Summary
Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and additions. The rear extension and link block to number 9 does not form part of the listing.
Reasons for Designation
9 and 10 Bruce Grove, a pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with late-C20 additions and rebuilding, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a pair of houses of some grandeur dating from between 1789 and 1798, presenting an elegant symmetrical Classical frontage;
* the principal elevation survives substantially intact, with a shared eaves cornice and string course, and original window openings holding sash frames, the ground-floor windows in recessed arches, whilst the main ranges also survive well to the rear.
Historic interest:
* the houses belong to a wider sequence of similar date on Bruce Grove, comprising one of the earliest groups, and the most prestigious, developed around the High Road at about this time.
Group value:
* with 5 to 8 and 11 to 16 Bruce Grove, which are contemporary with numbers 9 and 10, and also with 1 to 4 Bruce Grove, which date from about 1820; all these houses are listed at Grade II.
History
Tottenham High Road, known historically as Tottenham Street, is part of what was once Ermine Street, the Roman Road leading from London to Lincoln and York. A settlement is recorded at Tottenham in the Domesday Survey of 1086, and a manor house existed by 1254, on or near the site of Bruce Castle (the name, bestowed in the 1680s, derives from medieval ownership of the manor by Robert the Bruce). The linear settlement grew along the High Road, with what was effectively the village centre being marked by the Green and High Cross, which commemorates the medieval wayside cross which once stood there. By the C16, Tottenham was a favoured rural retreat for city merchants, with a number of mansions along the High Road; subsequent development reflects the area’s status as a place of residence for wealthy Londoners, whilst a number of schools, as well as charitable and religious foundations were established there. Thomas Clay’s 1619 map of Tottenham depicts the High Road with intermittent buildings along its frontage, and others set back within enclosed grounds. Daniel Defoe observed in the 1720s that the building along the road from the city, passing through Newington, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield had increased so much recently as to give the appearance of ‘one continu’d street’, especially Tottenham and Edmonton; Defoe remarks on the houses of the wealthy merchants, some retaining houses in the city: ‘many of these are immensely rich’ (A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-1727). However, as in most villages, Tottenham’s inhabitants were socially mixed: Peter Guillery has noted that ‘the face of Tottenham High Road was hugely varied; few of the many timber-built small-scale buildings survive’ (The Small House in Eighteenth Century London, 2004). Wyburd’s parish map, surveyed in 1798, shows much of the High Road north of High Cross bordered by buildings, many within spacious grounds.
In the late C18 and early C19, new villas and terraces began to spread outwards along existing and new sideroads running from the High Road. Of these, one of the earliest and much the most prestigious is Bruce Grove, running north-west from the High Road to Bruce Castle, following the line of one of the avenues of Bruce Castle Park. The development of Bruce Grove was made possible by the break-up of the Bruce manorial lands in 1789. Building commenced on the south-west side near the junction with the High Road with a group of villas (now numbers 5-16) completed by 1798. These houses, mostly semi-detached pairs, were soon associated with a number of wealthy Quaker families. In about 1820, a short terrace (now numbers 1-4) was built. The opposite side of Bruce Grove, and the stretch to the north-west, was still undeveloped in 1894.
Substantial houses of the sort built at the end of the C18 in Bruce Grove were for those who owned carriages, but with the advent of daily coach services from London in 1823, of omnibuses in 1839, and the arrival of the Northern and Eastern Railway to the east at Tottenham Hale in 1840, Tottenham became accessible to less affluent middle-class people, and the Tithe map of 1844 shows increasing development of smaller houses along the High Road. The opening of the Liverpool Street-Edmonton branch of the Great Eastern Railway in 1872, with a station at the junction of Bruce Grove and the High Road, brought about a development boom, providing more modest housing. Industries established locally during the C19 included a lace factory in 1810, a silk factory in 1815 (this became a rubber mill in 1837) and brewing from the mid-C19. The abundance of brick-earth in Tottenham meant that brick- and tile-making was a strong local industry from the middle ages to the C19, whilst many farms and market gardens along the banks of the River Lea supplied the London market with fruit and vegetables.
4-15 Bruce Grove have seen considerable change during the course of their history, including the insertion of Woodside Gardens in the late C19, running westwards from Bruce Grove between numbers 12 and 13. Numerous alterations and additions having been made to all the houses; most have been divided into several dwellings or units, and some have been in institutional use. The spacious front gardens of the larger houses are now hard standings for parking, whilst numbers 1-4 have C20 shops built over their front gardens.
