Summary
C16 double-gabled house with C18 alterations and later extensions.
Reasons for Designation
15 Castle Street, Reading, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a prominent, high-status urban vernacular building of the C16 and later, with finely proportioned double jetties and distinctive gables;
* the interior retains a significant proportion of good quality early timber framing, particularly evident on all floors of the front range, and C18 fixtures in the ground-floor room.
Historic interest:
* the long history and form of the building demonstrate the commercial and domestic occupation of English historic towns from the C16 onward which, amplified by its documented history, adds to the building’s more than special national interest.
Group value:
* the building has a historical relationship with a number of listed buildings in close proximity, notably the neighbouring 17 and 19 Castle Street, both listed at Grade II*.
History
The first written record of Reading dates from the 9th century when the name seems to have referred to a tribe, called Reada’s people. It is possible that there was a river port here during the Roman occupation, and by 1086 there was a thriving urban community, recorded in the Domesday Book. The early Anglo-Saxon settlement is believed to have been located in the Castle Street and St Mary’s area, which has St Mary’s Minster at its heart. A church was established here probably in the late 6th or early 7th centuries, north of the Holy Brook, important crossings over the River Kennet and the strategic crossroad of important routes from east to west and north to south. The term ‘minster’ was in use by the C10 denoting a church of importance by the time of Domesday.
Reading Abbey was founded in 1121, transforming Reading into a place of pilgrimage as well as an important trading and ecclesiastical centre with one of the biggest and richest monasteries in England. The foundation of the abbey had a direct impact on the St Mary’s area, relocating the focus of economic activity away from the early settlement to a new position east of the town’s historic core probably by the 1400s. The area to the west of St Mary’s was known as ‘olde street’ by about 1160. The strategic position of the crossroads remained, however, with the roads leading south to Southampton, east to London, west to Bath and north to the Thames crossing at Caversham. The Historic Environment Record for Berkshire (record number MRD 3925) states that Castle Street is documented from the mid-C13 and may commemorate a castle that overlooked the earlier settlement although archaeological evidence for a castle has yet to be found.
15 Castle Street is believed to date from the C16. During this period, the town’s population was rapidly growing as a result of its cloth trade; by 1611 the population had grown to over 5,000 as attested by John Speed’s map published in 1611 which depicts buildings in this location. The presence of two jetties on a three-storey building in a narrow, deep plot infers that in the C16 there was already some pressure on the amount of building land available for the expanding town.
Along with number 17, 15 Castle Street was built as a high-status residence from its architectural quality and prominent position in the town. It is similar in external form to its neighbour, both being described by Pevsner, Bradley and Tyack (2010, p470-471) as ‘fine three-storey, double-gabled C16 houses’. The high status of the occupants is also demonstrated by historic documents. In a lease dated 1527, number 15 was described as a tenement with garden, occupied by William Style, a burgess of the borough.
The building appears to have comprised a front range with a rear wing in a ‘T’ plan. The main entrance at the west side of the principal front is likely to be in the original position, although elements of the door case and the door itself are of later date, and probably led to a passageway from which stairs rose to the upper floors. The location of a chimney (partly rebuilt) at the east side of the building indicates that at least one room on each floor was heated. A C18 building campaign is attested by the fenestration and external ground floor shutters to the front and the mid- to late-C18 bolection fireplace and some wall panelling in the ground floor room.
In the early C19, the building was the office of Mr J Omer Cooper, auctioneer and estate agent, and the premises of Miss Higham’s ladies’ seminary. The Goad map of 1895 denotes the building as a dwelling, of brick with a tiled roof and in the later C19, John Cecil Blandy, a brewer and wine merchant resided there for a time. The Blandy family joined the brewery to the rear of 17 Castle Street in about the 1850s, which became known as Blandy, Hawkins and Co Castle Brewery, on a site eventually subsumed into the enlarged H&G Simonds brewery. Access to the brewery complex was through the vehicular entrance between 15 and 17 Castle Street, as indicated on the historic Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps since the late C19. During the C20, the building was in use as a dentist’s surgery and offices for a law firm.
