Summary

A house, built in the early C19, now flats.

Description

A house, built in the early C19, now flats.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the building is stuccoed with a timber eaves cornice. The pitched roof covering is slate. The house is of two storeys with an attic and semi-basement.

EXTERIOR: the road front facing Castle Hill has three bays with two modern dormers to the attic. The semi-basement and raised ground floor are embellished with smooth-faced rusticated stucco with keystones above the doorway and windows. Windows across the front have central sashes with margin lights to the sides, except for the narrower right-hand bay. The basement contains three windows. The main entrance, on the westernmost bay of the raised ground floor is accessed via a flight of stone steps with iron handrails. The doorway consists of a two-panelled door with an unadorned rectangular fanlight above. A plat band runs across the elevation at first-floor ceiling height. The first floor is smooth rendered. All of the windows apart from that underneath the doorway have stone sills painted black. There is a modillioned timber eaves cornice. The square dormers appear modern and contain two-pane casements.

The rear elevation, largely concealed from the street, is rendered and contains full-height casements on the raised ground floor and two sash windows on the first floor. There is a dormer above the westernmost bay.

INTERIOR: it is understood that the hallway contains the original stairs with a wreathed curtail to the ground-floor terminus.

History

109 Castle Hill (formerly 109 Castle Street) was built in the early C19, sometime between 1802 and the 1830s (the house does not appear on Coates’ map of 1802). The substantial townhouse appears to have experienced little alteration externally. There may have been front access to the semi-basement historically, with evidence of a former area and doorway beneath the stairs to the main entrance. The elevational treatment of the second floor appears to have been altered as it is plainly finished in smooth render while the two lower floors are of channelled stucco.

The house has now been converted into flats.

Reasons for Listing

109 Castle Hill, Reading, 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.

Group value:

* the building is in close proximity to a large number of listed buildings and forms part of a strong historic grouping.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26407293

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)