Charles Brooking 33 - Building Survey Quote

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: Please tell us about your rescue from the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) building in Euston Road , London . NW1?

Charles Brooking : I went around Paddington Chapel which was originally I think, built around about 1790 but re-fronted in 1899 and I found a whole lot of prismatic glass, glass designed to reflect light into low rooms, ridged rather like cellar lights . This whole language of glass was designed to reflect light into dark rooms. You had prism lights and pavements lights and I've got a lot in the collection but unfortunately because of space I've got rid of some of that but I have got quite a lot now which I rescued from the NUR Building in Euston Road designed by John Newcombe in 1910.

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: The NUR Building ?

Charles Brooking : The NUR Building in Euston Road , was designed by John Newcombe in 1910 and was Unity House a wonderful arts and crafts building which was demolished in 1980. The building was extended in 1922 and 1959 but very well done and it was all demolished in 1980 and a ghastly new headquarters put up by Sid Wheel, which was later demolished to make way for The Welcome Building extension so it only lasted about 6 years, weird isn't it, see something as recent as that being demolished? This happens quite a lot.

In the mid 1970s I went around Burton Street , Euston which was laid out by James Burton around about 1808 - 1810. It was completely gutted and so called refurbished. The houses were Listed but of course the Greater London Council (GLC) were not as careful as they would be now or English Heritage would be and they took out most of the sash windows, most of the door linings, architraves, doors, and there was a complete cross section of wonderful reeded architraves, fluted architraves, fire grates and sash windows on the ground floor. I did rescue a lot and I have still got a great deal of it in the collection. Some of which I stupidly got rid of because of space but James Burton is well represented in that context.

James Burton

James Burton was born in 1761 and was the father of architect Decimus Burton and was himself a builder and developer. James Burton designed buildings in Regent's Park and Bloomsbury areas of London and founded the new town of St Leonards-on-Sea. James Burton was very successful and helped fellow architect John Nash with his Regent Street venture. Burton died in 1837.

Surveyor: What was his period?

Charles Brooking : He built in I suppose mainly from the late very late 18th century up to the 1820's. He built a lot of Bloomsbury because his son was Decimus Burton.

Surveyor: You say English Heritage would deal with it differently today?

Charles Brooking : Well they wouldn't have stripped out something whole like they did then, you lost most of the original joinery, you lost all of the windows. It was savage. Even some of the staircases came out. I have got a wonderful wrought iron newel post. It was just an orgy of destruction. The one visit there, the foreman said do you want a hob grate, there's one hanging out and I saw it and that chap said well this could be chucked, you can't leave it there, so I just remembered wrapping it into or partly wrapping it in a bag and jumping in a cab and carrying this quite heavy hob grate with reeded decoration on the train.

Surveyor: When you say the word kettle, we use the term now for making cups of tea?

Charles Brooking : Yes, you put it on the hobs and you could use it as a mini cooking stove and it was used and became a standard design for cast iron grates

Surveyor: It was more a general term then was it, a kettle, for something you were warming up?

Charles Brooking : Yes it was and it had trivets and they were improvements. It was a good example of an early 19th century bow fronted hob grate but it was jolly heavy. At least I preserved it and now you can actually see it in the collection. So that was a character in the development of Georgian London. Albany Terrace, Regents Park that area.

Surveyor: Later James Burton?

Charles Brooking : No it's Nash now we're into Nash. Albany Terrace, Regents Park is partly on the Marylebone Road and I retrieved arched and curved on plan windows from the third floor because they were refurbishing then.

John Nash

The architect John Nash was born in 1752 and was responsible for many notable buildings in London including Carlton House Terrace, Regent Street, The Royal Mews and Garden front at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House to name but a few. Nash formed a partnership for a few years with Humphry Repton the landscape gardener and worked together with Nash designing buildings and Repton the grounds in which they sat. This partnership ended and Nash who had been living in Wales returned to London and many commissions followed. Nash worked for the Prince Regent on many projects in London and also designed the Royal Pavilion at Brighton .

When George IV died in 1830 Nash's career halted as The Treasury put a stop to the King's extravagances. Nash lived on the Isle of Wight where he died in 1835 leaving the nation with many delightful buildings and a host of his pupils including Pugin, Foulon and Pennethorne all being notable architects.

Surveyor: Are these very rare?

Charles Brooking : They are because they are actually arched and its curved, very hard to show it from the outside and interesting bit of joinery construction.

Surveyor: So how many of that sort of thing have you come across in the many years that you've been collecting?

Charles Brooking : Not many at all! I mean we are only talking about three or four and the best one sadly was broken in the last move as the glass smashed. They are quite rare because obviously they were used where the building curved the corner. It's not easy discovering it but this was an interesting find again, because I wasn't driving then I just wrapped them up in paper. This was rescued at Christmas time and I remember bringing them back on the crowded trains, standing all up in the guard's panel. It was rescued from one of those houses next door to the church in Marylebone Road designed by Soane I think.

It's on the corner of Albany Street and Marylebone Road . Later on there were houses further down Park Square West or East by Nash and Cambridge Terrace. I rescued a lot of material from there when they refurbished it in the mid 1980s such as shutters, sash pulleys, ranging from the original date of 1825 to the 1850's when they replaced the sash windows with plate glass to modernise them and put in larger pulleys. As they became modern people who bought them wanted to get rid of the small glazing bars so you had all this modernisation to take into account.

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 White Lodge, Bushy Park and Glazing Bars

Major rescue at Downing Street

Buying a House

Advice on Disputes

Buying a property at auction

References:

TheBrookingCollection.com DartfordArchive.org.uk IHBC.org.uk ProjectBook.co.uk

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Charles Brooking

Major rescue at the National Union

of Railwaymen (NUR) building,

Euston Road, London NW1