Historic photos from about 1840-1849 indicate that the earliest front range is little changed externally. Internally, the stairs were repositioned parallel to the rear of the main range in the C19 and have been partly truncated since. Numerous modern partitions have been inserted to create kitchens and other facilities. The rear wing has been remodelled, including part of the roof being replaced probably in the C19. A two-storey extension to the rear wing was added in 1982 when the building was refurbished and some of the wall panelling in the front range ground floor was replaced.
In February 2024 permission was sought to repair the original floorboards in the ground-floor front room, removing the kitchenette and installing a wall with a door.
Details
House of the C16 with later alterations and rear extension* of 1982 when the building was refurbished, mostly in office use since the C20.
MATERIALS: the front and west elevation are of over-painted brick at the ground floor and rendered above. The 1982 rear extension is of part-rendered brick. The roofs are tiled.
PLAN: the earliest phase comprised a jettied front range with two rooms to each floor and a rear wing in a ‘T’ plan. The current C18 entrance at the west end of the frontage is probably the location of the original entrance and led to an entrance passage. Currently, the ground-floor room is a single space, but the two-room plan remains on the upper floors. The stairs are arranged parallel to the rear of the front range, from which modern stairs lead down to the rear wing (known as the conference room in 2023). Beyond is the double-piled rear extension* of 1982.
EXTERIOR: the front range is of two bays over three storeys with an attic and a part-cellar. The rear wing is a single bay wide and is of two storeys. The gable roofs are tile-covered; a partly rebuilt ridge stack is apparent at the east gable end of the front range.
The principal front of the C16 range is double-gabled with moulded timber jetties to the oversailing first and second floors. The ground floor has C18 panelled shutters to the rectangular sash windows, the shutters are attached to the architrave of the window by ‘HL’ hinges to the top and bottom corners and rest on the cills. Secured by a modern hook attached to a C18 plate, the position for a bar is evident on the shutters’ central frames. To the west (right) is a stepped C18 entrance with flat hood supported on brackets and a moulded door case. The panelled door is C20 with a rectangular overlight with diamond pattern glazing.
At the first floor are two small angular bay windows each with six-over-six sash windows at the centre flanked by two-over-two sashes to the side. Each gable above has one horizontal sash window (Yorkshire sash) of four lights to each sash.
The west elevation, exposed in the vehicular access to number 17, has exposed box framing on a painted brick plinth with rendered or over-painted brick panels.
The rear elevation of the C16 range is mostly obscured by the rear wing, but two dormer windows are apparent in the attic. The rear wing has a partially remodelled roof structure, broader and not as high.
INTERIOR: the principal components of a C16 oak timber frame of substantial scantling with clear adze marks, employing good quality, pegged and jointed carpentry are apparent on all floors of the front range. Other elements of the frame may survive beneath modern finishes. Floor frames with chamfered and stopped, axial and transverse bridging beams in addition to midrails and wall posts are evident. Most door frames are standard late C19 or later.
On the ground floor main room, there are exposed joists over the former passageway. The earliest wide floorboards survive, at least in part, beneath a later C19 floor. There is modern wall panelling to the north, east and west walls but C18 panelling attached to the rear, south wall. At the east end is a C18 bolection fireplace with moulded and decorative surround and mantelpiece. The grate appears to have been removed. A door at the rear leads into the rear stair hall, extended to the west, from which the C19 staircase rises to all floors; the banister is truncated in places. Bridging beams are exposed in the first-floor rooms, and in the east room there is a C19 fire surround. The attic rooms, lit by dormers to the front and rear, have exposed tie beams, wall plates, purlins, collars and windbraces. Some of the framing to the front dormer openings has been replaced with later timber and structural steels.
The single-bay, rear wing (known as the ground floor conference room in 2023) is accessed by steps down from the stair hall. Here, a floor frame with a chamfered and stopped axial beam and joists are exposed, strengthened with a modern RSJ; a transverse beam is more crude in its dressing. No other timber framing is exposed. UPVC windows inserted through the west elevation light the room. The first floor is subdivided by modern partitions, but the tie beams, collars, principal rafters and purlins are exposed, although the upper roof structure has been renewed with light scantling, machine-sawn timbers arranged as an ‘A’ frame. In the southern room there is a possible jowled storey post and late-C19 joinery.
The cellar is understood to have a concrete floor.
The attached 1982 extension* has no historic fixtures or fittings.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.
