The Allied Arms Inn, 57 St Mary’s Butts

Summary

Public house of probable C16 or C17 origin, re-fronted and extended in the C19/C20.

Reasons for Designation

The Allied Arms, a public house of probable C16 or C17 origin, re-fronted and extended in the C19/C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

*     as a C16 or C17 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/Bridge Street and the east-west route of Gun Street/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 north-east 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.

St Mary's Butts is adjacent to the ancient route through the town between London and the West Country. The name derives from the presence, during the medieval period, of archery butts to satisfy the requirement at the time for all men to practice archery. John Speed’s map of 1611 labels the route as ‘Old Street’, an early acknowledgement of the antiquity of the street. Speed’s map, and Coates’ map of 1802, show buildings which were demolished in the late C19, leaving a much more open relationship between the wide thoroughfare of St Mary’s Butts and the churchyard of St Mary’s.

The Allied Arms was probably constructed during the C16 or C17 and an archaeological investigation of 2011 uncovered evidence of a nunnery and well in the area between the pub and the Church of St Mary. The inn gained its current name in the run-up to the Crimean War (1853-1856) when the bar window was painted with the flags of the United Kingdom, France and Turkey, who were allies in the conflict.

Sometime during the early C19, a brick and stucco front range was added to the original, timber-framed inn. The 1879 Ordnance Survey map shows that a court existed to the rear of the inn, known as Barley Court, which contained a building titled ‘Allied Arms Brewery’. On the north side of the court was a long, narrow building subdivided into several units, possibly stables serving the inn. Additions were made to the rear outbuildings around 1920.

The ground floor of the front range was rebuilt in the early to mid-C20 and a single-storey, brick extension was added to the rear of the inn around 2010.

Details

Public house of probable C16 or C17 origin, re-fronted and extended in the C19/C20.

MATERIALS: façade of brick and stucco walls, timber frame to the interior, under tile and slate roofs.

PLAN: the building occupies a long, rectangular plan extending eastward from the street entrance on St Mary’s Butts.

EXTERIOR: the front elevation is two-storey and of two bays. It has a red brick ground floor laid in Flemish bond and stucco render to the first floor. To the centre, there is a five-light, mullion window with leaded casements. To the right side and adjoining the window frame, there is a timber plank and batten door with central light. Above the ground floor, there is a C20 painted timber fascia board. On the first floor, there are a pair of timber sash windows with eight-over-eight glazing, set within stuccoed architraves. Above, there is a moulded stucco cornice, beneath a half-hipped, clay tile roof.

To the right side, there is a carriageway paved with granite setts, which is fronted by a pair of timber doors with decorative ironwork to the upper section. The lean-to roof above is fronted with fish-scale tiles. The south elevation faces onto the carriageway. It is jettied including a timber bracket and has two, first-floor sash windows. The ground floor is of brick and has multi-pane windows.

At the rear, there is an extension which is rendered and has a slate roof. Adjoining to the east side there is a single-storey, flat-roofed building, apparently constructed in the late C20, but which may incorporate fabric from an earlier building on the site.

INTERIOR: there are two principal bar rooms which have solid box framing, with chamfered cross beam, one mid-rail and exposed joists. There is thought to be close studding to a partition on the first floor and one of the roof ties is bracketed.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

39155

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), 438-440
Dearing, John, Cliffe, David, Williams, Evelyn, Abbot Cook to Zero Degrees, an A-Z of Reading's Pubs and Breweries, (2021), .
Newspaper article in Reading Mercury, (31 October 1857), 5

Websites
Reading Borough Council, History of Reading (2012), accessed 10 September 2023 from https://web.archive.org/web/20120425235452/http:/www.reading.gov.uk/
Ditchfield, PH, Page, W, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), accessed 10 September 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry