126 Castle Hill

Summary

An early-C19 house, partially converted to offices in the second half of the C20 and subsequently divided into five flats around 2005.

Reasons for Designation

126 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.

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.

126 Castle Hill was built in the 1820s or early 1830s during the westward expansion of Reading’s suburbs. Originally built as a private residence, the building was partially converted to office use in the second half of the C20. Various alterations were carried out to the property in around 2005. This included converting the basement into a flat and extending it out into the rear garden across the full width of the property, refurbishing the existing flats on the ground, first and second floors; and converting the third-floor office to a flat and adding three dormers to the rear (north) pitch of the roof. Part of the rear garden was converted to car parking spaces at this time.

The primary elevation to Castle Hill appears to have been altered very little externally since construction. There are cast iron railings along its boundary to Castle Hill, which may be original.

Details

An early-C19 house, partially converted to offices in the second half of the C20 and subsequently divided into five flats around 2005.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the building is stuccoed on all elevations and has a slate roof covering. There are iron railings along the front boundary. The building is of three storeys plus basement.

EXTERIOR: the entrance front has three bays onto Castle Hill. The principal southern elevation is of a neoclassical design with channelled stucco on the raised ground floor, architrave window surrounds on the first floor and a corniced parapet to the roof. There are two sash windows at basement-level, looking into the area at the front of the property. The ground floor comprises three round arches slightly recessed into the channelled stucco, containing two round-headed sash windows to the left (west) and a doorway to the right (east), accessed via a flight of stone steps, with a six-panelled door and patterned fanlight. The first floor contains three six-over-six sash windows with a unifying plat band running across the elevation at cill height. On the second floor, there are three three-over-three sash windows. There are two chimney stacks set on both of the party walls, which each contain a single three-over-three sash window to the attic. The rear elevation contains a regular series of sash windows on all three floors, including a tall round-headed window lighting the staircase on the left (east) side of the elevation. There are three large modern dormers to the attic and a large full-width basement extension.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the iron railings across the front boundary may be original.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

38827

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 28 July 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), pp.336-342, accessed 28 July 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3

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