Charles Brooking

 

Major rescue at St Luke's Hospital

Chelsea

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 manage to rescue any architectural details from St Luke's Hospital, Chelsea ?

Charles Brooking : Yes, St Luke's Hospital, Chelsea was built in the 1880's and was a large, I suppose Queen Anne Revival building, in I think it was Sydney Street , Chelsea . I managed to rescue a very interesting Roman style fan light dated about 1825 from a building adjoining the hospital.

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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.

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Surveyor: What made the fan light interesting?

Charles Brooking : Well it was unusual, it was basically an X on its side in a Roman tradition in lead and quite a restrained, but typical shop front fan light of the 1820's/30's. I rescued this again on one of my summer lunch breaks we had an hour and a half off unofficially and I jumped on the tube regularly to add to my collection.

It was quite a break neck thing because I had to get to Chelsea, take the window out and get it back on the tube with it wrapped in old plans so it didn't frighten the horses in the office and then store it under my desk! My colleagues would see me with these old plans with masking tape. Some of the architects were really freaked out because they were men in their 30's and they found this young upstart who was breaking all the rules of respectful middle class life and it unsettled them a bit I wasn't interested in those stuffy rules of British Rail!

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Surveyor: Tell me about the modernist movement?

Charles Brooking :

Modernist Movement

The modern movement was the great god and anyone who didn't follow that was derided and I was one of them. I was much more interested in architecture from the past rather than the modern styles my colleagues enthused about.

Surveyor: Just explain a bit more about the Modern style of architecture?

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Charles Brooking : Well the whole ethos of the modern movement was its functionalism, and I found it lacked humour and was riddled with Puritanism and lacked the joy of life. Most people found it difficult and of course Prince Charles' speech in 1984 summed that up but I have suffered quite a lot of bullying because of it in the 70's but I wasn't going to give in and I refused to give in with the miserable idealists.

HRH The Prince of Wales Speech

Prince Charles made a speech to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on their 150th Anniversary in 1984 where he strongly put across his view for not losing the character of the City of London skyline with a development proposed at the time as being a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend. Prince Charles used this opportunity to voice his concerns and opinions but in doing so the architectural establishment lead a campaign to discredit him. Prince Charles was highlighting how far architecture had swayed from the past and later founded The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture and has continued to champion his views on architecture.

I've got nothing against the modern movement but one modernist enthusiast nearly tore up my Victorian Society Manual asking why I was bringing that filth into the office?!!

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Modernist Movement defined

The Modernist movement was a period which began at the turn of the 20th century and continues today. In architecture Modern styles were simple with no unnecessary detail, the material used was to be celebrated rather than hidden and the form should follow the function. It is difficult to generalise as the Modern Movement varied and changed often with tension between different schools of design and with the ever changing advances in the materials and building methods used.

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Modernist Movement architects of note include Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Oscar Niemeyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe who all created buildings, which were far removed from the traditional styles Charles Brooking was passionate about.

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

Buying a House

Damp in Properties

Condensation

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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