotes a case, "in which a glass door led into a conservatory..."

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I talked about British Standards the other day, but overlooked BS 6399. As is the way with all bureaucracy this standard is being replaced with another one with more digits and wording, it’s now BS EN 1991-1-3:2003...

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A wood floor can provide a very attractive finish to a conservatory, but should you choose solid hardwood, engineered hardwood or laminate? Let’s take a look at the differences...

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The British Standards Institute (BSI) is the UK's National Standards Body and the standards they establish represent a consensus...

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India celebrates 60 years of independence from Britain today and The Times wrote that perhaps its greatest gift to Britain was the curry. While not averse to a plate of Chicken Tikka Masala and a couple of cold beers myself, I'd like to nominate...

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Cork floors are ideal for many parts of the home but with the fashion for wood floors and tiled floors, it’s easy to overlook how good a conservatory with a cork floor can be. As any wine aficionado can tell you...

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Being expert in designing conservatories and orangeries we get asked to design and build other home extensions as well. Here’s a really fantastic front porch we recently completed for a client looking for a porch that would complement their property...

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Conservatory design and orangery design are often influenced by historic architecture, as are the gardens around them. The Lower Orangery Garden at Hampton Court Palace has recently been reopened after extensive restoration based on twenty years of research. To restore the gardens to their 17th century splendour...

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Most people overestimate the size of conservatory they wish to have built and ask for a conservatory design that is far too big. We advise our clients to think about the furniture and accessories they would like to have in their conservatory and then...

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From 1st August, if you are selling a home with four or more bedrooms, you will need a Home Information Pack to show to potential buyers...

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