Nos. 26 and 28 Newcomen Road

26 and 28 Newcomen Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9PA

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1431344
Date first listed:: 20-Jan-2016
List Entry Name:: Nos. 26 and 28 Newcomen Road
Statutory Address:: 26 and 28 Newcomen Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9PA

User submitted image — Uploaded by Stephen J Davis This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1431344
Date first listed:: 20-Jan-2016
List Entry Name:: Nos. 26 and 28 Newcomen Road
Location Description:: The row of 7 asymmetrical "Prince Consort" New Model Cottages on the South side of Newcomen Road, Tunbridge Wells
Statutory Address 1:: 26 and 28 Newcomen Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9PA

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:: 26 and 28 Newcomen Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9PA

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

County:: Kent
District:: Tunbridge Wells (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ5838840467

Summary

Reasons for Designation

Nos. 26-28 Newcomen Road, a pair of Tudor-style model cottages built between 1847-52, designed by the architect and social reformer Henry Roberts for the Tunbridge Wells Branch of 'The Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes', are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: two storey, semi-detached, Tudor-style cottages for agricultural labourers in Roberts' Design no. 3 which became prototypes for later working class housing elsewhere; * Date: the scheme commenced in 1847 and is now the earliest of Roberts' projects for SICLC to survive; * Rarity of type: only five other commissions by Roberts for SICLC survive, including both flats and houses, and all have been statutorily listed; * Innovation: some cottages were constructed using Roberts' hollow bricks, patented in 1849. The three bedroom agricultural workers' cottages, with four heated rooms and internal WCs, were very advanced for their date and the attention to ventilation, sound construction and sanitation had a strong influence on later public housing; * Group value: a group of semi-detached cottages which between them include 3 of Roberts' designs for SICLC.

History

Nos. 2-28 Newcomen Road are a group of seven semi-detached pairs of Model Cottages designed by the architect and reformer Henry Roberts (1803-1871).

In 1844 Henry Roberts became Honorary Architect and later Vice-President of 'The Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes' with the patronage of Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort as President, Lord Ashley as Chairman and Lord Shaftesbury as original founder.

The Society formed a branch in Tunbridge Wells in 1847 and Henry Roberts was commissioned to build a row of model cottages along the south side of Newcomen Road. They are shown on the 1866 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.

The seven pairs of model cottages were built to three designs. Nos. 26-28 were built as a symmetrical pair similar to nos. 18-20. The design was Roberts' Design no. 3 ''for a pair of labourers cottages adapted to agricultural districts''.

Additions were made at the front and rear of no. 28 in the C20.

Details

A pair of model cottages built in 1850-2. Designed by the architect Henry Roberts in Tudor style for the Tunbridge Wells Branch of 'The Society for Iimproving the Condition of the Labouring Classes'. Some C20 alterations and the rear extension to no. 28 are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: of red brick in Flemish bond with vitrified headers, sandstone dressings (now painted), and a slate roof with a central clustered red brick chimneystack.

PLAN: a symmetrical T-shaped plan of one storey and attics with projecting front gables. This plan by Roberts is reproduced on page 134 of James Stephen Curl's 'The Life and Works of Henry Roberts 1803-1876 Architect' showing a front living room, side lobby with staircase, rear scullery with copper, pantry, WC and fuel storage on the ground floor, and three bedrooms to each cottage above.

EXTERIOR: there are two central full-height gables with wooden barge-boards. No. 26 has a three-light ground floor casement window with hood moulding and a two-light casement above. No. 28 has a projecting C20 conservatory* to the ground floor and a larger two-light casement with hood moulding above, probably the original ground floor window reused. The doorcases are set back and have hood mouldings. The side elevations also have gables with a casement window on each floor. The side elevation of no. 28 has been rendered. The rear elevation has a central gabled dormer. No. 28 has a penticed C20 rear extension*.

*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

Sources

Books and journals
Professor James Stephen, Curl, The Life and Works of Henry Roberts 1803-1876 Architect, (1983), 80a, 80b, 81a, 81b, 134, 140

Legal

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