Charles Brooking
Historic and Listed Buildings Detail Expert
We are Independent Building Surveyors
Our highly qualified Building Surveyors can offer you advice and help on buying a property. We carry out building surveys (also known as Structural Surveys), engineer's reports and home buyers reports. We also provide Specific Defects Reports on such things as chimney problems, dampness, cracking and much more. We can also carry out Independent Valuations but please note these are not for bank lending but are to advise you how much we feel the property is really worth.
Please free phone us on 0800 298 5424 and surveyor will call you back. All our surveyors are independent and are not attached to an estate agents, bank or building society.
We recommend you take a look at our sample surveys Click Here to give you an idea of the sort of things we do although we appreciate every property is different.
Charles Brooking
Charles Brooking has been collecting windows, doors and staircases and all other sorts of architectural details almost since birth. We are so pleased that someone has taken the time and effort to save such architectural detail, and when we say save we do mean save, as all his collection is built up of things that otherwise have disappeared in demolitions, refurbishments and other improvements to buildings (we would put improvements to buildings in inverted commas but we never like the way it looks). All of this is displayed through the Charles Brooking Collection.
Just a handful of some of the items
from Charles Brookings amazing
collection
We have known Charles Brooking for many years. He also runs excellent CPD courses and lectures on window sills and staircases and can go into more detail than you can ever imagine.
The Charles Brooking Collection is housed in Cranleigh in Surrey.
Below we feature a series of interviews that we carried out with Charles Brooking. As a good place to start look at Charles Brooking published far and wide and Charles Brooking's 21st Birthday present and being banned from collecting and One man Charles Brooking and his taxi.
Interviews with Charles Brooking,
Historic and Listed Buildings Detail Expert
Charles Brooking, his life, his passion for architecture, his rescues and his collection
1. Charles Brookings' 21st birthday present and being banned from collecting / rescuing windows, doors and staircases
2. Major rescue at Cornwall Terrace, London NW1 by Charles Brooking and where do you store thirty to forty windows, doors and several hundred small items?
3. Rescuing including donations from St Paul's Cathedral by Charles Brooking
4. Charles Brooking, Houndsditch, London EC3 rescuing a window is easier said than done!
5. 1709 and 1774 London Building Acts by Charles Brooking
6. The Woking rescues by Charles Brooking and the idea of The Museum of Architectural Detail which becomes The Brooking Collection
7. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Leadenhall Street, London EC3
8. Late 1970's Charles Brooking goes full time
9. Major rescues by Charles Brooking from the Cutler Street Warehouses (near Petticoat Lane) London E1
10. Major rescue by Charles Brooking from The Chinese Embassy, Portland Place, London. W1
11. Charles Brooking rescues locks
12. Major rescue by Charles Brooking from the Firestone Factory, Great West Road, London
13. Donations to Charles Brooking Collection and rescues from far and wide, including Buckingham Palace!
14. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Westbourne Terrace, Paddington
15. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Parade Street, Paddington
16. Henry Hope window manufacturer and other window manufacturers, by Charles Brooking
17. Major rescue by Charles Brooking in Woodbridge Road, Guildford (by dark of night)
18. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at St Georges' Hospital and the Knightsbridge area, SW1
19. Major rescue by Charles Brooking from Buckingham Palace Mansions, SW1
20. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Downing Street, London
21. Major rescue by Charles Brooking from The London Pavilion, Piccadilly Circus and the Trocadero
22.Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Maple Street, London W1
23. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Huntley Street, London WC1
24. One man Charles Brooking and his taxi
25. Red crayons and bores and locks by Charles Brooking
26. Charles Brooking looks at architecture and the class system
27. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at John Adam Street, London WC2, the Adelphi site
28. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Warren Street, London W1
29. Home Museum and major rescue by Charles Brooking at Drummond Street, London NW1
30. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at Chelsea Police Station and taking rescued items home on the Underground!
31. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at St Luke's Hospital, Chelsea
32. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at White Lodge, Bushy Park and Glazing Bars
33. Major rescue by Charles Brooking at the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) building, Euston Road, London NW1
34. Windows, Glazing Bars, Windows Tax and Tri Part Windows and the Charles Brooking Collection
35. Major rescue by Charles Brooking from Pentonville Prison, Caledonian Road, London N7
36. The British Rail Rescues, Steptoe and the Joys of Travelling by Tube
37. Major Rescue, Westminster Palace Hotel, Victoria Street, London SW1 and Buckingham House, Buckingham Gate, London NW1
38. The Home Museum Gets Too Big for the Charles Brooking Collection
39. Major Rescue by Charles Brooking in Coutts Bank, London
40. Charles Brooking published far and wide
41. Major Rescue by Charles Brooking from Whitehall, London SW1
42. Major Rescue by Charles Brooking at The Guildhall, London EC4, City of London School, Victoria Embankment, London and a rather Swiss style splat baluster
43. Rescuing Staircases for the Charles Brooking Collection
44. How the Charles Brooking Collection began and early Surrey Rescues
45. Charles Brooking the Guildford Rescues
46. The growing Charles Brooking Collection of architectural details
47. Charles Brooking's Solo architectural rescues begin
48. Charles Brooking and the History of the Screw
49. Charles Brooking talks about windows before the sash window
50. Victorian Architecture, described by Charles Brooking
51. Charles Brooking chats about a brief history of glass (not necessarily 100% accurate)
52. Charles Brooking's 18th birthday and the world of work and antiques
53. Charles Brooking tries his hand at being an Architect
54. Charles Brooking tries his hand at working in Museums
55. Interest in the Charles Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail starts to take momentum
56. Charles Brooking is spotted by an International Architect's Practice
57. Onwards and upwards, forming the Charles Brooking Trust in 1985
58. Exhibition by Charles Brooking at the Building Centre, Store Street, London WC1
59. The Charles Brooking Collection at The University of Greenwich
60. The Charles Brooking Home Study Collection
61. Offers of storage space will be greatly received for the Charles Brooking Collection
62. Charles Brooking and the Redhill Rescues
63. Charles Brooking and the Woking Rescues
Why have one of our independent building surveys?
We always recommend you have an independent building survey as this will highlight any property problems. Caveat emptor means buyer beware and is why you need to have a building survey to find out if there are any problems within the property. The estate agent certainly will not advise you of any but we most definitely will!
Remember the Building Surveyor that you employ will be the only person working for you with your interests at heart.
We have developed our surveys over many years, in fact several decades. We have listened to feedback from our clients and amended and altered our surveys to make them easy to read and describe issues clearly. The key factor we believe is that our surveys are easy to understand in plain English.
Our collection of surveying photographs and sketches
Like Charles Brooking, architecture and many other things property related interest us greatly as surveyors and we hope this reflects in our building surveys.
We use many photos (like this one of a roof with windows) and sketches which we have commissioned in our building survey reports to make the problems as clear and as easy to understand as possible.
Roof Windows, sometimes called Velux Windows
An example of one of our photos
What do the circles and ovals in our building surveys mean?
We use circles and ovals on the photos and sketches within our reports like the example valley gutters sketch here to highlight the problem areas making it easier for you to see exactly where the problem is and to give you a better understanding of all things related to your property.
An example of one of our sketches.
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