Charles Brooking

 

Donations and rescues from far

and wide, including Buckingham Palace!

charles brooking

Charles Brooking is a fascinating and knowledgeable collector of architectural detail, The Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail, and as Surveyors we find his lifelong quest to collect British building details unique, informative and valuable and a collection that must be kept intact for years to come. If you need help and advice with regard to building surveys, structural surveys, structural reports, engineers reports, specific defects report, dilapidations or any other property matters please free phone 0800 298 5424.

The following is one of a series of interviews with Charles Brooking, Historic and Listed Buildings Detail Expert, The Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail and a Surveyor where we have recorded his comments and various aspects that have affected windows and doors and other collectibles. The interviews outline how his collection started and built over the years and gives an insight into the amazing architectural features housed in his fine collection.

Surveyor: London was a major location for your architectural detailing rescue missions?

Charles Brooking: Yes, London was a major source of my rescue work at the time. As I didn't drive, it was easy to get to London by train.

Rescue defined

charles brooking

Charles Brooking defines a rescue as saving a window or door or staircase that would be doomed.

Charles Brooking was a pioneer in the rescue of architectural detailing as many years ago it was very much considered a strange and an unusual past time to want to rescue old parts of buildings with everything new and shiny being so important.

In terms of important buildings I've covered, English Heritage have donated the windows from The Orangery at Buckingham Palace , which was part of Nash 's work; these massive sash window are ten foot high, each sash was about, I think about five foot each, five foot high by about four foot/five foot across. They were delivered in the late 90's, along with the sash pulleys and items like that.

charles brooking

Also, I was called in after the fire to give advice on ironmongery at Windsor Castle with a lot of items being donated!

Buckingham Palace , I have pieces from the Nash part of the palace from the 1820's. Also in my collection I have sash

Pimlico, because he had a massive year there on the site of Dolphin Square , the Pimlico building works were colossal joining works. You can always recognise a window made at his yard by the way the mouldings are formed at Thomas Cubitt 's yard: the ovelo mouldings, and, of course, it was all steam joinery work.

Surveyor: Just explain what an ovelo moulding looks like ?

charles brooking

Charles Brooking:  

Ovelo Moulding Defined

Well, it's either quarter of a circle, which is a square ovolo or quarter of an ellipse, which is Grecian, and it really means that overload means half, quarter round, but they have fillets at each side. It's the most widely used boarding on window joinery and on furniture, in many cases, the edges.

Ovelo and lambs tongue and fillets, which of course was late Georgian and bead and hollow, which, of course, was early to late Georgian. There are different terms of these, some of these mouldings, which is more confusing, but those are the main terms.

I retrieved a lot of material; much had been donated from Buckingham Palace , which was fascinating, because it just showed how the pulleys were quite, in many ways, good quality pulleys made by people like W. Bullock, again, of Birmingham and Kenricks, West Bromwich . I even found a crittall window used in the swimming pool area, made of bronze.

Surveyor: Did you actually go into Buckingham Palace and rescue them?

Charles Brooking: I had a whip round and surveyed them and looked at them and they said for example well, these are coming out would you be interested? and then they were delivered, which was really interesting.

charles brooking

Surveyor: How many were delivered?

Charles Brooking:   Well, a lorry arrived with these massive sashes, I mean they were colossal

Surveyor: What size is colossal?

charles brooking

Charles Brooking: Well, five foot by, was it six foot by five foot each, and they're probably, I'm just trying to measure them actually, but I think they were more like seven foot, seven foot each. Seven foot high by five foot/six across. They were almost too heavy to move. Their own weight was almost too much!

Surveyor: How many arrived?

charles brooking

Charles Brooking:   I've got, what, two now. The others I sectioned because they were so unstable and they were glazed with obscure glass because it was a swimming pool behind there, so they had black glass, which was like Vitrolight, which had been replaced many times. This is the part of Buckingham Palace that was hit by a bomb during the War and you see pictures of. That was the swimming pool area, and that's the bit where the windows are from, the ones that weren't replaced, the ones I got. In that bomb blast where they were, they'd destroyed one corner of the building.

charles brooking

If you found this article on The Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail interesting you may also be interested in the following articles on our website:

Major rescue at the Cutler Street Warehouses

Major rescue from Firestone Factory, Great West Road, London

Major rescue at the Chinese Embassy, Portland Place

Damp proof specialists, talk to us first

Drainage and Manholes

Environmental Reports

References:

TheBrookingCollection.com

DartfordArchive.org.uk

IHBC.org.uk

ProjectBook.co.uk

Independent Surveyors

If you truly do want an independent expert opinion from a surveyor with regard to building surveys, structural surveys, structural reports, engineers reports, specific defects report, dilapidations or any other property matters please contact 0800 298 5424 for a surveyor to give you a call back.

Commercial Property Surveyors

If you have a commercial property, be it leasehold or freehold, then you may wish to look at our Dilapidations Website at www.DilapsHelp.com and for Disputes go to our Disputes Help site www.DisputesHelp.com.

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