2 and 4 London Street

Summary

Shop. Built in the early to mid-C19 and extended during the late C20, currently (2023) in use as a restaurant.

Reasons for Designation

2 and 4 London Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

*     as an early- to mid-C19 commercial building that 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.

2 and 4 London Street was constructed during the early to mid-C19. It appears to have been purpose-built as commercial premises on the site of an earlier building and possibly incorporating its cellar. By 1832, an ironmonger selling spirit air baths was operating from number 2 and later, during the 1840s and 1850s, the property was a chemist’s and later by a beer retailer. By 1895, the building was subdivided into two properties, with the northern half operating as a confectioner and the southern half as a public house.

During the late C20, a two-storey extension was added to the south elevation of the building (where a single-storey element had previously stood) and a larger two-storey extension was added to the west, bounding Yield Hall Place. The building was in use as a newsagent during the 1980s and was in use as a restaurant from the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Details

Shop. Built in the early to mid-C19 and extended during the late C20, currently (2023) in use as a restaurant.

MATERIALS: the C19 range is constructed of brick which is painted white with some areas of white stucco, with a stone or concrete parapet and a clay tiled roof. The late-C20 western extension is of red brick on its south-west elevation and buff brick on the north elevation and rounded southern end. It is connected to the rear of the C19 range by a glazed link.

PLAN: the original two storey plus basement C19 range has a rectangular plan with a long, principal east elevation onto London Street. At the southern end is a C20 two-storey, single bay, addition. The two-storey C20 rear (western) range has a triangular plan with a rounded southern corner and curved northern elevation onto the River Kennet.

EXTERIOR: the principal (east) elevation onto London Street is of five bays. The four, original, northern bays lie under a hipped roof, while the later, southernmost bay has a flat roof. The three northernmost bays are within arched recesses, the two outer bays have round-arched heads and the wider, central bay has a segmental-arched head. The two northern arched recesses are rendered rather than painted brick. There is a rendered plat band at the springing point of each arch. The southernmost of the three arches contains a modern, half-glazed door within a historic timber doorcase with pilasters and a flat canopy, with an arched, timber sash window on the first floor. The central archway contains a timber sash window with six-over-six glazing on the ground floor and a timber sash window with two-over-two glazing on the first floor. The northernmost bay contains a plain, modern door on the ground floor and a round-arched, timber sash window on the first floor. The southernmost bay of the nineteenth-century building is set slightly forward from the rest of the elevation. It has a timber sash window on each floor, that on the ground floor having three-over-three glazing and that on the first floor having two-over-two glazing. Over the four bays is a stucco cornice and stone/concrete parapet with step-ups over the first and third bays from the south. The cornice and parapet continue round onto the north elevation, which is blank aside from a single, small, casement window on the ground floor and an iron pattress plate at first-floor sill height. A brick chimney stack rises through the western roof slope immediately adjacent to the ridge line.

The west elevation of the C19 building is largely concealed by the late C20 extension. The two northernmost bays are visible and carry evidence of extensive alteration or reconstruction. They are of exposed red brickwork in Flemish bond, each with a modern door on the ground floor and a modern, timber sash window on the first floor.

The late-C20 extensions to the south and west of the original building are generally in keeping with the character of the original range, both being of two storeys in brickwork with ranges of timber sash windows. The ground floor of the south elevation of the southern extension has a replica, C19-style shopfront.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

39041

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), pp438-440.
Article in Berkshire Chronicle, (21 January 1832), 1
Article in Reading Mercury, (27 April 1844), 1

Websites
Reading Borough Council, History of Reading (2012), accessed 18 September 2023 from https://web.archive.org/web/20120425235452/http:/www.reading.gov.uk/residents/history-of-reading/
Ditchfield, PH, Page, W, A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), accessed 18 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/

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