Charles Brooking

Home Museum and

Major rescue at Drummond Street,

London NW1

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: Did you start the Charles Brooking museum in 1970?

Charles Brooking : I had the museum at my parent's house. A purpose built building as it were albeit a 15 x 8 shed. It was known in the family as The Museum and that was from October 1968. My tutor was very helpful encouraging me to collect architectural detailing and would spur me on with adding to the collection.

charles brooking

Surveyor: Did you manage to rescue any architectural details in Drummond Street , London NW1?

Charles Brooking : Yes, another important site I carried out architectural detailing rescues was Drummond Street near Euston Station, I got a very fine regency door (1820's).

charles brooking

Rescue defined

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.

Surveyor: What defines it as a Regency door?

Charles Brooking :

Regency Doors Defined

Well it's the design. You've got geometric designs, reeded or fluted panel at the bottom you've got a circular panel in the centre and a smaller panel at the top with a diamond motif , it's very much, very peculiar to that inventive period around about 1800 1825. A whole raft of designs were produced and this is actually in Dan Cruickshank's book The Art of Georgian Building in London .

charles brooking
The Art of Georgian Building

The Art of Georgian Building by Dan Cruickshank is a study of London 's town houses from 1700 to 1821which is said to be the greatest period of British architecture and is published by The Architectural Press.

I rescued a lot of material from North Gower Street, NW1, from houses there ranging from wonderful arched windows with gothic tracery to hob grates, front doors, fan lights etc. I have a complete range from the houses there built between 1821 and about 1830 and then Hampstead Road, NW1.

charles brooking

Surveyor: Could you describe the houses?

Charles Brooking: They were two storey to three storey houses and middle class, which had become very run down, often being used as bedsits and were being completely gutted and refurbished.

Surveyor: So guttering, drains etc. hidden on the front?

Charles Brooking: Yes, parapet walls at the top are very much that late Georgian period. Gauge brick arches, arched sashes on the ground floor, stucco with banding were all typical of this age of property.

charles brooking

Surveyor: What sort of colour brick wall?

Charles Brooking: London stocks with a finer brick for the gauge brick arches, stucco ground floors, round the back courser brickwork, wide joints, the sort of thing you'd find all the time and all show at the front, around the back it could be as rough as anything but interesting.

On some of the houses in Hampstead Road, NW1, they were old with pantiles and valley roofs at the back and chimneys built on the back of the houses. Quite interesting designs in a purpley stock and they had some incredible details. I had a problem then because my father was getting a bit edgy about the amount of stuff that was coming back, but my American girlfriend at the time, Sandra helped me on site for a short time in that summer of '78 and we brought a lot home.

charles brooking

Surveyor: Did you collect any chimneys, chimney pots?

Charles Brooking : I don't collect them but to celebrate my first interest in chimney pots in 1958/59 I do have a collection, which is not part of the main collection but it's a nice thing to have in my personal collection. They are objects of delight and they add interest to the yard! So they are not part of the collection but they just symbolise a past interest which really was very important. The wonderful Victorian glazed chimney pots against a beautiful summers sky catching the sun which set me off on my quest for architectural features when I was just 4 years old in 1958 in Sutton so the unobtainable chimney pot!

charles brooking

Surveyor: Did you rescue anything from Tolmer Square , London NW1?

Charles Brooking : Yes, Tolmer Square adjoins North Gower Street with properties built in 1863 on the site of a reservoir such as typical 1860's three storey houses. I think it was in a kind of two crescents and there was a church in the centre that became squatted in, in the 1970's and it was finally demolished in the summer of 1979. This provided quite a lot of material there; most of it had been stripped out but had been a good quality mid Victorian house, but had become very derelict.

Surveyor: Please describe the mid Victorian house?

Charles Brooking : Well they were I suppose three storeys, stucco windows surrounds, slightly Italian neo classical. I think they had balconies, yes they did, balconies with cast iron railings.

Surveyor: And bays. Any windows?

charles brooking

Charles Brooking : No they were flat fronted with Venetian windows under the balconies from what I remember with a front door with square headed fan lights and four panel doors, pretty railings down to the basement area, stucco window surrounds and four casements on the first floor. French casements opening inwards; miniature versions of what you would find in Kensington basically and then there were four pane sashes. I suppose there were middle class houses. By the 1930's they had become run down and were just turning into cheap flats and bedsits; the sort of thing you see in the 1950's films. By the 1970's they were trying to clear them, they became a major squat. The church had become a cinema, The Tolmar I think it was, and that was demolished before I remember it. That was demolished probably in the 1960's.

charles brooking

Surveyor: Did you carry out any rescues in Tedworth Square, Chelsea , SW3?

Charles Brooking : Yes, Tedworth Square I did on foot. I didn't rescue anything large but a lot of door furniture, the property being built about 1870-75, a peaceful country life feel about it. I went there and recovered quite a few window fittings, which were cheap I would imagine because they were cheap cast iron. The builder obviously economised and used cheaper window fittings in terms of sash pulleys but interestingly by virtue of that, quite a few items of door furniture.

Whilst travelling by train when I went to see my sister who had a flat in Forest Hill, I saw from the train window a whole row of very large 1870's terraced houses and detached houses in Silverdale Road , Sydenham. Always ceasing the moment I came away with a very good cross section of door knockers, letter plates, servant bells, door furniture!

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:

Common Chimney Problems

Accessing Chimneys, Do I Need Scaffolding

Cracks in My Wall

Buying a Property at Auction

References:

TheBrookingCollection.com

DartfordArchive.org.uk

IHBC.org.uk

ProjectBook.co.uk

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