Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 28/04/2020

SU 1484 NE
6/138

SWINDON
READING STREET (north side)
Nos. 1, 1a, 2 and 2a

17.2.70

GV
II
In order to house the workforce for the new Great Western Railway works, IK Brunel designed a new village to the south of the railway line. Brunel’s early layout drawings of 1840 show a grid similar to the final plan of 12 terraces in six blocks on either side of the High Street (from 1893 Emlyn Square). Construction started in 1842, and by 1855 most of the buildings had been completed. Houses and cottages of different types were built, as well as lodging houses. Brunel himself designed only the first block of 1842 (4-25 Bristol Street); as it was visible from the railway line, this is in a more decorative style than the others.

The financial difficulties of the contractors JD & C Rigby, who undertook to build 300 cottages but only completed 130, delayed the completion of the village until the 1850s. The cottages to the west of Emlyn Square were built first (1842-1843), followed by those on the east side (1845-1847). The end blocks towards Emlyn Square, containing corner shops on the ground floor, were built in 1845-1847, and the remainder, mostly end blocks on the outer ends of the streets, were built in 1853-1855. In 1966, the local authority acquired the cottages from British Rail and restored them. The village is one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally most ambitious railway settlements.

Two houses in terrace, now flats. 1847 for Great Western Railway Company. Ashlar stone in black mortar, coursed rubble to rear wall. Slate roof. Stone based brick stacks on gable walls. Each house two storey, three bays, central door and hallway and flanking rooms. C20 brick lean-to at rear. C20 fifteen-pane doors up one step in painted chamfered surrounds with splayed stops. Tripartite two-pane sashes within chamfered surrounds, label moulds over all ground floor openings. Blind light over doors.

Listing NGR: SU1463584799

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26274498

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)