Charles Brooking 45 - 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: Did you rescue any gas lamps?

Charles Brooking : Yes, I rescued gas lamps. My tutor gave me some gas lamps from Jenner Road in Guildford dated from the 1890's with a lovely pink engraved acid etched shade. These set off my interest in the romance of the Victorian period straight away because another side of my awareness which developed in the early 60's was an interest in lamps. I had a gas lantern or street lamp and decided then seriously to establish a museum with my father basically realising that my interest in architectural detail wasn't going to be stamped out and began to take me out on trips to some of the clearance areas in Guildford. They were demolishing a large area of Guildford at that time laid out by Henry Peake.

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: Are buildings which would be Listed today?

Charles Brooking : They would be conserved. Sydenham Road runs parallel with Guildford High Street and running off up the hill were a series of roads Bright Hill, Hill Place in particular and of course the road itself with between about 1960 and 1968 the greater part of that housing stock was demolished as unfit for human habitation. It was true that some of them were run down and some of them had no inside toilets. I have seen worse houses repaired and at that time they were being closed up and we would go down and again speak to the workmen and acquire and unbolt door knockers and letter plates which I duly mounted on a door I rescued from another house in Castle Street.

Surveyor: So this was a door covered with door knockers?

Charles Brooking : Yes it was a top two panels of an 1820's door.

Surveyor: Please describe what an 1820's door looks like?

Charles Brooking : It is six panelled with Grecian ogee mouldings around the panels. Flat panels and because the door was damaged I wanted to manage it so I cut the top two panels off, put a carrying handle on it and mounted a series of door knockers.

I soon discovered that most of them were made by Archibald Kendrick and Sons of West Bromwich and we wrote a letter to Archibald Kendrick and Sons who replied sending me a whole load of catalogue photo stats which I have still got and invited us up there to see the factory. This really put a match to it; the whole thing just went mad then.

Surveyor: Do they still exist?

Charles Brooking : I don't think they do. I think may have been continued but I know some of the Kendrick family. It was founded in 1791 in West Bromwich and was one of the largest manufacturers of hollow wear, cast iron work boot scrapers, door knockers, letter plates, flat irons, man traps (!) and a whole range of marvellous things.

Charles Brooking : A man trap was basically like a gin trap for rabbits but a much larger scale for poachers so if somebody went onto our land you caught a man instead of a rabbit for poaching and it had teeth. This was a humane man trap as they had advertised. It was a brutal thing with claws on, you couldn't force it apart and they were I think made illegal in the 19th century. There are one or two around in museums which you can see just like a much larger version of one of these awful gin traps. Incredible things!

So we wrote to the managing director of Kendrick's and then in I suppose the end of 1966, I established the idea of a museum.

In the summer of 1967 a demolition took place at the Guildford Congregational Church. This was interesting from several points of view because it was designed by Henry Peak who was a Borough Surveyor in the mid 19th century in Guildford . He designed many local buildings with the church built in 1862 and added to in 1883 as a Sunday school and church hall.

My mother took me down there as usual quite firmly and said well you've got a choice Charles, you can have that stained glass window there or you can have this door here for your door knockers. Make up your mind and I said but I wanted the stained glass window. You can't have both she said you can have one or the other, I haven't got much time. She looked at her watch and I thought what do I do? It was a brutal decision but I chose the door. It was sad because it was an exclusive door, it was a Gothic door but it wasn't completely Gothic because they had basically cut the top off when they had modified the pair of doors when they had built on the Sunday school and church hall. They had moved them from the original church and used them as interconnecting doors between the two. There was a gap between the two buildings and they had built a sort of bridge and this set of doors was put on the bridge and they had actually cut the Gothic tops off. They just had a slight curve and we brought it back in the family estate car.

I cleaned it down and waxed it and started mounting my door knockers which ruined the door but it was a display panel which kept me amused in the summer holidays of 1967. I was given door knockers as presents and my father even brought me a Renaissance one back from Denmark . So by this time I had a bedroom with a lot of architectural detail and other things in it.

I started at Northease Manor School in Lewes in September 1967, which was just outside Rodmell and Byford near Lewes where we were allowed to go into the town, which is a fantastic Georgian town, which really set me on fire with the enjoyment of Georgian buildings and again things were happening.

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

Do Surveyors value property?

Can you trust a Surveyor valuation?

Buying a house

References:

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

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Charles Brooking

Guildford Rescues