Summary
Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and converted to flats in the 1980s.
Reasons for Designation
11 and 12 Bruce Grove, a pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later additions and rebuilding, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a pair of houses of some grandeur dating from between 1789 and 1798, presenting an elegant symmetrical Classical frontage;
* the principal elevation survives substantially intact, with a shared eaves cornice and string course, and original window openings holding sash frames, the ground-floor windows in recessed arches, whilst the main ranges also survive well to the rear.
Historic interest:
* the houses belong to a wider sequence of similar date on Bruce Grove, comprising one of the earliest groups, and the most prestigious, developed around the High Road at about this time.
Group value:
* with 5 to 10 and 13 to 16 Bruce Grove, which are contemporary with numbers 11 and 12, and also with 1 to 4 Bruce Grove, which date from about 1820; all these houses are listed at Grade II.
History
Tottenham High Road, known historically as Tottenham Street, is part of what was once Ermine Street, the Roman Road leading from London to Lincoln and York. A settlement is recorded at Tottenham in the Domesday Survey of 1086, and a manor house existed by 1254, on or near the site of Bruce Castle (the name, bestowed in the 1680s, derives from medieval ownership of the manor by Robert the Bruce). The linear settlement grew along the High Road, with what was effectively the village centre being marked by the Green and High Cross, which commemorates the medieval wayside cross which once stood there. By the C16, Tottenham was a favoured rural retreat for city merchants, with a number of mansions along the High Road; subsequent development reflects the area’s status as a place of residence for wealthy Londoners, whilst a number of schools, as well as charitable and religious foundations were established there. Thomas Clay’s 1619 map of Tottenham depicts the High Road with intermittent buildings along its frontage, and others set back within enclosed grounds. Daniel Defoe observed in the 1720s that the building along the road from the city, passing through Newington, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield had increased so much recently as to give the appearance of ‘one continu’d street’, especially Tottenham and Edmonton; Defoe remarks on the houses of the wealthy merchants, some retaining houses in the city: ‘many of these are immensely rich’ (A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-1727). However, as in most villages, Tottenham’s inhabitants were socially mixed: Peter Guillery has noted that ‘the face of Tottenham High Road was hugely varied; few of the many timber-built small-scale buildings survive’ (The Small House in Eighteenth Century London, 2004). Wyburd’s parish map, surveyed in 1798, shows much of the High Road north of High Cross bordered by buildings, many within spacious grounds.
In the late C18 and early C19, new villas and terraces began to spread outwards along existing and new sideroads running from the High Road. Of these, one of the earliest and much the most prestigious is Bruce Grove, running north-west from the High Road to Bruce Castle, following the line of one of the avenues of Bruce Castle Park. The development of Bruce Grove was made possible by the break-up of the Bruce manorial lands in 1789. Building commenced on the south-west side near the junction with the High Road with a group of villas (now numbers 5-16) completed by 1798. These houses, mostly semi-detached pairs, were soon associated with a number of wealthy Quaker families. In about 1820, a short terrace (now numbers 1-4) was built. The opposite side of Bruce Grove, and the stretch to the north-west, was still undeveloped in 1894.
Substantial houses of the sort built at the end of the C18 in Bruce Grove were for those who owned carriages, but with the advent of daily coach services from London in 1823, of omnibuses in 1839, and the arrival of the Northern & Eastern Railway to the east at Tottenham Hale in 1840, Tottenham became accessible to less affluent middle-class people, and the Tithe map of 1844 shows increasing development of smaller houses along the High Road. The opening of the Liverpool Street-Edmonton branch of the Great Eastern Railway in 1872, with a station at the junction of Bruce Grove and the High Road, brought about a development boom, providing more modest housing. Industries established locally during the C19 included a lace factory in 1810, a silk factory in 1815 (this became a rubber mill in 1837) and brewing from the mid-C19. The abundance of brick-earth in Tottenham meant that brick- and tile-making was a strong local industry from the middle ages to the C19, whilst many farms and market gardens along the banks of the River Lea supplied the London market with fruit and vegetables.
11 and 12 Bruce Grove form an attached pair, originally built with carriage-houses/stabling. The stabling to number 12 was demolished around 1900 when Woodside Gardens was created. That to number 11 was also demolished some time after 1974 where it is shown, although possibly altered, in a photograph of that date.
By the early1950s, number 11 was in commercial use, including partial occupation as a dentist’s surgery, and later as offices. Number 12 was also in commercial use by this period and photographs from 1976 show that it was at least partly occupied by a tailors' workshop. Both buildings were converted to flats in the 1980s.
Details
Pair of houses dating from between 1789 and 1798, with later alterations and converted to flats in the 1980s.
MATERIALS: stock brick laid in Flemish bond with slate-covered roofs and stuccoed sub-basements and north elevation to number 12. Window openings hold sash frames, some possibly original in the central blocks. The first floor of number 12 has replacement horned sashes.
PLAN: the attached houses, with a central block and slightly set-back lower wings, face east to Bruce Grove, with number 11 to the south and number 12 to the north. Each originally had an outer range, believed to have served as a carriage-house and stable. The Tithe map suggests that these were originally slightly detached and both have been demolished. The central block is of three storeys plus sub-basement with two bays to each house. The side ranges are of two storeys plus sub-basement and of two bays. The main block has rectangular-plan hipped roof to front and back with central chimney stacks. These are connected by pitched roofs to the centre and sides with a flat-roofed square gulley in the intervening spaces. The side wing to number 11 has a hipped roof to the front and a pyramidal roof to the rear. That to number 12 has a single hipped roof.
EXTERIOR: the front elevation presents a symmetrical frontage to the principal range with both houses being two window bays wide. Both houses have the entrance, reached by a flight of stone steps with metal railings, set in the inner bay of the side ranges. The entrance to number 11 has a six-panel door in a square-headed opening with a transom. Number 12 has an arched entrance with a transom and modern glazed door. Both entrances have classical porches with the hoods supported on columns, that to number 11 with Ionic capitals.
A stuccoed eaves cornice supported by paired blocks beneath a blocking course runs along the top of the frontage of the main block and a stone stringcourse separates the ground and first floors. The ground floor windows are six-over-six timber sashes in square-headed openings with gauged brick heads set in round-arched recesses. The upper storey windows are square-headed with gauged brick heads, those on the first floor having six-over-six timber sashes and three-over-three sashes on the second floor. The side range of number 11 has a canted ground-floor bay window extending into the sub-basement. This has six-over-six timber-framed sash windows. The two bays on the upper floor have six-over-six timber sashes in square openings with gauged brick heads. The side range of number 12 has a single round arched window to the upper floor with an upper sash with multi-pane glazing and a three-over-three lower sash. The ground floor has a bricked up arched opening.
The rear elevation to the main block has a ground-floor bow window extending into the sub-basement to each house. The upper floors of each house are of two bays with timber-framed sash windows in square-headed openings, six-over-six on the first floor and three-over three on the second floor. The side range to number 11 is of three storeys to the inner bay (under the slate-covered pyramidal roof) and two storeys to the outer bay (under a felted sloping roof), both with sash windows to each floor. The side range to number 12 is of one bay with the ground floor having a half-bay window with an arched window on the first floor.
The side (south) elevation to the side range of number 11 is largely blind. The rendered north elevation to number 12, facing onto Woodside Gardens, is of five bays with segmental arched window openings. On the first floor all but the central opening are blind. On the ground floor the sash windows are of differing heights and there is an additional window to the half bay window (to the rear elevation).
INTERIOR: both have been subdivided into flats.
