Charles Brooking

Major Rescue at Leadenhall Street,

London EC3

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: Your next major rescue was in Leadenhall Street, London EC3?

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.

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Yes, in 1979, with the demolition of the old Lloyds building.

That's in Lime Street, Leadenhall Street, designed by Sir Edwin Cooper in 1925 and built between 1925 and '28. I managed to write to them and speak to the chap who was dealing with all the sales there and he was very helpful. I spent about six weeks, on and off, going up there recovering bits. It was quite strange to actually go to a site that late, but of course the differences were tremendous and eventually we recovered copper light windows, made by the Luxfer Company of London .

Surveyor: Please explain what a Copperlight window is?

Charles Brooking :  

Copperlight Window and Fire Resistance Defined

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A Copperlight window is a window with small panes of glass, set in a copper glazing vase, which has fire resistant qualities and is a patent fire resisting window. The glass would crack and be held in place by the copper glazing and act as a fire resistant barrier, rather like Georgian wire glass.

Surveyor: And what sort of age are they?

Charles Brooking: They were produced in the 1890's by firms like Luxfer and other companies.

Surveyor: Was that in response to a particular regulation?

Charles Brooking: I think it was a greater awareness of fire, the whole question of fire resisting, the properties in buildings, steel partitions, walls and windows that are fire retardant, becoming more aware of this and this was a patent of that period. There were several ways of making it and at Lloyds you had, I think it was Luxfer who supplied 95% of the work there; which was very nicely done, one or two mistakes in the geometry of the glazing. I retrieved circular windows, fan lights, doors, and a very wide ranging lot of material.

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Surveyor: How were those windows fixed in?

Charles Brooking: They were very difficult. I cut my teeth then on taking out Crittall windows!

Crittall Windows defined

Crittall windows are metal windows which were a classic detail of the 1940s-1960s buildings.

Surveyor: By Crittall, you mean a metal window?

Charles Brooking: They are built into Fletton brickwork, with a Portland stone outside wall, with projecting lugs. I spent a whole day hacking out this window.  

Surveyor: Was the window on the first floor or second floor then?

Charles Brooking: Fifth floor! Carrying it down was hell. There were three circles joined together.

Surveyor: Four foot by how high?

Charles Brooking : By about two foot. It weighed a tonne! I had my little toffee hammer from my father's tool kit, because I was very naïve about tools then, I hadn't really got a proper tool kit, which I chopped away at. I didn't get a club hammer until later on, in fact I had to build my muscles up. I went to a physio in the 1980's because my hands were basically artistic, they weren't' made for the hard work, so they became more and more workman like as I got tougher with the tools, as it were, learning how to be masterful and cut a brick out without being nervous of it and chop it away and be decisive and cut away and think about doing it and set yourself a goal, rather than - Oh gosh, I might not be able to get this, it's too hard. Shall I or shan't I?' You're going to get it; you're going to get it out. It's all doubt, but you're faced with a very difficult psychology.

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Surveyor: What about taking out doors in the same property?

Charles Brooking: Of course, I did some of that but it was difficult because the door frames were built in the halls into flattened Fletton brickwork.

Surveyor: Are these internal doors or external doors?

Charles Brooking: They were internal, and they were very well fitted and, of course, one broke one or two things!

Surveyor: Can you describe what they look like?

Charles Brooking: Well, they were mahogany oak frames, but the back of the frames was actually glued, or spliced with, or they cut off the back of the frame and that was just backed with soft wood. The same profile, but to save money they'd cut off the back and where you didn't see oak it became soft wood. It was just to cut costs, amazing. All made by this joinery company.

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Surveyor: What year were they cutting costs?

Charles Brooking: This was 1925 to 1928.

Surveyor: This is in relation to doors?

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Charles Brooking: This was in relation to everything. I went down to the basement and I found a German incendiary bomb from the Great War, which had obviously gone off, that fell on the Royal Exchange. I found an incendiary bomb from the Second World War, and a lot of plate glass slides.

Surveyor: Just remind us of what year this was?

Charles Brooking: 1979. September/October 1979 to January 1980.

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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

The Woking rescues and The Brooking Collection

Do All Houses Have Condensation?

French Drains

Dampness in buildings, the basics

References:

TheBrookingCollection.com

DartfordArchive.org.uk

IHBC.org.uk

ProjectBook.co.uk

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