Summary

House, built between the 1840s and 1860s, flats in 2023.

Description

A house, built between the 1840s and 1860s, now flats. Formerly Castle Street, now Castle Hill.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the principal elevation is of red brick and stucco. The roof covering is slate. Three storeys and basement.

EXTERIOR: the Castle Hill elevation is smooth rendered at basement level and has channelled rustication at ground-floor level. The brickwork is exposed on the first and second floors. The partly-exposed eastern elevation is smooth rendered. A plat band runs across the façade at first-floor sill level and continues round onto the eastern elevation. The six-panel door with simple modern rectangular fanlight and stucco cornice is accessed via a short flight of steps with an historic iron handrail. To the left of the doorway, the ground floor and basement each contain two windows, with eight-over-eight sashes at basement level and margin-glazed sashes with rusticated stucco window heads on the ground floor. The first floor contains three, six-over-six sash windows within entablatured stucco architraves. The second floor has two, three-over-six sash windows. The central second-floor window surround survives although the window has been replaced with a louvred air vent. The eastern elevation contains two sash windows, one on the first floor almost completely hidden by 121 Castle Hill and a small two-over-two sash window on the second floor. The eastern gable is punctuated by two tall brick stacks: one, of four flues sitting flush with the gable wall and the other of ten flues. There is a third chimney stacks on the rear pitch of the west gable, abutting the neighbouring property at 125 Castle Hill.

History

123 Castle Hill (Castleton House) was constructed sometime between the late 1840s and early 1860s. It appears to have been built as a single house rather than as part of a terrace, possibly as an infilling of land formerly attached to Clevedon House immediately to the west. The building predates the western part of the neighbouring property at 121 Castle Hill, whose south elevation and west gable end wall are set back so as to avoid a first-floor sash window at 123 Castle Hill.

There is little documentary evidence regarding the building’s history, but it appears to have remained in use as a dwelling since its construction, although it was converted to flats probably sometime in the C20. The building appears to have been little altered externally, although a second-floor sash window has been replaced with an air vent and it appears to have lost its historic boundary treatment.

Reasons for Listing

Castleton House, 123 Castle Hill, Reading, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a mid-C19 building which contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape.

Historic interest:

* as part of the historic urban development of Reading.

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 Q26407295

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)