104 London Street

Summary

104 London Street, a house of 1820.

Reasons for Designation

104 London Street, Reading, 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.

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 first written record of Reading dates from the ninth 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 Reading had grown into a town, 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.

After Reading Abbey was founded in 1121, the town grew substantially as a place of pilgrimage as well as an important ecclesiastical and trading centre, with cloth production as the principal industry. Reading’s increasing prosperity saw the establishment of the new Market Place (drawing trade away from the old marketplace at St Mary’s Butts), and of what is today known as London Street, an extension to the High Street which facilitated trade to and from London. By 1525, Reading had become the largest town in Berkshire. Following its dissolution in 1539, Reading Abbey became a royal palace. The cloth and leather trades continued to flourish and by 1611 the town’s population had grown to over 5,000. John Speed’s map shows that by that year, both sides of London Street had been developed with continuous frontages for a considerable distance southward, beyond the modern junction with Crown Street/London Road. Several buildings which predate Speed’s map survive on London Street, some concealed behind later brick façades.

Following significant upheaval during the Civil War, the town flourished during the C18 and C19. Several developments during this period spurred further growth and prosperity, including the arrival of the Great Western Railway, improvements to the navigability of the River Kennet, and the expansion of the local brewing industry. The survival of many fine Georgian and Victorian buildings along London Street testifies to its prosperity during this period.

The building now known as 104 London Street dates from 1820. By the mid-C19 the house had a long narrow range to the rear, extending along the southern boundary wall of the site; this range has largely been replaced by later extensions on the same footprint. The building was converted to office use during the 1990s, but in 2016 was returned to domestic use.

Details

House, 1820.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone and composite stone dressings. The rear (west) elevation is of grey brick with red brick dressings. The window openings hold sash frames. The hipped roof is covered with plain tiles, and there are two ridge stacks.

PLAN: the house is a narrow rectangle on plan, oriented east/west, with the principal elevation facing east to London Street.

EXTERIOR: the building is arranged over three storeys; the east elevation is two windows wide, with the entrance to the south. The doorway and ground-floor window are set in matching round-arched recesses, with moulded impost blocks and mask keystones of composite stone. The six-panelled door has a fanlight above. A string course also functions as a cill for the first-floor window openings. The first- and second-floor windows have flat arches of gauged brick and hold sash frames; six-over-six to the first floor and three-over-three to the second floor. There is a flat stone string cornice with a brick parapet above, topped by shallow stone coping. The rear elevation has a single sash window to each storey, all with red-brick surrounds.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

39055

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Tyack, Geoffrey, Bradley, Simon, Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), 473

Websites
Market Place/London Street Conservation Area Appraisal (draft revision, 2021), accessed 19 October 2023 from https://readingcaac.org/conservation-areas/market-place-london-street-conservation-area/

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