London civil engineer Douglas Allport solved the problem of making paper both waterproof and structurally sound by reinforcing it with steel mesh. His company, Patent Wire-Wove Waterproof Roofing, began life about 1890, and was successful in selling sports pavilions – like this 1894 golf clubhouse at Porthcawl – and bungalows during the 1890s. Only a handful of Wire-Wove buildings survive; one is a tiny former church in Kent, now disused and becoming derelict. Like the golf club, it is half-timbered in style, and the panels of Wire-Wove have an odd feel to them, plastery and a bit hollow, as if the structure might float away (rather than disappear into the undergrowth).
