The Writer’s Shed: a ‘cabin in the woods’ in the heart of London

“It’s like my world”: Roland Chambers’ writing shed. Photograph: Surman Weston.

The idea behind Roland Chambers’ writing shed came from his desire to write in peace which, as he explains, was proving to be a challenge: “The idea came from desperate need. I worked in a shared office for a while. It was a disaster, there were two wine merchants in the office and we used to start drinking at about 12 o’clock.”

Chambers decided a shed was the ideal solution and, having explored a range of “off the peg” options, was introduced to some young architects through a friend: “He said, ‘I have got these guys that haven’t graduated from the Royal College of Art yet, they are working as interns in my office and they are just brilliant.’ I asked them to pitch ideas to me. I gave them the basic things that I wanted. A space big enough to illustrate and to write in and that I would never have to leave.”

Roland speaks highly about the team, made up of Tom Surman, Percy Weston and Joseph Deane, the former two now of Surman Weston. “We’ve become good friends over it. It was such a phenomenally positive project…I feel like it really belongs to them.”

The interior. Photograph: Surman Weston.

Looking at the shed on a rainy afternoon, the glow of the fire from the stove and the wooden exterior looks incredibly folkloric, though with a very contemporary edge. Chambers’ fittingly describes it as his “cabin in the woods.” He says the escapism the environment provides feeds into his creative practice.

“Writing is an act of faith. You have to feel safe. When I go into my shed I can completely seal it off and immerse myself. I’m immediately at ease. It’s like my world.”

The shed’s influence is visible in Chambers’ books. Nelly and the Quest for Captain Peabody, written when his own daughter Nelly was two years old, features a father who disappears the day after his daughter is born. When a little older she sets off on an adventure to seek him out and finds him in a volcanic crater in Antarctica. He is living in his pyjamas, in a forest which he has planted using all the seeds he has collected from around the world.

“He manages to convince his daughter, for better or worse, that the reason he has stayed away for so long is that the world he is living in contains the whole world and that for any self-respecting scientist and explorer, he couldn’t possibly leave this experiment. Nelly, being his flesh and blood, entirely understands, though she does also manage to convince him that he has a home to return to.

“In a way, that volcano is my shed and I am the guy in my pyjamas.”

Roland Chambers’ second book in this series, Nelly and the Flight of the Sky Lantern, is out now.