Summary
A pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and additions.
Reasons for Designation
15 and 16 Bruce Grove, a pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with additions including 15A, a rebuilt element of about 1985, 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 buildings also survive well to the rear.
Historical 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 numbers 5 to 14 Bruce Grove, which are contemporary with numbers 15 and 16, and also with numbers 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.
15 and 16 Bruce Grove form an attached pair. The houses were originally built with carriage-houses/stabling; in both cases, this subsidiary area has seen much change. During the mid-20 the pair of houses, together with the rear yard, were home to Weatherill Hydraulics. Surviving photographs taken in 1975, 1980 and 2006 provide some evidence regarding the later development of the buildings. New housing was constructed in the large rear garden of number 16 in about 1980. The carriage house/stable to number 15 was substantially or entirely rebuilt in about 1985, with the appropriate consent, and is now known as number 15A. The carriage house/stable to number 16 was demolished at some time between 1894 and 1913; a new block was built adjoining the north side of the house at some time between 1975 and 2006.
Internal photographs taken in 1975 show features characteristic of the late-C18 date of the houses. At that time the houses had front and rear stairs, with wreathed handrails to the front stair. The houses retained some fairly simple fire-surrounds – some of C19 date – as well as cornicing, window shutters, and panelled doors. Since that time, the houses have been divided into a number of flats.
Details
Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and additions.
MATERIALS: stock brick, with brick stacks. In the central block, the two houses share hipped M-shaped roofs, running from north to south, each divided by a row of brick chimney stacks. Other sections have flat roofs. Window openings hold sash frames, some possibly original.
PLAN: the attached houses face east to Bruce Grove, with number 15 to the south and number 16 to the north; each house consists of a main block, with a lower recessed outer entrance bay. Each also originally had a further outer range, believed to have served as a carriage-house and stable; the Tithe map suggests that these were originally slightly detached. To the south of number 15, the area once occupied by the carriage-house/stable is now known as number 15a; this has undergone considerable change over time, and was substantially or entirely rebuilt, in about 1985, with the addition of a rectangular rear block. To the north of number 16 is an attached block, thought to date from the early 1980s, on the site of the former carriage-house/stable range.
EXTERIOR: the houses are of three storeys with basement, and present a symmetrical frontage, with the main block being four windows wide (two windows to each house); this has an eaves cornice with blocking course, and a string-course beneath the first-floor windows. The windows have gauged flat brick arches, and the openings hold six-over-six sash frames; the shorter second-floor window openings have three-over-three sash frames. The ground-floor windows are set within rounded-arched recesses. The doorways are in the recessed outer bays, at the junction with the main block, approached by five/six steps, and set within timber porches, with Doric columns; these porches appear to be late-C20/early-C21 replacements. The steps up to the doors appear also to have been replaced, with the loss of the original iron balustrades. The openings hold later glazed doors. Beside the doorway of number 15 a lower second doorway has been inserted, with a bracketed hood, providing access to 15A, beneath a reduced hood. Beside the doorway of number 16 is a low arched recess. In both sections, there is a large tripartite first-floor window above the string-course, continued from the main block. Both sections have been given mansard roofs with dormer windows at some time between 1980 and 2006. Number 15A, to the south of number 15, reflects the style of the original buildings, with sash windows beneath gauged flat brick arches, the ground-floor windows set in round-arched recesses. The block attached to the north end of number 16 is also Georgian in style, with a bracketed door hood, sash windows, and string course.
To the rear, the fenestration of the main blocks reflects that on the front elevation. There is a single-storey bow, probably early-C19, spanning the ground floor of number 15. The outer blocks originally had doorways set symmetrically, against the main blocks, with timber porches on slender columns; the porches have been removed and the doorways converted to window openings. There is a single window to both ground and first floors, that to number 15 being tripartite; a string course runs beneath these first-floor windows. The rear of 15A is has a wing to the south, reflecting the form of the building as it was in the late-C19, with a small yard to the north. There is a large lower extension to the west.
INTERIOR: subdivision of the houses into flats will inevitably have resulted in alteration and reconfiguration, though publicly-available internal photographs show that historic features do survive in places, including some window shutters, architraves, cornicing and skirting.
