I CALL it the spiral of doom’, says Trevor Marrs, head of restoration at Shepley Engineers of Whitehaven in Cumbria, on the right time to repair Victorian conservatories and glasshouses. ‘Once failures start showing up—cracks in cast iron or bubbles in paintwork—they accelerate the longer you leave them.’ Refurbishment of delicate structures such as these is not a simple task and depends on their age and condition, heritage status, original materials used, whether temperate or tropical, architect designed or churned out en masse by specialist firms in the 19th century and, of course, budget. Conservatory development yielded smart inventions, from ridge-and-furrow roofs to advanced heating systems and even ‘beaver-tail glass panes with rounded ends, which were designed to shed rainwater more effectively by directing it down the middle of the pane,’ points out a spokesperson from Historic England’s technical conservation team. Seeking out expert know-how is a must.
Assembling the Temperate House was an
