99 and 100 Victoria Road, Eastcott, Swindon

Summary

Two formerly detached houses of the early to mid-C19, with C19 and C20 alterations. They became the printing offices for The Advertiser in the mid-C19. The C20 buildings to the rear are excluded from the listing.

Description

MATERIALS: the façade of the two buildings is of Bath stone, with banded rustication to the ground floor. The rear wall of 99 Victoria Road is of brick. The rear wall of 100 Victoria Road is of rubble stone. Both have timber brackets supporting a moulded timber eaves cornice. The roof of 99 Victoria Road is concealed behind parapet walls. The pitched roof of 100 Victoria Road is covered in slate tiles, and has inserted roof lights.

PLAN: 99 Victoria Road has a double-pile plan. 100 Victoria Road has a single-pile plan, with a projection to the south-east corner.

EXTERIOR

99 Victoria Road is a three-bay, three-storey building. The ground floor has central double doors, flanked by single windows with glazing bars to the upper sections. The first floor has a central Venetian window with 16-lights, flanked by four-pane sidelights and is a variant of the earlier examples at 100 Victoria Road. To either side and to the storey above are 12-light, horned sash windows. To the rear is a mid-C19, tall, brick chimney stack in English bond.

100 Victoria Road is a three-bay, two-storey building with chamfered quoins and a gable-end stone stack; the brick shaft is a mid-C20 addition. The recessed, central, arched doorway with Tuscan columns supporting the entablature is flanked by tripartite windows, with glazing bars to the upper sections, Tuscan square pilasters and a moulded entablature. The first floor has a central, round-headed sash window. To either side are Venetian windows with a 16-light round-headed sash window, flanked by eight-pane sidelights. The windows have Tuscan square pilasters supporting the entablature with dentils to the cornice. The window to the right has had a roundel inserted in the mid-to late C20 containing a piece of salvaged medieval glass depicting an angel.

INTERIOR: the two buildings have been amalgamated. The interior of 99 Victoria Road is plain. The principal first-floor room of 100 Victoria Road has round-headed alcoves, wall panelling, cornices and a decorative window surround. A partition wall has been inserted across its rear wall to create additional rooms behind, and a further partition wall has been inserted to the north, concealing the inserted floor which cuts across the other two, first-floor windows. These rooms retain some panelling, cornices and joinery. The roof is a king strut collar truss with longitudinal girders. The fireplaces and the original staircases to both buildings have been removed; although the stair window surround to No 100 is extant.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the C20 buildings to the rear of 99 and 100 Victoria Road are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The tithe map for Swindon (1839) appears to show the two buildings. These formerly detached, early to mid-C19 dwellings became the premises of The Advertiser in the mid-C19.

The Advertiser was founded by a Mr William Morris in 1854 and is reputed to be the country’s first penny newspaper. According to an article published in 1918 The Advertiser was originally produced at 35 High Street before being relocated to 93 Victoria Street (now Road) in 1857, and states that ‘[t]he dwelling rooms of the house were first used for both type-setting and machining . . . but, later, works or offices were built on the garden ground at the rear, Mr Morris being his own designer and builder’. However, it seems probable that the paper’s premises were in fact relocated to 99 Victoria Road rather than 93 Victoria Road. 93 Victoria Road is known to have being occupied as a dwelling by Richard Jeffries in 1875, suggesting that it was still functioning as a house rather than a printing works, and the map evidence suggests that the additional printing works were in fact built to the rear of 99 and 100 Victoria Road. Further evidence for this is the presence of a tall chimney stack to the rear of these buildings which probably relates to the introduction of a steam powered printing press in 1861, when it became the first paper in Wiltshire to be printed by steam power. In 1870, the printing block for The Advertiser depicts 99 Victoria Road as its printing offices, flanked by 98 and 100 Victoria Road, and shows the façade with round-arched windows with a central mullion and plate tracery.

100 Victoria Road is illustrated in an early-C20 photograph, and at this time the ground floor had a central door with chamfered quoins to the doorway and a stone cornice supported on stone corbels, flanked by tripartite windows. This photograph includes a small part of 99 Victoria Road showing stone quoins, and a possible brick façade. A mid-C20 photograph indicates that the principal elevation of 99 Victoria Road had been altered. It has a stone façade and a Venetian window to the first floor similar to those of its neighbour; the additional windows are 12-light sashes. Additionally, 1930s shop fronts had been inserted to the ground floor of both buildings. The ground floors were altered with listed building consent in 1988 and comprise central doorways with flanking windows.

Reasons for Listing

99 and 100 Victoria Road, Swindon, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* The two former houses have a unified architectural front with good classical detailing, which is carried through to the interior;
* The original plan form of the two, formerly separate, buildings, remains legible.

Historic interest:

* As the mid-C19 premises of The Advertiser, founded by William Morris in 1854 as the first penny paper in the country. It was also the first paper in Wiltshire to be printed by steam power.

External Links

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