‘Your interest in Britain’s heritage has inspired us to write and ask for your help in our quest to preserve this vital Collection for the future.
The very nature of Charles Brooking’s unique Collection has relied on his dedication in rescuing, for the nation’s future generations, important items of architectural detail before they are consigned to the skip, sold to the highest bidder or, worse still, destroyed.
He has now amassed Europe’s definitive collections of windows and doors which, with many other artifacts, represent an unparalleled architectural detail history of the United Kingdom.
We are very pleased to be able to say that Charles wishes to pass a major part of the Collection to the permanent care of the Trustees.
Thanks to well over 20 years of support from the University of Greenwich, we have been able to house the major part of the Collection in 6,600 sq ft of warehousing at Woolwich and Charles has been able to offer education through access to selected displayed items.
The bad news is that the University is not able to renew the leases on the present warehouses, which means we must again pack the Collection into containers and move them to a secure site in preparation for the establishment of the permanent Museum.
The good news is that we are in discussions with the excellent Weald and Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester, a natural partner for us, in the hope that we can together establish a facility there to house a major part of the Collection.
We need to raise an initial £20,000 as a matter of urgency to fund the costs of the moving the first phase of the Collection to a safe place pending the move to our new home.
The donation form overleaf gives details of the online giving facilities we have set up with the Charities Aid Foundation or your donation can be sent to me at the above address – it will be most warmly welcomed.
Any contribution you might feel able to make would be hugely appreciated at this crucial time.
Yours sincerely
Sir William McAlpine (Chairman of the Trustees)’
