How did NotAnotherWhiteBox come about? The story of how caravans of the past inspire caravans of the future…

I’m Cameron and I founded NotAnotherWhiteBox in April 2020. Forced to be at home during the first lockdown as part of the Coronavirus pandemic, I managed to shoehorn my project 1959 Sprite Ariel into the garden and set to work on it for perhaps the most productive three months of my life! I charted the progress in a series of videos on YouTube, and soon amassed a following of like-minded people.I’m Cameron and I founded NotAnotherWhiteBox in April 2020. Forced to be at home during the first lockdown as part of the Coronavirus pandemic, I managed to shoehorn my project 1959 Sprite Ariel into the garden and set to work on it for perhaps the most productive three months of my life! I charted the progress in a series of videos on YouTube, and soon amassed a following of like-minded people. 

I inherited my interest in caravanning from my grandparents, who’d caravanned almost their whole lives and started caravanning with their own family in a 1966 Sprite 400. My grandad was a talented architect, so he always approached caravans from a design point of view. They kept the Sprite 400 for over 20 years, and it evolved and changed as their needs as a family did. Mod cons were added when they could be afforded, upholstery was easily refreshed once it started to look tired and sleeping arrangements were altered as their children grew bigger.
Their next new caravan had to satisfy very stringent criteria before it was able to be purchased, and even then my grandad would often perform many small design tweaks to make them more usable. He taught me the importance of practical and clever design that was suited to the end user. It’s amazing how British caravans were severely lacking in this department in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and we often had conversations about how we would improve the designs that we saw at various caravan dealerships and shows.

Me and my 1970 Rover P6 3500 and 1971 Sprite Musketeer​

My Grandparents' 1966 Sprite 400 in the 1970s

After I turned 17 and passed my driving test, my first classic caravan was promptly purchased for the princely sum of £60. It was a rough shell of a 1963 Sprite Alpine, that I tackled restoring myself on the driveway before enlisting the help of my grandad to finish it off. Whilst he taught me how to re-seal a caravan properly and also re-paint the exterior, he left me to my own devices as far as the interior was concerned. I eventually settled on hand-picking the best bits of Sprite caravans from the 1960s: the layout was faithful to the original, but other than the wardrobe, everything was new to that caravan. It was tied together nicely with cohesive décor and soft furnishings. Unintentionally, I’d built my own ultimate Sprite Alpine, complete with such practicalities as converted 12v gas lamps and an expanding bathroom unit.

Many years of buying and selling classic caravans ensued, obsessed with the notion of keeping them as original and authentic as possible. I soon found that this could come with problems of its own: Caravans of the 1950s and 1960s in basic standard form can be quite challenging to use. This lead me to perform small concealed upgrades such as installing a leisure battery, solar charging, 12v water systems and fridges. It was about making them more practical, but also preserving the authenticity of the design. What was the point of gutting everything and starting again?

This 1963 Sprite Alpine was my first classic caravan project. It taught me a lot about caravan design and the importance of a caravan being usable.

As I reached my mid-20s and turned my thoughts to perhaps treating myself to my first new caravan, I found that there wasn’t actually anything on the market that quite so well ticked as many boxes as the classic caravans in my collection. Caravans have grown bulky, heavy, bouncy to tow, problematic (in terms of water ingress and appliance failure), so consequently the ease of repair, build quality, low weight and the ease of towing that classic caravans are known for was illogical to resist. But could there be a happy medium? After all, hot water on tap, a proper flushing toilet, a shower, more comfortable beds and double glazing are quite desirable aspects of modern caravans!

The lockdown project 1959 Sprite Ariel served as an experiment: here was a lovely but completely ruined classic caravan, and I would be free to rebuild it how I pleased because nothing of the original interior was salvageable. It was completely stripped out and I added modern grade insulation and I created modern bonded construction. Like my first 1963 Sprite Alpine, I assembled an interior from various pieces pulled from dead Sprites but also added things like a solar panel, 12v lighting, a fridge, heating and electrics. The tiny Sprite was a steep learning curve for something that was small and manageable.

