Summary
A terrace of three houses, built in the early C19.
Reasons for Designation
117-121 Castle Hill 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.
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.
117-121 Castle Hill were built in the early C19 during the western expansion of Reading’s inner suburbs along Castle Street/Bath Road. The three properties appear to have been built at the same time, but number 121 was substantially altered following construction with the western two bays being added, possibly in the place of an earlier section of the terrace. This intervention occurred prior to 1879 and probably included the replacement of the original ground and first-floor windows of the easternmost bay (adjoining 119) with the current windows. The second-floor window matches those at 117 and 119, suggesting it is a surviving element from 121’s construction. The OS map for 1879 labels 121 as ‘Clevedon Cottage’, and also shows that all three properties had been extended to the rear by that date. The extensions of 117 and 119 are full-width across the rear of the properties while the extension of number 121 comprised a full-height projection from the eastern half of the rear elevation. At some time in the mid-C20, the original roof of the later western half of 121 was replaced with a flat roof. This flat roof was in turn replaced in around 2011 with the current hipped roof.
The properties appear to have remained as private residences throughout their history. The basements of 117 and 121 have been converted to car garages which are accessed via a ramp from the street. In 2023, 121 Castle Hill is named Castleford House.
Details
A terrace of three houses, built in the early C19.
MATERIALS: the principal (northern) elevations are rendered with slate roofs and red brick chimney stacks. Numbers 117 and 119 have an iron balcony to the first floor supported on iron columns. The rear elevations of numbers 117 and 119 are partly of exposed brick and partly rendered, while the rear elevation of number 121 is rendered.
EXTERIOR: the group appears to have been constructed in two stages, with numbers 117, 119 and the eastern bay of 121 having been built first and the rear extensions of 117 and 119 and the two western bays of 121 having been built later, possibly replacing an earlier element. All three houses are three storeys plus basement with rendered facades and slate roofs. 117 and 119 are mirror images of each other, being two bays wide and sharing a ridge chimney stack on the party wall. The ground floor consists of a front door with sunburst fanlight on the outside and an eight-over-eight sash window adjacent to the party wall. The first floors have a single opening located directly above the ground-floor window. On 117, this is an eight-over-eight sash window matching the ground floor while at 119 this is a pair of French doors with glazing bars to the upper three quarters – this doorway probably replaced a window matching that at 117. There is an iron balcony at the first-floor level across both properties, supported by moulded iron brackets and columns rising up from either side of the front doorways. At first-floor ceiling height is a plat band across both properties. At second-floor level, both houses have two three-over-three sash windows below a line of brick dentils at the eaves. The properties share a double-pitched roof.
The design of 121 differs from that of its neighbours to the east. The house is three bays wide, with the two western bays slightly recessed from the wider eastern bay, which is flush with 117 and 119. The main entrance sits centrally on the ground floor and comprises a six-panelled door under a sunburst fanlight, set within a reeded doorcase with a heavy cornice. At the first and second floors are three windows each, those at the first floor being six-over-six sashes and those at the second floor being three-over-three sashes. The easternmost second-floor window matches those at 117 and 119. The house has lost the plat band that runs across the façade of 117 and 119. Above the second-floor windows is a corniced parapet. A section of the western party wall steps in at first- and second-floor level to create a ‘light well’ around a first-floor window on the eastern gable end wall of 123 Castle Hill. This composition suggests that the western bays of 121 were built after 123.
The basements of numbers 117 and 121 have been converted to car garages, with ramps down from the street. The front garden of 117 is mainly taken up by a ramp down to the basement which has been converted into a car garage. At 119, the front garden has been paved, and there is a small area in front of the basement enclosed by railings. At 121, the eastern half of the front garden is taken up by a ramp to the basement car garage, as at 117. The western half of the garden is lawned. There are rendered walls along the eastern and western boundaries of the garden, and railings and gate piers along the north boundary.
117 and 119 have full-width extensions to the rear. At 117 the extension is in two parts, each rising through three storeys, with the western half being of exposed red brickwork with sash windows and a hipped roof, and the eastern half being rendered with windows, possibly modern casements, at each level and a mono-pitched roof. The rear extension of 119 rises through two storeys and is of red brickwork containing windows on each floor, under a mono-pitched roof.
The rear elevation of 121 is stuccoed and contains a range of sash windows on each floor. The western half of the elevation projects out along the boundary with 119. On the southern elevation of this projection is a two-storey, canted bay window which appears to contain a sash window on the first floor.
