C. F. Kearley had also gone into business as a builder and property developer, and his son Charles joined the firm after leaving school.
This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship, with Myerscough-Walker encouraging Kearley's enthusiasm for modern art, architecture and design.
Kearley's next development was Kensal House, a block of modern flats in Ladbroke Grove where the ideas of Elizabeth Denby were realised by the architect Maxwell Fry.
Kearley inherited the business and undertook many projects, including designs by Myerscough-Walker and Maxwell Fry which are important examples of modern architecture.
The collection grew to include important works such as John Piper’s painting of a bombed-out church in Bristol, commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, and Ben Nicholson's ‘1946 (still life – cerulean)’.