11 Castle Street

Summary

Former congregational chapel, built in 1837, designed by JJ Cooper, converted to retail use in around 1956, subsequently converted to use as a public house in the late 1990s.

Reasons for Designation

11 Castle Street, Reading, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a mid-C19 building, with good architectural design, 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 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. Until the mid-C20, redevelopment on the street was piecemeal and mostly confined to individual plots, leading to the street’s great architectural diversity. This pattern was broken in the late 1960s and 1970s, with the construction of the expansive civic complex on the north side of Castle Street, and of the Inner Relief Road immediately to the west of the new complex. These major works required the demolition of most of the buildings on the north side of Castle Street and severed the more commercial, eastern end of the street nearer the town centre and the more residential, western end of the street as it becomes Castle Hill.

11 Castle Street is the former Castle Street Congregational Church, which was opened in 1837. The church closed in 1956, at which time the building was converted to retail use at ground-floor level with offices above. During the 1990s, the basement was converted to use as a gym while the ground and first floors became a nightclub and subsequently a public house.

The Congregational Chapel was designed by the architect JJ Cooper, in the neoclassical style. It was altered internally and externally to facilitate its conversion to shop use, with a new shop frontage added to the ground floor. Columns loosely replicating those of the building’s original entrance were added to the shopfront in around 1989. The roof of the building is understood to have been entirely replaced in around 2007.

Details

Former congregational chapel, built in 1837, designed by JJ Cooper, converted to retail use in around 1956, subsequently converted to use as a public house in the late 1990s.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of brick, with a stucco principal elevation. The roof covering appears to be slate.

PLAN: the building is laid out on a rectangular footprint orientated north-south.

EXTERIOR: the building is of two tall storeys across five bays facing onto Castle Street, under a pitched roof. The principal, north elevation is designed in a neoclassical style executed in stucco. At ground-floor level, the three central bays contain a recessed modern shopfront, with a pair of columns flanking the central entrance and two half-columns set against the sides of the recess. Above the shopfront is a partial Doric entablature with triglyphs and metopes. The two end bays are of channelled stucco and contain a large, round-arched opening containing modern fixed windows.

At first-floor level are five slightly recessed, round-arched openings, all containing fixed windows with applied glazing bars and a low-level casement element. The three central arches spring from simple moulded pilasters, and each has a raised panel beneath the window. The two outer bays are flanked by pairs of larger pilasters with Soanian incisions, and there is a recessed panel beneath the windows. The four larger pilasters rise to a simple cornice with a parapet above with a central pediment containing a circular window within the tympanum.

The east and west elevations each contain five tall, first-floor round-arched openings, each containing a fixed window with many glazing bars and a casement element, apart from the second bay from the south on the west elevation, which contains a doorway leading to an emergency staircase. There appears to be a corresponding range of round-arched openings at ground-floor level on either elevation, although these are largely hidden from the street.

There is a full-width, brick projection to the rear, south, elevation of two lower storeys, with a pair of modern doors at ground-floor level. Above this projection, on the rear elevation of the main body of the former chapel, is a large chimney stack rising through the roof ridge. On either side of the stack at high level are a pair of small, round-arched openings, now blocked.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

38789

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), pp438-440, p471

Websites
Ditchfield, PH, Page, W, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp.336-342, accessed 28 September 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3
Reading Borough Council, History of Reading (2012), accessed 28 September 2023 from https://web.archive.org/web/20120425235452/http:/www.reading.gov.uk/residents/history-of-reading/
St Mary’s Butts and Castle Street Audio Trail, accessed 20 October 2023 from www.reading.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/heritage-and-conservation/readings-high-street-heritage-action-zone/community-engagement/reading-audio-trails/st-marys-butts-and-castle-street/

End of official list entry

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