In my quest to achieve finding the ultimate caravan for me, it’s lead me down a long path into exploring what else is out there. I appreciate that not many people have the time or experience to build their own caravan, so highlighting good caravan design has become a bit of a personal mission of mine. I find it frustrating how manufacturers seem to just follow each other and caravan design has become unified across the industry, despite so many widely reported issues of water ingress, design flaws and reliability issues. You would assume that design could become unified once the pinnacle has been reached – but it obviously hasn’t.

I feel like we as caravanners are on the cusp of wanting something different; The emphasis will shortly change to sustainable caravans that are built to last and kinder to the environment. A change in the consumerist mind-set relating to things such as household appliances will emerge with the caravan industry. People will be happy to pay more for something that’s guaranteed to work and last, in the wake of years of price wars and quality cuts leading to inferior quality products. White boxes will be gone, and more aerodynamic sleek exteriors will help electric cars retain more of their range. The ability to make caravans more personal and unique will also come to the forefront, as people get fed up of spending the second largest amount of money they’ll ever spend after their house purchase on a caravan that looks like everyone else’s on the campsite. People want to feel special and individual. We are already seeing this shift in the car industry, as more exterior colours begin to be offered and there has been a recent surge in car customisation such as body wraps, trim alterations and tech upgrades.

The caravan industry is a multi-million pound industry, but could quite easily cross the threshold into a billion pound industry if manufacturers as a whole took more pride in the vehicles that they produce. If they had more detailed feedback from objective caravanners who could separate personal taste from design objectivity; If more people in the industry actually used the products that they are selling; If manufacturers took the leap to have the same faith in doing what’s right for the end user to make them love the product even more. Caravanners are a loyal breed, and they will support a manufacturer that works for them.

My 1959 Sprite Ariel lockdown project was the beginning of my realisation that classic caravans can be brought up to modern specifications, whilst retaining their period charm and feel. Modern grade insulation and bonded construction transformed this tiny Sprite into something that can be used all year round.

NotAnotherWhiteBox is here to not only showcase unconventional caravans, but to evaluate caravan design as a whole. There are some modern manufacturers out there who are producing some amazing caravans, but their slightly unorthodox designs may serve to deter customers who aren’t used to something quirky. I’ve seen this happen before with some caravans from the 1950s through to the 1980s: they produce a really stellar designs, which are really great concepts, but a combination of a lack of PR, expensive production techniques, over enthusiasm for the number of models offered, an over-inflated price or developing designs too quickly caused these designs to not be commercially successful. It also has to be taken into account the sheer number of significant British manufacturers in business back in the 1950s through to the 1980s, on average, there were over 40 at any given point. Today, there are less than five mainstream British manufacturers, so the market has changed substantially.

Strangely, in my experience of classic caravans, it seems to be the quirky/well designed caravans that the original purchaser stuck with for the duration of their caravanning life, as nothing new was deemed to be an improvement. This is an interesting change in caravan purchasing habits: Today, it’s generally accepted that your average caravanner will only keep a new caravan for 3-5 years. It’s said that this is a combination of trading up before too much of its value is lost and getting rid of it before wear and tear sets in.


For the sake of the environment, our consumerist habits need to change. Caravans have a large carbon footprint due to their manufacturing impact on the environment. As new caravans are filled with more single use plastics than ever, there is a problem looming. For any item to offset its carbon footprint, it has to have a long useful life, which deems its manufacturing impact on the environment to be worthwhile when you factor in how long the item has been useful before it reaches the end of its life and needs to be recycled. In an ideal world, we should be recycling and repurposing caravans that already exist, instead of just building more, but that would be bad for business.

Combined this with the issue of the end of the road for the internal combustion engine, caravans ought to return to being lighter and more aerodynamic. An evaluation of their construction techniques will also make them more durable and it would be great to see a reduced use of single use plastics.

To learn about the future, we can look to the past: I hope caravanners will enjoy being inspired by the older caravans and projects shown by NotAnotherWhiteBox. There’s so many great ideas and concepts from over the years that never gained wider attention. Now is their time to shine. Let’s keep the conversation about caravan design going and put pressure on manufacturers to deliver a better product and ensure the sustainable future of caravanning.