8 Gun Street

Summary

House, constructed in around the late C18, converted to commercial use at ground-floor level by the 1840s.

Reasons for Designation

8 Gun Street, Reading is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a late-C18 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 northeast 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 east from the crossroads, Gun 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. Historically the western section of Minster Street, the street is first labelled under its current name on Charles Coates’ map of 1802. The name derives from the gunsmiths who are known to have been operating in Reading from at least the early-seventeenth century. John Speed’s Map of Redding (1611) depicts both sides of the road as densely developed. In around 1816 the buildings on the north side were demolished and the churchyard of St Mary’s enclosed with a boundary wall.

Most earlier buildings were gradually replaced during the C18 and C19 with townhouses constructed of silver-grey and red brick, following the local vernacular. Most buildings were originally constructed as houses but were converted to commercial use at ground-floor level during the C19 and C20.

8 Gun Street is a small terraced building, formerly a house, constructed during the C18, probably in the late C18 on the site of an earlier building. The ground floor appears to have been converted to commercial use by 1843, at which time the building was the premises of a drapers and tailors.

Details

House, constructed in the C18, converted to commercial use at ground-floor level by the 1840s.

MATERIALS: the principal, north elevation is faced in silver grey-brick laid in header bond with red-brick dressings, while the rear elevation is of red brick in Flemish bond. The roof covering is slate, and there is a modern, timber and glass shopfront to the north elevation.

PLAN: the building is laid out on a rectangular plan running south from Gun Street.

EXTERIOR: the building is three storeys in height and one bay wide under a pitched roof. On the ground floor of the principal, north elevation is a modern, timber shopfront with a large, plate glass window and a glazed door to the west. Above, the first and second floors each have a single, timber sash window with sash boxes set flush with the brickwork. The first-floor window has eight-over-eight glazing and a segmental-arched window head while the second-floor window has four-over-eight glazing and a flat-arched window head. The sashes appear to have been replaced in the C19, retaining the earlier sash boxes. There is a renewed, three-course cornice in corbelled brickwork at the height of the second-floor window head. Between the two windows is a raised, brick string course, three bricks in depth, extending across most of the frontage. There are two, brick chimney stacks on the eastern party wall, one rising through the northern roof slope and the other on the roof ridge. The rear elevation is partially concealed by an extension to 7 Gun Street (listed Grade II, National Heritage List for England entry 1321917), to the west. On the visible part of the elevation, there are timber sash windows on the first and second floors which match those on the north elevation of the building, with a corresponding brick string between the two floors. There is a late-C20 or C21 dormer on the southern roof slope.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

38965

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), 438-440

Websites
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/
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

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