The bin stores were originally open to the elements and the outer gate was made of vertical bars like some of the garden gates. Every house now has some sort of roof and many have added fitted doors to make a more usable utility room.
It is important to preserve the external appearance when doing this: in particular the door must have slats fitted so that it looks like the original gate, and the roof should be as unobtrusive as possible.
The bin-store was built to ‘garden wall’ standard so it has no cavity, maybe no damp-course, and relatively poor foundations. For this reason it is wise to retain the door between the kitchen and the utility room. It may well be worth having that replaced with a double-glazed door to reduce heat loss.
If you want to make the most flexible utility room it will be worth replacing the outer gate with a properly fitted double-glazed door, and installing a roof with insulating properties. Some houses have double-wall polycarbonate roofs, which let in plenty of light but may cause overheating in summer in those houses where the sun can strike the roof. We are investigating an option to have a glass roof with double glazing and solar control to improve on this.
Here are some drawings of a design that the Committee has approved and which is going to be tried at #2:
