Summary
Pair of houses constructed in the late C18, altered in the C19.
Reasons for Designation
110 and 114 London Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a pair of late-C18 townhouses which contribute 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.
110 and 114 London Street were built in the late C18, most likely as a pair of houses. The Reading Board of Health Map (1853) shows both properties were, then as now, separated by a covered passage at ground-floor level which led to the separate structure of 112 London Street to the rear.
Shops were installed on the ground floor of both properties by the mid-C19, at which time number 114 operated as a butcher’s shop. Part of the cellar, the ground floor, and upper floors of number 114 were converted to office use as a recruitment agency in the late C20 or early C21 and is currently (2022) vacant. Number 110 now functions as a private property.
Details
Pair of houses constructed in the late C18, altered in the C19.
MATERIALS: brick with white-painted stucco east elevation, timber shopfronts and iron balcony. The roof is covered with clay tiles.
PLAN: single, rectangular plan, three-storey plus basement range divided on the ground floor by a passage giving access to 112 London Street to the rear. Number 110 occupies the two northern bays of the building, while number 114 occupies the three southern bays.
EXTERIOR: the east elevation has two timber shopfronts. The shopfront of number 114, contains an original doorcase to the north of a full-height glazed shop window, probably inserted during the later C20. On each side of the shopfront are slender reeded wooden Corinthian engaged columns. Number 110 has a C21 replacement shopfront with raised and fielded timber panelling in an imitation historic style. Separating the shopfronts of the two properties is a covered passage extending east-west, with a rectangular overlight with circular ornament and a wrought iron gateway.
The first and second floors both contain five bays of timber sash windows. On the first floor, these are six-over-nine glazed, full-height windows while on the second floor, they have three-over-six glazing. The first floor carries an iron fretwork balcony across the whole width of the elevation.
There is a wooden dentil eaves cornice to the building’s H-shaped roof, which is composed of three pitched roofs, two extending north-south over the east and western halves of the building, and an east-west gable roof joining them at the centre.
Two chimney stacks are located over the party wall between 114 London Street and 116-128 London Street to the south.
INTERIOR: the ground floor and a large section of the basement of number 114 were altered in the C21 to suit the function as office and storage spaces. However, there is an unaltered vaulted section of the cellar.
