Door Brackets Albury Street.

Charlie Oldham is a Master Sculptor and Woodcarver and lived in Brockley in the 1980s and 90s. After having worked in woodcarving studios in the west end he set up his first workshop with Tony Foley in Mary Anne Gdns next to Albury Street in Deptford.  He was pleased to be there as it was in the next street to where John Evelyn had found Grindling Gibbons in the 17th century, Crossfieid Street. He carved several sets of replacement Door Canopy Brackets for Albury Street and some were for the developer called Martin Gloyne and some were commissioned by Chris Fearnside of Greenwich University who I believed owned the buildings at that time for student accommodation. The buildings were auctioned off in the 90’s. He received a phone call from one of the buyers who went on to explain that after buying the houses the buyers were informed that there were some carved brackets for the door ways and they could call in and collect them. Somehow the brackets got mixed up and no one knew which ones went with which house so it was on a first come first served basis and so this is the reason why the brackets are arranged in a strange order. Charlie moved away and set up a new work shop in Frome in Somerset in 1994. Charlie also carved some more Door Brackets for the Spitalfieds Trust which are also very elaborate and intricate displaying Acanthus and Scroll work. Similar work was carried out on some houses on the Mile End Road. He also carried out carving work for Windsor Castle and has recently completed the restoration of the Redland's Chapel in Bristol.. My thanks to Charlie for the information and permission to publish his photographs. Please visit his website to see some truly beautiful work. http://charlesoldhamwoodcarving.co.uk/