Summary
Institutional building, constructed during the mid-C19. Used as a school, converted to office use during the late C20.
Reasons for Designation
6-10 Bridge Street, Reading, listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a mid-C19 building, with good decorative detailing, 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.
History
The crossroads formed by the north-south route of St Mary’s Butts and Bridge Street and the east-west route of Gun Street and 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 south from the crossroads, Bridge Street forms part of the ancient route into Reading from the south. Bridge Street, formerly St Giles Street, forded a marshy area of land within the flood plain of the River Kennet via a series of seven bridges. Much of this land was gradually drained and by the mid-C19, the area was developed with housing and industrial works. The later C20 saw much of the former industrial works replaced with large-footprint retail, office and apartment buildings.
6-10 Bridge Street was constructed during the mid-C19, on the site of an earlier building. The First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500; 1879) labels it as a Sunday School. Newspaper articles from the 1850s refer to the Bridge Street School Rooms and Bridge Street Public School, with one suggesting that the school was housed on the top floor while the ground floor was used as an auction room (Reading Mercury, 20 December 1851, p3; 25 June 1853, p3). By 1937 the building was home to the Castle Street Institute (Reading Standard, 3 September 1937, p3). Subsequent uses included as a fitness centre and as offices (Reading Evening Post, 5 September 1975, p6).
During the late C20, the two southernmost bays of the original, nine-bay building were demolished and the southern gable end wall reconstructed in machine-cut red brick. The rear (west) elevation also appears to have experienced alteration at this time, including a mansard with four dormers added to the western roof slope.
Details
Institutional building, constructed during the mid-C19. Used as a school, converted to office use during the late C20.
MATERIALS: the building’s principal, east elevation is faced in ashlar Bath Stone while the south and west elevations are of red brick, those on the south elevation late-C20 bricks laid in stretcher bond. The roof covering is slate, with lead coverings to the dormers.
PLAN: the building occupies a rectangular plan with a long elevation facing on to Bridge Street to the east.
EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys plus basement and attic rooms, across seven bays. The east elevation is designed in a neoclassical style and is arranged symmetrically across seven bays. On the ground floor, there are entrances in the two end bays and a range of five large, casement windows between. A plinth runs across the length of the elevation, broken by basement lights in the five central bays. Each bay is flanked by a pair of Ionic pilasters, which rise to a blank frieze and a cornice above. The north end of the elevation is terminated by an additional pilaster with a honeysuckle capital. The two entrances have flat canopies supported on moulded consoles, with pilasters, bearing Soanian carvings, rising from the plinth. With the ground sloping uphill from south to north, the doorway to the southern entrance is recessed within the façade, with eight stone steps rising to a modern glass door and moulded timber panelling to the walls, while at the northern entrance, the doorway is set much closer to the street with only two steps rising to a set of double doors with circular mouldings. The timber casements within the five central bays are set within plain surrounds which are slightly recessed within the façade. Beneath the cills are a series of narrow, recessed panels of the same width as the window openings.
The first floor carries a range of seven matching, evenly-spaced, six-over-six timber sashes with stone cills, each with a slightly recessed panel above. Each bay is framed by a pair of plain pilasters, without a capital or base, which rise to a stone cornice to the coped parapet; within each bay is an arcaded panel. Visible above the parapet are seven, flat-roofed dormers with timber sash windows.
The south elevation is constructed of red brick laid in stretcher bond with intervening soldier courses. To the rear (west) side there is a range of four sash windows to the basement, ground and first floors, and four flat-roofed dormers in the western slope of the mansard. In the two southernmost bays is a very shallow, full-height cross wing under a pitched roof, with a single window on the first and second floors.
INTERIOR: the interior is understood to contain a fine staircase with a lotus pattern, cast iron balusters. On the first floor is a segmental plaster barrel vault springing from a bracketed wall plate, with brackets carried on incised pilasters. On the end walls are heavy segmental panels.
