195 and 197 Oxford Road

Summary

Two terraced houses, built during the 1820s, possibly by William Pratt Swallow.

Reasons for Designation

195 and 197 Oxford Road are 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

Until the C19, most of the land west of Reading town centre was open farmland crossed by two ancient routes passing through the town from London to the West Country. Today, the northern of these two roads is named Oxford Road, while the southern is named Castle Street/Castle Hill/Bath Road. Inns and some isolated dwellings probably existed on these roads before the C18. Fortifications were built throughout the area by Royalist forces garrisoned in the town during the Civil War with some of the earthworks surviving into the early C19.

From the early C18, development slowly began to spread westward along Castle Hill/Bath Road and Oxford Road. John Rocque’s Map of Berkshire (1761) depicts ribbon development along Castle Hill/Bath Road extending as far as the junction with Tilehurst Road, and individual houses within grounds along Oxford Road about as far as the present-day location of Russell Street. More comprehensive development of the area began in the early C19 and progressed gradually over the next 100 years. Development spread further along Castle Street/Castle Hill, with some of the earlier buildings depicted on Rocque’s map seemingly replaced. North-south link roads also were laid out across the market gardens that previously existed between Oxford Road and Bath Road. Terraced housing was erected in considerable quantities during the first half of the century to cater for a variety of social groups.

195 and 197 Oxford Road are a pair of houses at the eastern end of a five-house terrace constructed in the 1820s during the westward expansion of Reading’s inner suburbs. The developer may have been William Pratt Swallow, a member of a prominent local family, and was originally named Sydney Terrace, along with the listed terraces at 149-169 Oxford Road (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1113546), 171-177 Oxford Road (NHLE entry 1156337) and 187-193 Oxford Road (NHLE entry 1113547) to the east (Pevsner and Bradley, p477; Conservation Area Appraisal, p59, p128). There is a clear relationship between the construction of numbers 195 and 197 and the other three houses in the terrace at 199-203 Oxford Road (separately listed, NHLE entry 1302906). The front and rear elevations of numbers 199-203 are flush with those of numbers 195 and 197 to the east, and the terrace shares a hipped roof, although there is a small step up from the roof of numbers 197 to 199. However, numbers 195 and 197 are on a symmetrical plan and share few design elements with numbers 199-203, suggesting that the terrace was constructed in two phases, likely as a pair of semi-detached villas.

The 1879 OS town plan of Reading shows that both properties had small, symmetrical rear extensions (along the eastern boundary of number 195 and the western boundary of number 197), and there were separate buildings fronting onto the rear access lane, today named Prospect Mews. These may have been mews buildings or stables serving the main houses. An additional rear extension was added to number 197 between 1875 and 1898, creating a full-width rear projection, while number 195 also received an additional rear extension between 1909 and 1931. The rear extension at number 195 subsequently appears to have been altered sometime during the C20, and now comprises a shallow, full-width extension with a deeper projection along its western boundary.

The mews building fronting Prospect Mews behind number 195 was extended sometime between 1931 and 1959, into the garden of number 195, while the mews building behind number 197 was demolished between 1959 and 1971. During the late C20, the building to the rear of number 195 was extended again, and possibly rebuilt, and now takes up the vast majority of the rear garden of number 195.

Extensive works were carried out at number 197 in around 2011-2012 when, along with 199, it was converted from part-office, part-residential use to flats throughout. The external alterations included the installation of timber sash windows at all levels on the front and rear elevations, the installation of plain iron railings to the ground-floor window, and the construction of a brick boundary wall.

Both properties currently (2023) appear to be in use as flats.

Details

Two terraced houses, built during the 1820s, possibly by William Pratt Swallow, member of a prominent local family, and later converted to offices and flats, now flats throughout.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the buildings are of red brick in Flemish bond and a slate roof covering, with a stucco plat band and recent (late C20 or C21) iron railings. They are of three storeys plus basement.

EXTERIOR: numbers 193 and 195 are the two easternmost houses in a terrace of five houses with a shared hipped roof and flush front and rear facades, likely built in two phases. Each house is two bays wide on to Oxford Road, the inner bay of each house being wider and slightly bowed.

The pair are on a symmetrical plan and have symmetrical front and rear elevations. The front door of each house is in the outside bay of the raised ground floor and comprises a six-panelled door with reeded quadrant jambs and Classical fret lintels under a sunburst fanlight, accessed via a flight of steps with iron handrails. The inside bay of the raised-ground floor of each house has a full-height window under a flat-arched head. On the first floor of each property are two tall windows under flat-arched heads, with a stucco plat band running across the elevation at cill height. The second floor of each property contains two smaller windows under flat-arched heads with stucco cills. The windows in the two central bays are wider than those on the outside bays. All of the windows at number 195 are uPVC casements while those at number 197 are recent (2012-2013) timber, glazing bar sashes. The window and door arches on the ground and first floor of number 197 are painted white. The basement façade of number 195 has been rebuilt in a lighter-coloured brick in stretcher bond, with a centrally-placed uPVC door flanked by two uPVC casements. At number 197, the basement contains a timber sash window with a painted, flat-arched window head. There are modern railings around the basement area and ground-floor window at number 197.

The rear elevation of each property has been extended across the full width at ground-floor level. The first and second floors of the two properties are symmetrical. There is a tall, thin, round-arched stair window in the outside bay of the first floor, alongside a window in the central bay (an eight-over-eight sash at number 197 and a uPVC casement at number 195), and a smaller window above (a four-over-over sash at number 197 and a uPVC casement at number 195). The greater part of the garden of number 195 is taken up by a single-storey, flat-roofed building fronting onto Prospect Mews, while most of the rear garden of number 197 has been combined with that at 199 Oxford Road to form a gravel car park.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

39098

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), pp438-440

Websites
Reading Borough Council, History of Reading (2012), accessed 31 July 2023 from https://web.archive.org/web/20120425235452/http:/www.reading.gov.uk/residents/history-ofreading/
Ditchfield, PH, Page, W, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp336-342, accessed 31 July 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3

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