Canteen and carriage house.
 
Looking at a map of the Garden, we see buildings that are marked with different letters of the alphabet. And so, in the eastern part of the Garden there is building F, which is located near a small greenhouse and is sometimes called "canteen", and the nearby building E, which is sometimes referred to as "coach house", where did these names come from? Well, it is related to the history of these buildings....
 
"From Wojciech Fangor's memoirs, we learn that the Janówek property was purchased by his parents in 1928. However, a copy of the deed shows that the property was formally acquired on August 28, 1929. (...)the property with an area of 5953 sq. m. including a residential building, an outbuilding with two apartments, a barn, a carriage house, an orangery, a bakery and a well, as well as all inventory." - "Janówek or Fangorovka," by Mira Walczykowska, Małgorzata Szymańczyk.
 
In the 1930s, during the Fangor family's stewardship of Janówek, the outbuilding was used as housing for the estate's employees, and vehicles were garaged in the carriage house. These buildings, as well as the orangery, whose history will be the subject of another story, have survived to this day. However, it is not known what happened to the cowshed, well and bakery, as there is no trace of them today.
 
In 1945, the Fangor estate was brought under the purview of the Decree on Public Management of Premises and Rent Control, so municipal authorities housed allotment tenants in the property. In 1948, the annex was inhabited by eighteen tenants, who occupied seven rooms, including three kitchens. In 1977, for the needs of the Botanical Garden, which had been established three years earlier, the Janówek buildings began to be adapted for new functions. At the time, about 200 people worked at the Garden, and a large part of them were construction workers who were due a restorative meal, so the annex building was converted into a kitchen and canteen for the workers. In 1980, a room was added to the north facade of the canteen to serve as a buffet. According to stories from older employees, at a time when store supplies were decidedly inadequate, the garden buffet offered such rarities as black pudding, pâté, mortadella and sometimes even sausages. In the 1990s, when there was no longer a need to maintain the canteen and buffet, the outbuilding's premises were converted into offices and social quarters for gardeners, but the name "canteen" still functioned for a very, very long time, and some older employees still use it today.
 
The carriage house was probably once used to garage carriages, wagons and later cars. In the first years of the Garden's operation, the carriage house was used as a garage, as it had been before, while later it was used to create a repair shop and a social room for workshop workers.
 
Currently, both buildings are awaiting renovation, which will probably change their purpose and function, but they will invariably remain witnesses to the site's interesting history.
 
Anna Gasek
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