13 and 14 Bruce Grove

Summary

Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations. Converted to flats in the early-C21.

Reasons for Designation

13 and 14 Bruce Grove, a pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later additions and rebuilding, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a pair of houses of some grandeur dating from between 1789 and 1798, presenting an elegant symmetrical Classical frontage;
* the principal elevation survives substantially intact, with a shared eaves cornice and string course, and original window openings holding sash frames, the ground-floor windows in recessed arches.

Historic interest:

* the houses belong to a wider sequence of similar date on Bruce Grove, comprising one of the earliest groups, and the most prestigious, developed around the High Road at about this time.

Group value:

* with 5 to 12 and 15 to 16 Bruce Grove, which are contemporary with numbers 13 and 14, and also with numbers 1 to 4 Bruce Grove, which date from about 1820; all these houses are listed at Grade II.

History

Tottenham High Road, known historically as Tottenham Street, is part of what was once Ermine Street, the Roman Road leading from London to Lincoln and York. A settlement is recorded at Tottenham in the Domesday Survey of 1086, and a manor house existed by 1254, on or near the site of Bruce Castle (the name, bestowed in the 1680s, derives from medieval ownership of the manor by Robert the Bruce). The linear settlement grew along the High Road, with what was effectively the village centre being marked by the Green and High Cross, which commemorates the medieval wayside cross which once stood there. By the C16, Tottenham was a favoured rural retreat for city merchants, with a number of mansions along the High Road; subsequent development reflects the area’s status as a place of residence for wealthy Londoners, whilst a number of schools, as well as charitable and religious foundations were established there. Thomas Clay’s 1619 map of Tottenham depicts the High Road with intermittent buildings along its frontage, and others set back within enclosed grounds. Daniel Defoe observed in the 1720s that the building along the road from the city, passing through Newington, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield had increased so much recently as to give the appearance of ‘one continu’d street’, especially Tottenham and Edmonton; Defoe remarks on the houses of the wealthy merchants, some retaining houses in the city: ‘many of these are immensely rich’ (A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-1727). However, as in most villages, Tottenham’s inhabitants were socially mixed: Peter Guillery has noted that ‘the face of Tottenham High Road was hugely varied; few of the many timber-built small-scale buildings survive’ (The Small House in Eighteenth Century London, 2004). Wyburd’s parish map, surveyed in 1798, shows much of the High Road north of High Cross bordered by buildings, many within spacious grounds.

In the late C18 and early C19, new villas and terraces began to spread outwards along existing and new sideroads running from the High Road. Of these, one of the earliest and much the most prestigious is Bruce Grove, running north-west from the High Road to Bruce Castle, following the line of one of the avenues of Bruce Castle Park. The development of Bruce Grove was made possible by the break-up of the Bruce manorial lands in 1789. Building commenced on the south-west side near the junction with the High Road with a group of villas (now numbers 5-16) completed by 1798. These houses, mostly semi-detached pairs, were soon associated with a number of wealthy Quaker families. In about 1820, a short terrace (now numbers 1-4) was built. The opposite side of Bruce Grove, and the stretch to the north-west, was still undeveloped in 1894.

Substantial houses of the sort built at the end of the C18 in Bruce Grove were for those who owned carriages, but with the advent of daily coach services from London in 1823, of omnibuses in 1839, and the arrival of the Northern and Eastern Railway to the east at Tottenham Hale in 1840, Tottenham became accessible to less affluent middle-class people, and the Tithe map of 1844 shows increasing development of smaller houses along the High Road. The opening of the Liverpool Street-Edmonton branch of the Great Eastern Railway in 1872, with a station at the junction of Bruce Grove and the High Road, brought about a development boom, providing more modest housing. Industries established locally during the C19 included a lace factory in 1810, a silk factory in 1815 (this became a rubber mill in 1837) and brewing from the mid-C19. The abundance of brick-earth in Tottenham meant that brick- and tile-making was a strong local industry from the middle ages to the C19, whilst many farms and market gardens along the banks of the River Lea supplied the London market with fruit and vegetables.

13 and 14 Bruce Grove form an attached pair, originally built with carriage-houses/stabling. The stabling to number 13 was demolished around 1900 when Woodside Gardens was created. Number 13 was converted into a hostel for the homeless in 1988 and in 2008 was converted to flats. In the early years of the C20, number 14 was in use as the Union Club and a long narrow extension was added to the rear. By 2009 this building had also been converted to flats, a mansard roof added to the wing and the rear extension demolished.

Details

Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations. Converted to flats in the early-C21.

MATERIALS: stock brick laid in Flemish bond with slate-covered roofs and stuccoed sub-basements and south elevation to number 13. Window openings hold sash frames, some possibly original. The main block has a slate-covered, rectangular-plan hipped roof to front and back with central chimney stacks. The side wing to number 13 has a slate-covered hipped roof to the front and a pitched roof to the rear. That to number 14 has an early-C21 dormered mansard roof.

PLAN: the attached houses, with a central block and slightly set-back lower wings, face east to Bruce Grove, with number 13 to the south and number 14 to the north adjoined by number 15a. Each originally had an outer range, believed to have served as a carriage-house and stable. The Tithe map suggests that these were originally slightly detached. That to number 13 was demolished around 1900 and the equivalent area to number 14 has been subject to change and rebuilding with a narrow passageway between numbers 14 and 15 filled in the late C20 by a narrow addition. The central block is of three storeys plus sub-basement with two bays to each house. The side ranges are of two storeys plus sub-basement, that to number 13 a single bay and that to number 14 having an additional bay.

EXTERIOR: the front elevation presents a symmetrical frontage to the principal range with both houses being two window bays wide. Both houses have the entrance, reached by a flight of stone steps with metal railings, set in the side ranges abutting the main range. The entrance to number 13 has a six-panel door while that to number 14 has two glazed panels. Both are in square openings with fanlights. Both entrances have classical porches with fielded side panels and the hoods supported on columns with Ionic capitals.

A stuccoed eaves cornice supported by paired blocks beneath a blocking course runs along the top of the frontage of the main block and a stone stringcourse separates the ground and first floors. The ground floor windows are six-over-six timber sashes in square-headed openings with gauged brick heads set in round-arched recesses. The upper storey windows are square with gauged brick heads, those on the first floor having six-over-six timber sashes and three-over-three sashes on the second floor. The side ranges have square-headed windows to the ground floor, and a single Palladian window to the first floor, that to number 14 having a cast-iron balcony; in the side range to number 14, the ground-floor windows are set within round-headed recesses like those on the main block. The additional unit to the north has a single square-headed window to the first floor.

The rear elevation to the main block has a full-height bow window extending into the sub-basement to number 13 with sash windows and number 14 has sash windows in square-headed openings to each to each bay of its four storeys. Number 14 has a large canted bay spanning both parts of the range, thought to be early-C20.

The stuccoed side (south) elevation of number 13, onto Woodside Gardens, is largely blind with a narrow four-over-four sash window to the upper storey with two small modern windows below.

INTERIOR: both have been subdivided into flats.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

201323

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex: Volume V, (1976), 313-317
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London North, (1998), 588

Websites
London Picture Archive - Photographs of 13 Bruce Grove in 1970, accessed 21 November 2023 from https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/quick-search?q=13%20bruce%20grove&WINID=1700749582746

Other
LB Haringey - Bruce Grove Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan

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