Tom Foakes: Director of Operations Charterhouse

Everyone has a story. How good is it when you find the exact right job? Meet Tom Foakes who reckons the creativity and variety of overseeing the Charterhouse’s historic estate and museum, venue hire, the kitchens and fundraising makes it just about perfect. Interview by Nicola Baird

• This is the third of three interviews on Islington Faces about life at the Charterhouse today. You can also read about two of the residents (known as Brothers), Mike Lawlor and Brian Reeve. More info about the Charterhouse here 

“The Charterhouse is a really special place,” says Tom Foakes who has been Director of Operations at the Charterhouse since October 2020.  “Any time I walk out of the Charterhouse of an evening and walk through Master’s Court when the brothers are having dinner in the Great Hall so light is sparkling from the chandeliers and Brother Walter is playing the piano, I think this is where I work: it’s perfect.”

FOLLOW ISLINGTON FACES a new interview is published every week. Everyone has an energy story series will start this spring.

Tom grew up in Chelmsford, Essex and did an art history degree at Warwick. Then at 26-years-old he enrolled on a Masters in Museum and Gallery management at City, University of London, in Islington. It’s a working love affair with EC1 that’s stuck for 20 years.

Tom, who is passionate about historic buildings, says he was lucky to spot an online ad for the Charterhouse job: “They had so many applicants and I was the last person to apply, I was very fortunate.” But Tom’s background in heritage and museum collections, plus his experience working for “St John just around the corner” – where he also got married – meant that he had some unique advantages.

“I knew the area and had always been impressed by the work that the Charterhouse did. I love historic buildings and to be able to work in that sort of environment is a perfect fit.”

Tom makes you feel you’ve known him forever, so it’s lovely that he is also proud to be part of such a venerable set up in the southern tip of Islington. “The Charterhouse has an incredibly important contemporary purpose and yet it is still doing what it was set up to do, the almshouse and care of the Brothers. That is its central mission,” he says before explaining how he also needs to find ways, “to use this wonderful historic estate to support the charity and to enable the public to engage with the buildings and history.”

He also has responsibility for a property portfolio which covers Charterhouse Square. No wonder Tom is impressed by the original founder. “When he set up the charity Thomas Sutton was very sensible in what he did. The charity has such a solid foundation.”

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Places Tom Foakes loves in Islington

1. The Charterhouse is number one! Book on a guided tour to take you on a tour of the historic interiors, the gardens and learn about the history of the buildings from their foundation in 14^th century to the present day. Book in advance online (first tours will be in June). https://thecharterhouse.org/visit-us/
2. I do enjoy eating out. I was very sad when Bellanger at 9 Islington Green closed and v happy when it reopened as it’s the experience of being there – I went there for breakfast the day we got married. Then the waitress said, ‘Are you doing anything nice today?’ but she didn’t give us a discount!
3. I really like the permanent collection at the Estorick, 39 Canonbury Square, and modern Italian art, and as I have studied art history it’s enjoyable to visit.
4. I love the Zetter Townhouse, Clerkenwell, 49-50 St John’s Square for cocktails and the way it’s decorated like a crazy old lady’s drawing room. It makes me sound incredibly camp, but I do like a Twinkle; anything with champagne in is always a good start.
5. I have to control myself at Criterion Auctioneers on 53 Essex Road. I’m on the cusp of hoarding.But I did buy a bust of a centurion which is clearly not an essential purchase. It was described as resin, and was really grubby. I put it in the bath and scrubbed it and found that it had been painted. It is actually marble. Every home should have one! Criterion Auctioneers are great just to go for a browse under normal circumstances. It’s also far more economical and greener to buy there – you get nicer things, and they don’t cost as much as buying new, and it reduces landfill. It’s a winner on all counts.

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During Covid-19
“Regardless of lockdown, the Charterhouse needs to function – 40 Brothers live on site and they need infrastructure working for them. I work partly from home in Haggerston, but I’ve been going in and we have two tag teams working so there’s no cross infection if anyone gets ill. As a new member of staff, starting work during the pandemic has made my job perhaps a little simpler because we don’t have the usual influx of visitors.” That may be so, but it’s clear that Tom is looking forward to big gates opening and the public coming back to the seven acre site and the community behind the Charterhouse walls, which surround its Grade I and II Listed buildings.

“We closed at the beginning of the pandemic because we have a vulnerable community on site. But Charterhouse is usually a busy place. We have 40,000 visitors a year who are coming to visit the museum or come on site for guided tours and a thriving commercial venue hire for filming and events. Filming can go ahead, but no one is having any big parties. So it’s a much quieter place, which is a shame, usually the Charterhouse wants to share its spaces with the public and the local community, and by necessity that can’t really happen,” he adds.

Islington Faces is longing to visit what Tom describes as a garden in the “long slice of land. There are mulberry trees which are a couple of 100 years old and the Lord Mayor of London comes to a ceremony to receive the first mulberries. Last year the Master – Ann Kenrick OBE is the Master – made mulberry gin. Tom now has a dream that honey can be made on site again and is “in conversation with beekeepers.”

As readers might have guessed the origins of the Charterhouse on the edge of the City of London are as a monastery. But it has had many identities. Tom explains: “Then it became a Tudor palace and you have these beautiful series of courtyards and cloisters throughout the building which form these peaceful gardens, which in an area like Clerkenwell which is so dense and urban it is a wonderful contrast.  In the garden you can see the Tudor buildings and then look up and see brutalist Barbican: it’s a history of London in microcosm.”

During summer 2020 the Great Chamber was given a makeover, or as Tom puts it, a “refresh, to give a sense of the grandeur and articulate the significance of its place in history. Elizabeth I held court here twice – she was a busy woman! The Charterhouse was a place where royalty visited and the governors who were involved were the movers and shakers of 17^th century society. I find it fascinating considering the radicalism of this group of people and how Thomas Sutton, who was the richest commoner in England and incredibly financially astute, set up the charity. Thomas Sutton was so farsighted in making sure people of influence and power were involved, so the long-term legacy of his charity was assured,” says Tom.

“People in the borough often had different and opposing views. But if you want to encourage that innovative thinking, you don’t want a mono-view which diminishes decisions,’ explains Tom. “So, you get this exciting discourse and difference at Charterhouse, and hopefully that legacy continues to endure and it’s why the charity continues to survive even in challenging circumstances.”

As soon as lockdown stops you’ll be able to see for yourself.

You can read about more people connected with the Charterhouse including Brother Mike Lawlor and Brother Brian Reeve. Note women can be Brothers too now – and there are places to be filled.

• Public tours are due to open at the beginning of June (do book a support ticket in advance), see https://thecharterhouse.org/visit-us/
• For a chance to live in the almshouse at Charterhouse please contact Clerk to the Brothers, Hannah Crane. See all the information here, https://thecharterhouse.org/joining-the-community/almshouse/

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola

 

YOUR FEEDBACK

U: Just a ‘thanks’ for another stunning interview (Tom Foakes). You are such a lovely matchmaker between Islingtonians: you inspire me (you know that) and I always ‘fall in love’ with the subjects you interview: all amazing.