Charles is the founding member and chief collector of the Brooking National Architectural Museum in Surrey. For more than 50 years, Charles has collected fittings, fixtures and architectural details that might otherwise have ended in the skip.
We've never seen a museum remotely like it. For starters, it lurks behind the family home, on a quiet suburban back street of Cranleigh — a town miles from any train station.

The highlights of the collection are displayed in an out-building, to the rear (though much more sits in storage in a nearby barn). It is a wonderland of windows; a den of door frames; a burrow of balustrades, banisters and builderly baubles. Every item comes from a building of architectural note; many from London.

We ask Charles to nominate his most treasured item. "Without doubt, ranking high on this list must be the original rear garden door from the main staircase hallway in No. 10, Downing Street, which was fitted during William Kent’s rebuilding of the house, circa 1735-36," says Charles.  He carries the details in his head: "The door is solid oak and has robust ovolo-moulded glazing bars and raised and fielded panels in the grand manner, typical of William Kent’s work," he adds.

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