Summary
Terrace of 11 houses built during the 1820s, converted to various uses during the C20 including shops and offices, now flats.
Reasons for Designation
149-169 Oxford Road 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.
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.
149-169 Oxford Road is a terrace of 11 houses built in the 1820s, during the westward expansion of Reading’s inner suburbs along Oxford Road and Castle Hill. Nine of the houses are of matching design, being of two storeys plus basement across two bays, while 163 and 165 are symmetrically planned, taller, wider and more elaborately detailed than the other buildings. The group may have been built in a single phase of work. It was not uncommon for a builder-developer to produce a terrace with buildings of varying sizes and designs, to cater to a wider variety of prospective buyers, and to complement wider elements of the townscape – it is notable that the larger, symmetrical pair of houses terminates the view down Bedford Road. The terrace originally continued eastward as far as the junction with Russell Street, but the three easternmost buildings were demolished in the 1920s or early 1930s and a cinema was built in their place by the theatre chain, Gaumont.
Along with 171-177 Oxford Road to the west (Grade II-listed, NHLE entry 1156337), the terrace was originally named Sydney Terrace. It was erected prior to 1830, at which date a newspaper article advertised the sale of one of the buildings subsequently demolished to allow for the construction of the cinema. The terrace appears to have remained in residential use until the mid-C20, but thereafter, the history of each building has been greatly varied, mainly converted to flats or offices with shopfronts at ground floor level.
Every building other than 163 has been extended to the rear. Historic mapping shows that some of the buildings had been extended during the late C19 and early C20, but generally in a modest fashion. Some of these earlier extensions have since been demolished or replaced with later extensions. During the second half of the C20, the number and scale of extensions increased considerably, with two- to three-storey extensions being added to six of the buildings since the late 1940s, and three other buildings receiving sizeable single-storey extensions. Dormer windows have also been added to the rear roof pitch of seven of the buildings.
As built, the buildings had large rear gardens running back to what was then Junction Road but renamed Goldsmid Road between 1898 and 1909. Historic mapping shows that the buildings’ frontages onto Junction/Goldsmid Road were gradually developed with outbuildings, some of quite a substantial size. Other outbuildings were built within the rear gardens closer to the terraced houses themselves. A detached house was built fronting Goldsmid Street at the end of the gardens of 167 and 169 during the 1920s. Several low-rise apartment blocks were built in phases between the early 1990s and mid-2000s, at the ends of the gardens of 149-65, fronting Goldsmid Street. Almost all of the rear gardens of 149-165 have been converted into car parks serving the historic terrace, the apartment blocks, or both.
Details
Terrace of 11 houses, built during the 1820s, converted to various uses during the C20 including shops and offices, now flats.
MATERIALS AND PLANS: the terrace is of red brick in Flemish bond with stucco dressings, a slate roof covering and iron railings. Two and three storeys plus basements.
EXTERIORS: the terrace consists of three distinct groups representing three different build phases. The easternmost group (149-161) is a terrace of seven houses of two storeys plus basements, under a pitched roof. The central group (163 and 165) is a symmetrical pair of houses of three storeys plus basements under a hipped roof. The westernmost group (167 and 169) is a pair of houses of two storeys plus basement under a pitched roof.
149-161 Oxford Road: the eastern group (149-161) are of a standard design although some have been altered through later interventions, most notably 155 and 157, where shopfronts have been installed at street level, infilling the basement area and merging the basement and raised ground floor. Each building is two bays wide with a cornice parapet unifying the group, and two courses of grey-blue bricks in header bond immediately above the flat arches of the basement windows running across the terrace, broken by the shopfronts at 155 and 157. Aside from 155 and 157, each house has a raised ground floor with steep steps with matching iron handrails leading to a front door within a round-arched recess in the eastern bay, and a window under a gauged brickwork flat arch in the western bay. All front doors are recent replacements apart from at 153 and 157, which have six-panelled doors. 151 and 159 have batwing fanlights, 153 has a spiderweb fanlight, and 159 has a plain fanlight with mid-C20 glazing. The window in the western bay of 149-153 is a six-over-six sash, while 159 has an eight-over-eight sash and 161 has a uPVC casement. The window and door openings at 149 have, uniquely, moulded stucco surrounds. On the first floor of each house, including at 155 and 157, there are two windows under gauged brickwork flat arches. They are glazing bar sash windows at 149-159 and uPVC casements at 161. At basement level, there is a single window in the western bay looking into a front area. All are uPVC casements apart from at 153 and 159, where they are renewed sashes. 149, 153 and 159 also have doors into the basement area.
