81 London Street

81 London Street, Reading, RG1 4QA

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Townhouse, built in the early C19. Significantly enlarged to the rear in the late C20. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1321930
Date first listed:: 14-Dec-1978
List Entry Name:: 81 London Street
Statutory Address:: 81 London Street, Reading, RG1 4QA

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1321930
Date first listed:: 14-Dec-1978
Date of most recent amendment:: 14-Mar-2024
List Entry Name:: 81 London Street
Statutory Address 1:: 81 London Street, Reading, RG1 4QA

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: 81 London Street, Reading, RG1 4QA

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Reading (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SU7185473017

Summary

Townhouse, built in the early C19. Significantly enlarged to the rear in the late C20.

Reasons for Designation

81 London Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

*     as an early-C19 townhouse 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 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.

Reading Abbey was founded in 1121 on a site to the north-east of the core of the Saxon town and this transformed 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.

A new bridge over the River Kennet had been built by 1186 and London Street was laid out with plots of land as part of the Abbot of Reading Abbey’s urban planning vision. The aim was to divert trade and traffic to the new marketplace at the gates of the Abbey. The transition from the old marketplace at St Mary's Butts was at first resisted by the merchants of Reading but the move was complete by the C14. The dissolution of the Abbey led to the monastic complex becoming a royal palace and by 1611 the town’s population had grown to over 5,000 as a result of its cloth trade John Speed’s map shows that by 1611, 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, with long gardens, outhouses and fields beyond. 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, and the survival of many fine Georgian and Victorian buildings which characterise London Street, testifies to the prosperity of the street during this period.

81 London Street was built around 1800. By 1853, the building possessed a series of extensions to the southern section of its rear (east) elevation. This sequence of extensions was augmented throughout the C20, until they were all replaced in the late C20 by a single, three-storey extension. The roof over the C19 east range appears to have been rebuilt at this time to connect the original building to the new extension. The ground floor of the front (west) elevation was replaced by a neoclassical shopfront in the late C20.

Details

Townhouse, built in the early C19. Significantly enlarged to the rear in the late C20.

MATERIALS: red brick with stucco dressings. Slate roof covering.

PLAN: early-C19, three-storey range facing westward onto London Street, connected to a three-storey, late-C20 range which extends eastwards at the rear, forming a long rectangular plan with a lightwell in the centre.

EXTERIOR: the ground floor of the principal elevation has a modern shopfront with a double-door entrance to the left (north), a large, fixed-pane shop window over a panelled stall riser in the centre, and a glazed door to the south giving access to the shop unit. Each of these openings is framed by full-height pilasters that rise to a fascia shop sign.

A stucco band separates the ground-floor shopfront from the upper floors, which are of red brick laid in irregular Flemish bond. The first and second floors each contain three recessed, six-over-six glazed sash windows with gauged brickwork flat-arch heads. Above the second floor is a stucco entablature and cornice, topped by a broad, plain parapet painted white. The hipped roof of the original building joins to another hipped roof over the late-C20 rear extension. The rear extension is of three storeys. The east elevation contains a bay window at first-floor level which is topped by a jettied box window on the second floor. INTERIOR: it is understood that the building has been redeveloped behind the façade.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 39034
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
G Tyack, S Bradley, Buildings of England, Berkshire, (2010), 438-440
Websites
Ditchfield, PH, Page, W, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp, 336-342, accessed 5 September 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3
Other
Reading Borough Council, ‘Huntley & Palmers Audio Trail: Market Place and London Street’. Available at: https://www.reading.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/heritage-and-conservation/readings-high-street-heritage-action-zone/community-engagement/reading-audio-trails/huntley-palmers-audio-trail-market-place-and-london-street/

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.