Numbers 8-10 Station Road and 2-25 Harris Arcade, Reading

Summary

A shopping arcade dating from 1929-1931 built for John Harris and incorporating an earlier street frontage of a motor showroom which dates from before 1922, facing onto Station Road, all executed in a loosely Greek-Revival style.

Reasons for Designation

Numbers 8-10 Station Road and 2-25 Harris Arcade should be added to the statutory list at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a well-designed and notably well-preserved example of an early-C20 shopping arcade, in a consistent neo-classical style.

Historic interest:

* as a C20 shopping arcade, which includes some of the best features of C19 arcades.

Group value:

* with 13 and 15, Station Road and Great Western House, Station Road (both Grade II).

History

The land on which Harris Arcade was built was shown as a series of back gardens to the properties which faced Friar Street on the Ordnance Survey (OS) map published in 1879. The Goad Fire insurance map of 1929 shows the land to be under a variety of uses, including a large motor showroom facing onto Station Road, with top-lit garage space behind it, labelled ‘John Harris (Reading) Ltd. / Garage Repairs’. The property at Number 15 Friar Street appears to have been connected to the garage and is labelled as containing ‘oil and tyres’ in the basement. A note on the map reads ‘under alteration 1929’. By 1931 the OS map shows that the whole of the arcade had been built, conforming to its present L-shape and with entrances on Friar Street and Station Road. A photograph of the Station Road façade of the garage building taken in 1922 shows that the car showroom consisted of two single-storey blocks set at either side of Number 12 Station Road, which housed offices for the garage. The two-bay block to the north still exists in this single-storey format and is now the Revolution restaurant. The southern block has retained its three-bays at ground floor level, the central one of which now forms the eastern entrance to the Harris Arcade. It appears that the two floors built above it in brick with stone dressings were added at the time of the alterations in 1929-1931. It is not clear if the ground-floor frontage to 15 Friar Street was built during the additions of 1929-1931 or if it pre-dated the construction of the arcade.

The garage was originally known as Great Western Motors and reverted to this name after 1931. Its ownership by John Harris was relatively short-lived and appears only to have lasted between 1928 and 1931. Nonetheless it seems that the arcade was named after him.

The garage continued to operate from the premises to the north and east of the arcade, and the Goad Insurance map of 1958 shows an entrance from Wiston Terrace to the east and the showroom in the single-storey block to the north of the arcade and facing onto Station Road in the premises now operating as Revolution restaurant.

Details

A shopping arcade dating from 1929-1931 built for John Harris and incorporating an earlier street frontage of a motor showroom which dates from before 1922, facing onto Station Road, all executed in a loosely Greek-Revival style.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the street front to Station Road has a stone surround with carved decoration and plate glass windows with bronzed metal surrounds. Flooring of the arcade is of terrazzo and the skylights are of wood and metal with stained and clear glass panels. The arcade is of an irregular L shape with a shorter range leading east from Station Road and a longer range running north-south to connect with Friar Street.

EXTERIOR: the street front to Station Road has three principal bays at ground-floor level, the central one of which forms the entrance to the arcade. To either side of the frontage are wide, panelled pilasters with projecting classical motifs. To either side of the arcade entrance are slender, panelled pilasters which have Ionic capitals. At right is a narrow bay containing a door which gives access to a staircase leading to the upper floors. The entablature above the front has a frieze with a central projecting panel that carries stainless steel lettering reading ‘HARRIS ARCADE’. The deep cornice above has regularly-spaced square blocks (mutules).

The threshold of the arcade at the Station Road end has a white marble block into which black lettering is set which reads ‘HARRIS ARCADE’. The shop windows to either side of this are of bowed plate-glass. The arcade pavement is of terrazzo with inlayed black borders. Shop fronts have granite stall risers and plate glass windows, divided by panelled pilasters. The window surrounds are a combination of base metal and timber, all painted in a consistent imitation of bronze. Above the shop windows is a deep transom light which includes regularly-placed pivoting windows to supply ventilation. Decorative motifs cast into the metal and carved into the wood include guilloche and anthemion mouldings and paterae. The shop front of number 25 has two, shallow bow windows with multiple panes placed at either side of the doorway. Rectangular skylights with raised sides have stained glass panels of blue, yellow and clear glass. The passageway of the arcade widens at the point between numbers 14 and 17, and the change of direction from North – South to East – West occurs in front of number 10.

INTERIOR: the interiors of all of the shops appear to have been remodelled and contain few original fittings, although suspended ceilings may mask original features. The upper floors were not inspected.

Sources

Books and journals
Morrison, K, English Shops and Shopping An Architectural History, (2003), 106-108

End of official list entry

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