Summary
Former police station and petty sessions court. Built in the Venetian Gothic style in 1862 to designs by Poulton and Woodman of Reading. Reconstructed in 1983 and converted to office use, it is understood that only the west and part of the northern façades of the original building remain, alongside iron railings to the north and west boundaries.
Reasons for Designation
1 London Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a mid-C19 public building with a fine Venetian Gothic-style façade that 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 first written record of Reading dates from the ninth century when the name seems to have referred to a tribe, called Reada’s people. It is possible that there was a river port here during the Roman occupation, and by 1086 there was a thriving urban community, recorded in the Domesday Book. The early Anglo-Saxon settlement is believed to have been located in the Castle Street and St Mary’s area, which has St Mary’s Minster at its heart.
Reading Abbey was founded in 1121 on a site to the north-east of the core of the Saxon town and this transformed Reading into a place of pilgrimage as well as an important trading and ecclesiastical centre with one of the biggest and richest monasteries in England.
A new bridge over the River Kennet had been built by 1186 and London Street was laid out with plots of land as part of the Abbot of Reading Abbey’s urban planning vision. The aim was to divert trade and traffic to the new marketplace at the gates of the Abbey. The transition from the old marketplace at St Mary's Butts was at first resisted by the merchants of Reading but the move was completed by the C14. The dissolution of the Abbey led to the monastic complex becoming a royal palace and by 1611 the town’s population had grown to over 5,000 as a result of its cloth trade John Speed’s map shows that by 1611, both sides of London Street had been developed with continuous frontages for a considerable distance southward, beyond the modern junction with Crown Street-London Road, with long gardens, outhouses and fields beyond. Several buildings which predate Speed’s map survive on London Street, some concealed behind later, brick façades. Following significant upheaval during the Civil War, the town flourished during the C18 and C19, and the survival of many fine Georgian and Victorian buildings which characterise London Street testifies to the prosperity of the street during this period.
1 London Street was constructed in 1862, designed in a Venetian Gothic style by Poulton and Woodman of Reading. Originally built as the Borough Police Station and Petty Sessions Court, sometime between the 1930s and 1957, the building became a Coroner’s Court with an attached mortuary.
Photographs of the building from 1981 show it as derelict, with boarded-up windows and doors. In 1983, the building was largely reconstructed and converted to office use, with only the northern and western façades of the western range fronting onto London Street retained. The new building generally followed the footprint of the original building, with an eastern range projecting northward to the riverbank. A mansard roof was added over the retained 1860s façade. The building currently (2023) remains in use as an office.
William Ford Poulton (1820/22-1900) and William Henry Woodman (1822-1879) were Reading-based architects who worked prolifically in the town and across south-east England. In partnership, the pair specialised in public buildings and were responsible for many Nonconformist churches as well as the Grade II*-listed Wokingham Town Hall (National Heritage List for England entry 1303481).
Details
Former police station and petty sessions court. Built in the Venetian Gothic style in 1862 to designs by Poulton and Woodman of Reading. Reconstructed in 1983 and converted to office use, it is understood that only the west and part of the northern façades of the original building remain, alongside iron railings to the north and west boundaries.
MATERIALS: the western range is faced in stucco. The late-C20 eastern range is of red brick with stone or concrete dressings. Both ranges have tile-clad mansard roofs. There are iron railings (perhaps replicas of the originals) to the west and north boundaries.
PLAN: the building, mostly of the 1980s, largely follows the plan of the original building, with a long, narrow range to the west and a wider, eastern, L-shaped range built up to the banks of the River Kennet.
EXTERIOR: the retained façade of the 1860s range is of three storeys, across five bays to the north and one bay to the west. The north elevation has alternating wider and narrower bays, with the two end bays flanked by giant order, Corinthian pilasters risings through all floors, rusticated to the ground floor. Each bay is ornamented with a series of Venetian Gothic motifs, with particularly elaborate window surrounds on the first floor, comprising half-columns with floral capitals rising to cusped, two-centred arches with floral details within the tympanum. Above, the second-floor windows have Classical window architraves with moulded cills and seven modillions to each window, rising to the dentilled cornice. Each floor has a range of modern, timber sash windows. Those on the ground floor alternate between tripartite sashes with a central sash with six-over-six glazing and narrower sashes with six-over-six glazing. The tripartite windows have vermiculated rusticated, segmental arches over, while the narrower sashes are flanked by quarter columns risings to round arches, with larger, flanking, half-columns with floral capitals rising to moulded corbels supporting large cills to the first-floor windows. On the first floor, the sashes have six-over-six glazing and on the second floor, they have three-over-three glazing and are shorter. Above is a tall parapet with simple moulding and square piers defining each bay. The single-bay western elevation onto London Street mirrors those bays on the north elevation with tripartite windows on the ground floor.
Running north from the retained north façade and continuing eastward along the bank of the River Kennet are iron, spearhead railings with a pair of gates onto London Street with a quadrilobed pattern.
Behind and to the east of the retained 1860s facades is a late-C20, three-storey building with a large mansard level. The building is of red brick with stone or concrete dressings.