9 and 10 Bruce Grove form an attached pair, originally built with cariage-houses/stabling. In both cases, this subsidiary area has seen much change. By the mid-1930s number 9 had been extended to the rear and by the late C20 this extension had been extended further. A photograph from 1970 shows that the stable range had by then been replaced by a flat roofed single-storey garage but by 1980 this had in turn been replaced by an extended two-storey frontage. In 1970 the building was occupied by Hammond's Optical Services was subsequently occupied by the Middlesex Area probation service and later by the British Red Cross. It is currently (2023) occupied by a drug counselling service and a church. By the 1930s, number 10 seems to have been in use as a club and by 1965 had become a youth centre, originally known as Lynch Youth House, having been transferred to the new Haringey Council from the Middlesex County Council on its abolition. In 2023 it was largely vacant since the youth club was moved in 2006 to a new building at the rear of the property which replaced an earlier outbuilding.
Details
Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and additions. The rear extension and link block to number 9 is excluded from the listing.
MATERIALS: stock brick laid in Flemish bond. C20 rear range to number 9 is of cream brick in stretcher bond. Each house has a rectangular-plan, slate-clad, hipped roof with a central valley to the main block. These are divided from each other by a longitudinal brick stack with clay chimney pots. A separate slate hipped roof covers the three-bays to the north-west of number 10. Number 9 has a later flat roof over the five south-eastern bays and the rear range. Window openings hold sash frames, some possibly original.
PLAN: the attached houses face east to Bruce Grove, with number 9 to the south and number 10 to the north. Each originally had an outer range, believed to have served as a carriage-house and stable. The Tithe map suggests that these were originally slightly detached; certainly these parts have been subject to alteration and rebuilding. The five southern bays of number 9 were added in the late-C20, with a carriage arch to the ground floor. The long rear extension and link block are part of the same phase of development and are not of special interest. The side range of number 10 is a two-storey block of three bays. It is probably dates from the late-C19, replacing the original stable range. It originally extended an additional bay to the north. this was lower and two-storey with a carriage door on the ground floor, now demolished.
The interior plan of number 9 has been extensively modernised with offices and corridors inserted, so that its original layout is no longer readable. Number 10 has an entrance lobby giving on to a central hall with a front parlour to the south, another smaller room (with a later foyer hatch) to the north and two rooms to the rear. The stair is on the south side of the hall but has been replaced. The upper floors have pairs of rooms front and back.
EXTERIOR: the houses are of three storeys with basement and present a symmetrical frontage to the principal ranges with both houses being three windows wide. Both houses have the entrance, set within a wide round-headed arch, in the side ranges; that to number 9 is part of the late-C20 development and is stuccoed with a modern glazed inner door. The later arched entrance to number 10 is brick with stone imposts and a brick inner arch, modern fanlight and sidelights and a six-panel door.
A stuccoed eaves cornice supported by paired blocks beneath a blocking course runs along the top of the frontage and a stone stringcourse separates the ground and first floors. The ground floor windows are six-over-six timber sashes in square openings with gauged brick heads set in round-arched recesses. The upper storey windows are square with gauged brick heads, those on the first floor having six-over-six timber sashes and three-over-three sashes on the second floor. The fenestration to the upper storeys of the later five-bay side range to number 9 follow this arrangement. The later side range to number 10 has a six-light timber framed window and secondary entrance. The first floor, topped by a parapet with stone coping, has three six-over-six sash windows with gauged brick heads set back from the ground floor and fronted by four iron balusters with a linking chain.
The rear elevation to the main range is also of three window bays per house. Openings are square-headed with gauged brick heads and stone sills. All the windows to the rear of number 9 are later uPVC replacement sashes and the ground floor is rendered.
Number 10 has mostly horned sash windows, six-over-six on the ground and first floors and three-over-three on the second floor. Number 10 has a modern lift shaft to the rear of the side range. This is steel-framed with glazing and is linked to the main part of the house by steel-framed bridges at first and second floor levels.
INTERIOR: the interior of number 9 has been modernised with the only surviving original feature apparent being the main open newel, open string, stair. This has a mixture of original round section and replacement square section newel posts, with stick balusters and a hard-wood banister.
The interior of number 10 has a dentil cornice to the entrance lobby and a moulded cornice to the front parlour but otherwise cornices have been largely removed. The front parlour has a richly detailed, probably Victorian, cast-iron fire surround with decorative tiles round the grate. The panelled window shutters remain here and in some of the upper floor rooms. All internal doors are modern replacements. The original stair has been replaced with a concrete stair with metal balustrade apart from the original timber stair to the cellar which has stick balusters, round newel posts and the handrail surviving. The cellar has brick and stone wine racks.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the brick boundary wall fronting number 9 and parts of the boundary wall between numbers 9 and 10 are possibly original, although altered. They are in Flemish bond with plain brick capping.
