Art collector and philanthropist, Felix H. Wilkinson has lived in south London for over forty years in his small terraced house which is packed full of treasures. He is an avid collector and has a remarkable collection of outsider art and British film memorabilia.
Felix started his career as a cub reporter on the South London Press. He soon graduated to writing articles about the south London crime scene. This first hand knowledge of crime led to a number of detective short stories for boys. These were published in The Trump, a comic for boys that had been hugely popular since before the war. He became a regular writer for The Trump in 1959, inventing the detective series The Jack Hawkins Mysteries, that became very popular with young boys in the early sixties. There was even talk of a television drama based on the stories. As the sixties rolled on and teenagers changed with the turbulent times, The Trump’s popularity plummeted and the comic folded in 1971. Felix became a freelance writer for various magazines, championing, amongst other things, outsider art, the preservation of the past and post war British films.
One of a handful of early collectors of outsider art he owns pieces of all the major English outsider artists – he was even able to buy most of the work of reclusive architect artist, Joseph Boshier.
Felix’s other great passion are the popular films made in Britain during the forties and early fifties. He has collected artifacts from the sets of these films for many years and proudly owns such things as the ventriloquist’s dummy from the 1945 Ealing Studio’s film ‘Dead of Night’ and much of the scenery from the 1947 film ‘Hue & Cry’.
Now retired, he is a well known figure around his Camberwell home. Out walking his dogs or having a coffee in the cafes he meets a lot of local people, particularly artists working in the areas many studios.
Impressed by their work and seeing them struggling to make ends meet in these hard times, he offered the use of his name and considerable reputation to help this online gallery promote and sell their work.
Some of the artists featured are Nina Mankin, Lesley Hilling, and Duncan McAfee.