Summary
A detached house, built around 1859, converted to offices.
Reasons for Designation
Rox Borough House, 101 Oxford Road, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a mid-C19 building which contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape.
Group value:
* the building is in close proximity to a large number of listed buildings and forms part of a strong historic grouping.
History
Until the C19, most of the land west of Reading town centre was open farmland crossed by two ancient routes passing through the town from London to the West Country. Today, the northern of these two roads is named Oxford Road, while the southern is named Castle Street/Castle Hill/Bath Road. Inns and some isolated dwellings probably existed on these roads before the C18. Fortifications were built throughout the area by Royalist forces garrisoned in the town during the Civil War with some of the earthworks surviving into the early C19.
From the early C18, development slowly began to spread westward along Castle Hill/Bath Road and Oxford Road. John Rocque’s Map of Berkshire (1761) depicts ribbon development along Castle Hill/Bath Road extending as far as the junction with Tilehurst Road, and individual houses within grounds along Oxford Road about as far as the present-day location of Russell Street. More comprehensive development of the area began in the early C19 and progressed gradually over the 100 years. Development spread further along Castle Street/Castle Hill, with some of the earlier buildings depicted on Rocque’s map seemingly replaced. North-south link roads also were laid out across the market gardens that previously existed between Oxford Road and Bath Road. Terraced housing was erected in considerable quantities during the first half of the century to cater for a variety of social groups.
101 Oxford Road was constructed in approximately 1859 during the westward expansion of Reading’s inner suburbs along Oxford Road. By the 1860s the building had been named Zinzan House, after the former owner of the market gardens in the area, Mrs Zinzan. The building’s name changed to Roxburgh House in the 1890s. The name appears to have fallen out of use by the late C20.
The building appears to have experienced very little external alteration since it was built. An iron veranda appears to have been installed across the rear elevation of the house by 1879 although it is unclear whether the extant veranda is historic. The original front boundary treatment has been lost and replaced with modern iron railings, and the front garden is paved. The eastern boundary wall onto Howard Street appears to have been partially rebuilt in approximately 2009.
Details
A detached house, built around 1859, converted to offices.
MATERIALS AND PLAN: the building is of dark red brick with stone and stucco dressings. There is an iron or steel veranda to the rear and iron railings around the basement windows. The roof covering is slate with timber eaves blocks and soffit. The building is of two storeys plus basement.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces north and is symmetrical, with a centrally-placed doorway on the raised ground floor flanked by two six-over-six sash windows within moulded architraves and three six-over-six sash windows on the first floor under gauged-brickwork flat arches. The two basement windows, partially visible from the street, are enclosed by iron railings with honeysuckle ornament. A flight of four stone steps leads to the main doorway which comprises a four-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight above, set within a moulded door surround with a bracketed hood. There is a stucco plat band across the elevation at first-floor cill level. There are stone kneelers (moulded brackets) to either gable end wall and timber battens along the soffit of the pitched roof. The two chimney stacks are positioned on the gable end walls.
The brickwork of the east, south and west elevations is in Flemish garden wall bond. The east elevation onto Howard Street is blank, aside from a single round-headed sash window placed centrally at second-floor level. The southern elevation contains two six-over-six sash windows on the ground floor and two six-over-six and one two-over-two sash windows at first-floor level. There is a plain iron or steel veranda across the length of the rear elevation.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: C19 brick walls in Flemish garden wall bond run along the east and west boundaries of the front garden. A taller brick wall, recently rebuilt but possibly reusing historic bricks runs along the eastern boundary of the rear garden.
