Charles Brooking

The Woking Rescues and the idea of

The Museum of Architectural Detail

which becomes The Brooking

Collection

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: Was Woking was another place you found items to add to The Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail?

Charles Brooking : Yes, Mount Hermon Road, Woking , where they were demolishing large villas.

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: Which other roads in Woking were you rescuing from?

Charles Brooking : I went to a Stanley Road , where you had cheap villas with American type sash pulleys. I'd driven in with just three holes drilled into the wood, grip type pulleys. Very mean, cheap villas, near where H.G. Wells lived, near the railway line, all that sort of area. Shaftesbury Road was another area where you'd got these large, basically 1880's/1890's properties; it was a sort of diet of the 1880's/1890's at that time. Most of these were coming down, with a few gems of the late 18th /early 19th Century.

I had trips to Staines with my father, when I went round a lovely 1808 house and rescued a beautiful shallow Regency fan light in about 1972. In nearby Reigate , where they were doing some work in West Street , I got a fantastic fan light from there in November 1971, which I've still got.

A museum of architectural details

In that period, from 1968 onwards, I started the idea of a museum, with the help and encouragement of my tutor, but that spread out from architecturals into Victoriana. I later decided, with the help of the Gothic Museum , cutting a long story short, to specialise in architectural detail. My dates then were, believe it or not, 1780 to 1940 and I was very strict about the Great War and it wasn't until 1979 I continued to 1939 because it seemed quite modern. My parents were born in 1911 and 1917 respectively, so any later seemed too modern and, of course, without a great interest. However in the 20th Century after the demolition of the Firestone Factory more recent architectural detailing was of interest.

Surveyor: Where is the Firestone Factory?

Charles Brooking : In West Road . That's another rescue I'll tell you about later on that was very interesting. So, I specialised in at that time...

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:

Donations from St Paul's

Houndsditch, moving a window is easier said that done!

Listed Buildings and Character Properties

Non Traditional Housing

Party Walls

Dampness Problems

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.

We hope you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you feel should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not hesitate to contact us (we are only human).

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