Summary
A two-storey, Georgian-style town house built around 1700 with late C19 alterations. It had various commercial uses in the C20 before becoming part of Rochester Independent College by the 1990s.
Reasons for Designation
252 St Margaret’s Banks, constructed around 1700 with later alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a good example of a detached, early C18 town house which survives well externally, using good quality materials and craftsmanship;
* for the good level of surviving interior decorative features, with historic fireplaces, joinery, mouldings and panelling present in the principal rooms;
* for the legibility of the historic plan form, which is still recognisably that of a detached town house of the period.
Historic interest:
* as an early C18 building that survives relatively well and reflects the ongoing suburban expansion between Rochester and Chatham following the establishment of the latter’s naval dockyard in the late C16.
Group value:
* with Grade II listed 254 St Margaret's Banks, which now also forms part of Rochester Independent College, and with Grade II listed 246 and 250 St Margaret's Banks.
History
The Medway area was traversed by an ancient routeway running between London and Canterbury and onward to Dover, of Roman or earlier origin. This route evolved into a continuous High Street running from Strood to Chatham that provided the focus of linear development along the area of sloping land extending down to the River Medway. St Margaret’s Banks originated as part of Rochester’s westward suburban expansion along the higher ground above the marshy riverside from the C17 onwards. From the east there was further development along the High Street as the modest settlement of Chatham underwent significant expansion following the establishment of the naval dockyard in the late C16. This area between Rochester and Chatham is sometimes known as Chatham Intra, but St Margaret’s Banks was always administratively part of the City of Rochester.
From the C18 the area began to develop an increasingly commercial and industrial character, including ship-building, brewing and the movement of goods, notably coal and timber. This encouraged the building of wharves and piers and a process of encroachment into the river Medway that reached a peak in the early C20. The riverside development was connected to the increasingly built-up frontage of the High Street by narrow lanes lined with cottages and small houses. Expansion uphill on the south side of the street was encouraged by the opening of New Road in early 1770s. Further impetus came from the railways, which arrived at Strood in 1845 and crossed the Medway in 1853, requiring the construction of a viaduct across Chatham Intra that enabled exploitation of the remaining marshland. Commercial development along the High Street was given a boost by the rebuilding necessitated by two major fires in 1800 and 1820. Subsequently pursued by landowners seeking to build more densely but also to enable road widening along what had become a congested thoroughfare.
252 High Street, Rochester appears to date from the early C18, with C19 alterations. Before 1896, it was known as 7 St Margaret’s Bank. The long rear garden originally extended to a block of land containing the Star Hill Windmill, which was demolished in the 1890s with only the base wall surviving. Number 252 was probably the leasehold ‘mansion house’ occupied in the C18 by Thomas Tomlyn, a prominent local attorney, until his death in 1797. A plaque survives in the east wall of the rear garden that reads: ‘Erected by T TOMLYN 1790’. The house, garden and a piece of freehold land to the south, fronting New Road, on which Tomlyn had built a summer house (possibly the origin of New Road House, listed at Grade II as The Good Companions Club, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1115706), were put up for sale in 1797. The St Margaret’s Tithe Map indicates that the building had a front terrace by 1844.
Number 252 was sold again in 1900 and passed into commercial use with frequent changes of occupant. From 1907 it was used by a dentist, O J Roots; between 1929 and 1939 it was part of the Alexandra Hotel with number 254; between 1948 and 1959 it contained the Junior Fleet Club; and between 1963 and 1974 it was occupied by Thomas Watson, ship brokers, and D J Bradley and P G Bradley, respectively vice consuls for Sweden and Finland.
By the 1990s, numbers 252 and neighbouring 254 were taken over by the present occupant, Rochester Independent College (established 1984 at 25 Star Hill), initially for offices and residential accommodation. In 2004 permission was granted for alterations to facilitate teaching and residential accommodation. The scheme by Affinis Design of Faversham involved demolition of a store building to the rear of number 252 and the creation of an opening in the boundary wall between the two buildings.
Details
A two-storey, Georgian-style town house built around 1700 with late C19 alterations, now part of Rochester Independent College.
MATERIALS: the building has external walls of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with stock brick to one of the rear ranges. The roofs are covered with Kent peg tiles and have stone copings. The window frames and eaves cornice are of timber.
PLAN: the building has two gabled ranges parallel to the street providing a roughly rectangular, double-depth plan, with canted bays flanking a projecting canopy to the ground floor of the front elevation. Each floor has rooms occupying the four quadrants of the floor plan arranged around a central staircase hall.
EXTERIOR: the building has two storeys with an attic and external walls constructed from red brick laid in Flemish bond with burned headers. The principal (north) elevation is five bays wide. The ground floor has a central, projecting canopy carried on Tuscan Doric columns and flanked by canted bays with plate-glass, horned sash windows under a moulded cornice and entablature. The first floor has five windows with flat-arch brick heads, each with flush, moulded architraves framing six-over-six hornless sashes. Above these is a timber modillion eaves cornice. The tiled roof has five raking dormers with three-over-three horned sash windows. The side (west) elevation is blind with an end stack, and the gable end is rendered with a stone coping. This elevation also has a small lean-to extension with a mono-pitched roof, which covers a side entrance leading to the rear of the property. To the east the building shares a party wall with number 254 St Margaret’s Banks.
The rear (south) elevation comprises two elements: a principal, gabled range positioned parallel to the front range, but slightly shorter, and a small, two-storey side extension to the south-west corner of the building. The gabled range has external walls largely of stock brick laid in Flemish bond, except for a small area of red brick to the ground-floor wall connecting to the neighbouring building. The small extension is also of red brick and has its own hipped roof. Fenestration to this elevation comprises sash windows of various shapes and sizes in segmental or cambered brick arches.
INTERIOR: most of the rooms are used as residential accommodation for students at the College. The two principal ground-floor rooms have moulded window architraves, simple cornicing, dado and picture rails. The north-east room has a stone fireplace featuring a Tudor arch with floral carvings to the spandrels. The principal first-floor rooms retain more panelling and mouldings; that to the north-west room has more elaborate bolection-moulded panelling to the walls. The north-east room has a Baroque style fireplace, probably from the C19. There used to be another doorway in the south wall of this room providing access to the lateral corridor, but this has now been blocked up with panelling. The south dormitory retains a built-in cupboard, and a window with a moulded architrave and panelled shutters.
On the attic level there are embedded ceiling beams and rafters visible in a few places. The dogleg staircase rises from ground floor to attic and has panelling to the walls. The balustrade has been boxed in but some original joinery is visible, namely the moulded handrails and simple newel posts with run-out chamfer stops and rounded caps.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a brick wall runs approximately north-south along the length of the rear garden, delineating the boundary between 252 and 254. The east side of this wall contains a stone plaque which reads: ‘Erected by T. TOMLYN 1790’.
