Charles Brooking

 

The Brooking Collection

at the University of Greenwich

Charles Brooking is a fascinating and knowledgeable collector of architectural detail, The Brooking Collection of Architectural Detail, and as a Chartered Surveyor 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 an Independent Chartered 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: When and where did you find a permanent home for your collection of architectural detail?

Charles Brooking : We had several approaches after the exhibition at the Building Centre in Store Street, London . WC1. in 1988, or near the end of it. One was from the Thames Polytechnic, from the head of the School of Surveying . He had his fingertips in Brewhouse Lane, Wapping, which was originally a soap warehouse, which he needed to find a use for and he thought it would be an ideal place to house The Brooking Collection. We had a meeting, it all seemed very good, I was offered a part-time salary and I duly joined them in October 1988 as a part time lecturer. The move, which was a massive operation, took nearly four years to complete, in stages from my parents house to the warehouse in Wapping. I kept a small collection at home in the display sheds and moved the greater part to the University of Greenwich.

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In 1991 a purpose building was built by Terrapin at the Dartford Campus. In 1992 we interviewed for a curator having had money from Colin Amery and John McWilliam and had managed to get a grant from The Monument Trust to fund a curator and cataloguing. The first curator joined, Caroline Reed, in 1992, and we started cataloguing. We had a very good exhibition area set up, she was very good but left in February 1994 then Julie Wakefield joined and a cataloguing programme was put into process again. We did a lot of cataloguing. Marvellous exhibition. We also had a technician and it was wonderful. However it wasn't an ideal setting and there wasn't really enough room but it was a fantastic start and we had a store down the road at the trading estate which was nicely set out with everything wrapped.

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I still lived in White Lane , Woodhay, Surrey but that was coming to an end, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and my father was now living with a girlfriend, it was a very difficult time.

I moved house in 1999. I found, through the help of a friend of a friend, a property in Cranleigh, Surrey which was an old builder's yard with a 1961 house built in front of it later, it had a run-down serious of outbuildings and a joiners shop.

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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.

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

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References:

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

 

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). The contents of the website are for general information only and is not intended to be relied upon for specific or general decisions. Appropriate independent professional advice should be paid for before making such a decision.

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