The rear elevations of 149-161 have been variously altered and/or extended, but some retain sash windows, including round-arched sashes on the eastern bay of the first floor at 153 and 155, and partially blocked at 161. The rear basement area of all buildings has been either partially or completely infilled. At 149 there is a one-to-two-storey extension, of brickwork with flat roofs, along its eastern boundary, and a large dormer window on the western half of the rear pitch of the roof. At 151 there is a similar one-to-two-storey extension along the eastern boundary, as well as a long, single-storey extension along its western boundary. There is also a dormer window on the western half of the rear roof pitch. At 153, there is a single-storey, flat-roofed extension in brick along its eastern boundary. 155 has a large, single-storey, flat-roof extension along its eastern boundary, and a dormer window on the western half of the rear roof pitch, while 157 has a full-height (three-storey) extension with a hipped roof along its eastern boundary and a large dormer window on the western half of the rear roof pitch. Much of the rear garden of 159 has been developed, with a flat-roofed and rendered, two-storey extension along the eastern boundary connecting the main house with a two-storey, full-width extension with separate access from the rear of the building. At 161, there is a two-storey extension along the western boundary in brick, and a dormer window on the western half of the rear roof pitch.
163 and 165 Oxford Road: 163 and 165 are a symmetrical pair of townhouses, much larger and of finer detailing than the adjoining buildings either side. The pair are of three storeys across two bays under a hipped roof, with recessed, two-storey, single-bay wings to either side. There are two party-wall chimney stacks on the north and south slopes of the roof. There is a stucco plat band running at first-floor cill height across the entire façade, and a stucco string course running between each of the round arches on the raised ground floor. On the three-storey element of each building, there are two windows on the raised ground floor, first floor and second floors, and a doorway and single window into a generous basement area with the doors in an unusual, central location on the front elevation. On the raised ground floor, the windows are round-arched sashes, on the second floor are six-over-six sashes and on the second floor, 163 has three-over-six sashes and 165 has casements, possibly steel-framed. All windows at basement, first and second floor-level are under gauged brickwork flat arches. There is a large shop sign obscuring the arched heads of the ground-floor windows of 165.
The main entrances are located within the two-storey wings, and comprise a six-panelled door – partially glazed at 163 – under ornate batwing fanlights, set within round-arched recesses and accessed via a flight of stone steps with iron handrails. Above the doorways are a single, six-over-six sash window at first-floor level. The roofs of the wings are concealed behind stucco cornice parapets.
All of the windows on the rear elevation appear to have been replaced with uPVC units. The rear basement areas appear to have been partially covered over. There is a single-storey extension along the western boundary of 165. The combined rear garden of the two buildings is in use as a car park.
167 and 169 Oxford Road: the design of 167 and 169 is similar to that of 149-161, although 167 and 169 are wider than the more easterly buildings. The pair are of two storeys plus basement across two bays each under a pitched roof, with a cornice parapet unifying the elevation. The main entrance of each building is in the eastern bay of the raised ground floor, and comprises a six-panelled door under a batwing fanlight, set within a round-arched recess and accessed via a flight of stone steps with iron handrails. In the western bay of the ground floor is a single, six-over-six sash window. On the first floor of each building are two, six-over-six sash windows. The basement of 169 contains a single casement window while the basement of 167 has been converted into a shopfront with a fascia board and awning partially concealing the raised ground floor. All of the windows have gauged-brickwork, flat-arch heads. At 169, there are two courses of grey-blue bricks laid in header bond immediately above the head of the basement window, matching that at 149-161. There are tall, ridge chimney stacks of C20 brickwork in stretcher bond on the western party wall of each building. Both buildings have been extended to the rear along their eastern boundary, with that at 167 being of one to two storeys above ground level, flat-roofed and rendered or painted, and that at 169 being of one storey above ground level, in brick with a pitched roof. Each building has a single, late C20, dormer window on the western half of the rear roof pitch.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: 149-153 have late C20 or C21, low, front boundary walls of red brickwork in stretcher bond. At 159 and 161, the front boundaries are low brick walls and piers mounted with railings.
163-165 has a low wall with iron railings to the front boundary.
