Summary
Pair of townhouses, built early C19, converted at ground-floor level to shops by the 1950s and converted to offices during the 1960s, combined during the 1970s or 1980s, and converted to flats in around 2000.
Reasons for Designation
23 and 25 Castle Street, Reading is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an early-C19 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.
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.
23 and 25 Castle Street are a pair of houses, now combined, which were constructed during the early C19, probably on the site of earlier buildings. It is understood that numbers 23 and 25 had a shared ground-floor shopfront during the 1950s, and by 1965 the pair were in use as offices (Reading Evening Post, 1 October 1965, p13). The houses were combined during the 1970s or 1980s, at which time it appears the ground floor of the north elevation was partially rebuilt. The principal, north elevation of the pair was rendered sometime during the C20 possibly after the shopfront was removed and the properties were combined. A front entrance to number 25 has been removed, presumably also when the two buildings were combined. In around 2000, the pair was converted into flats.
Details
Pair of townhouses, built early C19, converted at ground-floor level to shops by the 1950s and converted to offices during the 1960s, combined during the 1970s or 1980s, and converted to flats in around 2000.
MATERIALS: the building is constructed of red brick, which is fully rendered and painted grey on its north elevation fronting Castle Street, with a roof covering of slate.
PLAN: the building is laid out on a double-pile plan on an irregular plot.
EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys plus basement across four bays under a pitched roof. The historic subdivision of the properties can be read from the principal, north elevation, which is arranged as a pair of two-window buildings. The ground floor carries three timber sash windows with six-over-six glazing, and in the second bay in from the east, a six-panelled door with fanlight within a fluted timber doorcase; the windows, door and doorcase on this floor are all of the late-C20. A plat band runs across the elevation at ground-floor ceiling height. The first and second floors each carry a range of four timber sash windows, those on the first floor having six-over-six glazing and those on the second floor having three-over-three glazing.
Each floor of the rear, south elevation (including the basement floor) carries four openings, most of which are timber sash windows with six-over-six or three-over-three glazing, except at basement level, where there is a late-C20, half-glazed door flanked by sash windows which are smaller than those on the upper floors.
