Several people have drawn my attention to this thread (one of them even gently chiding me for not having updated my blog for some years) so I felt I should post something.
In 1843 the plot bounded today by Stanstead Road, Blythe Vale, Marler Road and Carholme Road consisted of 4 acres of pastureland owned by Joseph Skilbeck, a dry-salter and merchant. He lived at Stanstead Lodge, which still survives, from about 1843 until his death in 1860.
John Laing was a nurseryman in Scotland, a partner in a company called Downie, Laird and Laing which was formed 1860. The company must have acquired Joseph Skilbeck's field shortly after his death as the 1861 census has John Laing and his wife living in Stoney Lane, the original name of Blythe Vale. This was possibly at the present 24 Blythe Vale. When Downie, Laird and Laing was dissolved in 1874 John Laird became the sole owner of the Stanstead Park Nursery and re-named it Laing's Nursery.
The building on Stanstead Road does not appear on the 1878 map but it is mentioned in an 1882 directory so it seems it was built about 1880. Laing's was a well regarded nursery and won many awards for its plant so the building would have been their shop and display room, and perhaps office, where customers could come to inspect and order plants.
Building begun on the southern part of nursery land by the mid 1890s but the nursery continued in business until the outbreak of WW1, perhaps later. Certainly from the early 1920s the Stanstead Road building was unoccupied.