Summary

A mid- to late-C18 house, used as a shop in the C19 then as offices in the C20, including the removal of the shopfronts.

Description

A mid- to late-C18 house, used as a shop in the C19 then as offices in the C20, including the removal of the shop fronts.

MATERIALS: silver-grey brickwork in header bond with red brick detailing, under a slate roof. Later C20 extensions in red brick.

PLAN: the building is L-shaped in plan, with a principal north range fronting Castle Street and a longer, rear extension on the west side.

EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys plus basement and has three bays to the principal elevation under a coped parapet. It has a central doorway reached via two stone steps, comprising a six-panel door with a radiating fanlight above, flanked by Doric pilasters rising to fluted brackets supporting an open pediment.

On the ground, first and second floors the outer bays have matching canted oriel windows with flat, lead roofs, each containing a larger, central sash window, with six-over-six panes to the ground and first floors and three-over-six panes to the second floor. All have narrower sash windows to their sides. Above each oriel there is a segmental relieving arch in red brick. The oriels spring from coved brackets, which cut across the relieving arches of the ground and first floor oriels. The two bays of oriels are connected by lines of red brick detailing which rises from the ground-floor plinth to the top of the parapet. There are two additional lines of detailing which rise from each side of the doorway, as well as red brick quoins to both ends of the elevation. Beneath the eastern ground-floor window is a C20 basement window under a soldier course of red bricks. It is protected by modern railings.

The hidden roof has three, transverse pitches connected by hipped elements at the ends of the valleys, with a dormer projecting north into the valley from the central pitched roof. A lead-covered dome projects through the southern slope of the central pitched roof.

The south elevation, which is largely hidden from the street, comprises a three-storey projection along the western side with a window at second-floor level, followed by a two-storey extension running south under a pitched, plain-tile roof.

INTERIOR: understood to contain an C18 staircase between the first and second floor.

History

The crossroads formed by the north-south route of St Mary’s Butts/Bridge Street and the east-west route of Gun Street/Castle Street is believed to be the centre of the original Saxon settlement at Reading, established sometime before the ninth century, with the lowest crossing point of the River Kennet lying a short distance away to the south.

Reading was well-established by the time of the Norman Conquest, and the Domesday Book (1086) records six mills and a large estate in the town. St Mary’s Church, which lies on the north-east corner of the crossroads and was mostly rebuilt in 1551-1555, was the town’s primary church until the establishment of Reading Abbey in the C12 and became so again following the dissolution in the late 1530s.

Running west from the crossroads, Castle Street forms part of the ancient route through the town between London and the West Country, and the street historically contained many inns and guesthouses. As Reading expanded beyond its medieval limits during the C18 and C19, development spread further along Castle Street. Earlier buildings were gradually replaced with substantial townhouses and public buildings in brick or Bath stone, although some timber-framed buildings of the C16 and C17 survive.

9 Castle Street was built in the mid- to late-C18 and probably on the site of an earlier building. The house was extended to the rear around 1879 and by 1900, the ground floor was in use as a shop, including a shop window to the western bay, with a second being added to the eastern bay by 1970. The rear extension was remodelled around this time.

In around 2001, the shop windows were removed and replaced with timber oriels to match those on the upper floors.

Reasons for Listing

9 Castle Street, a mid- to late-C18 house, used as a shop in the C19 then as offices in the C20, including the removal of the shopfronts, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

*     as a mid- to late-C18 building which contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape.

Historic interest:

*     as part of the urban development of Reading’s ancient core.

Group Value:

*    the building is in close proximity to a large number of listed buildings and forms part of a strong historic grouping.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26447824

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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