Quick Links
The Potts Story
The Project
Make a Donation
The Memorial
The Berkshire Yeomanry
The Victoria Cross
The Great War
Reading
Our Supporters and Sponsors
Reading
The Town today
Thames & Kennet
War Memorials
Museums & Archives
Buildings
for visitors
Transport and Parking
Heritage
Contact us
NEWS
P8822 updated 2/10/2015
.
The Potts Story
The Project
Make a Donation
The Memorial
The Berkshire Yeomanry
The Victoria Cross
The Great War
Reading
Our Supporters and Sponsors
READING TODAY
Reading
The Town today
Thames & Kennet
War Memorials
Museums & Archives
Buildings
for visitors
Transport and Parking
Heritage
Contact us
NEWS
P8822 updated 2/10/2015
.
St Mary Butts / Castle Street Conservation Area
3.0 Location and setting
3.1 Location and context
The boundaries of the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area are shown at Appendix 2. It is situated immediately to the south of properties fronting Reading’s traditional main shopping street, Broad Street, from which it is accessible via the northern end of St Mary’s Butts and Chain Street.
It lies north west of the Oracle Shopping Centre, to which access can be gained at either end of Gun Street.
Two main road links cross the area, St Mary’s Butts/Bridge Street north to south, and Castle Street/Gun Street/and a small section of Minster Street west to east. Only the south side and a small stretch on the northern side of Castle Street (eastern end) lie in the Conservation Area. The remaining northern side of Castle Street comprises the Magistrates Court/Police Station Complex, behind which are the Civic Offices and the Hexagon, and to the north-east of which lies the Broad Street Mall Shopping Centre. The latter also faces the northern end (western side) of St Mary’s Butts. This whole area is a 1970s redevelopment; however, that part of this area centred on the site of the Hosier Street Market and land to the west is currently under discussion for further redevelopment and presents considerable potential to improve the appearance and setting of this part of the Conservation Area.
The western end of the Conservation Area is marked by the line of that part of the town’s Inner Distribution Road which separates the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area from the Castle Hill/Russell Street Conservation Area to the west.
The southern boundary of the Conservation Area is demarcated by the Holy Brook, south of which are more recent housing developments and offices accessed from Bridge Street on part of the former Simmonds/Courage Brewery site to the west of Bridge Street. The aforementioned Oracle Shopping Centre (a large part of which was also part of the former Simmonds/Courage Brewery site) also lies to the south of The Holy Brook to the east of Bridge Street.
The John Lewis (formerly “Heelas”) department store marks the eastern boundary of the site, and south of that, on the opposite side of Minster Street, is a main Telephone Exchange, with the “Oracle” beyond this and to the south.
The Conservation Area therefore represents an historic oasis surrounded on three sides by post 1970s and later developments, and only to the north by the more historic Broad Street, which however backs on to the Conservation Area, often in the form of rear service yards and parking spaces which are accessed from St Mary’s Butts adjacent to St Mary’s Church.
3.2 General character and plan form
Essentially the Conservation Area lies at the crossing of two north/south and east/west roads. Except for St Mary’s Church and Churchyard, which form a key open space and landmark building in the north-east segment of the cross-roads, the character of the area is one of two and three storey buildings built right up the back edge of pavements. This character is reflective of the medieval street pattern of this part of Reading, which is recognised as being the original core and market place of the town, before the advent of Reading Abbey “drew” the centre of gravity of the town and its market place to the western end of Friar Street. More recently, the market has moved to its current position, in Hosier Street, once again close to its original home.
With this background in mind, it is not surprising to find that St Mary’s Butts was shown as “Old Street” on older maps of the town, whereas Friar Street was shown as “New Street”.
The cross-roads lie immediately north of the original fords/bridging points of the River Kennet upon which Reading grew, providing the main route south to places like Winchester and Southampton and north to Wallingford (historically a very important town) and Oxford. The Minster Street/Gun Street/Castle Street axis was originally the main east-west route between London and Bath.
Originally, there was a row of back-to-back houses running down the middle of the southern end of St Mary’s Butts and on the outside of the churchyard The latter were actually almshouses, built in the late sixteenth century, rebuilt in the late eighteenth century and demolished circa 1865, when they were “relocated” to the western end of Castle Street. A plaque on the wall of the latter testifies to the original almshouses in the Churchyard. The cross-roads should therefore be seen as a busy centre of life in Saxon and medieval times, centred on the market, St Mary’s Church, the churchyard and the cross-roads. Historically, there have been at least 4 public houses (inns) and 2 or 3 churches in this small area, and before it was redeveloped, a number of industries were situated in the area immediately surrounding the Conservation Area, for example early mills based on the River Kennet, and latterly the now relocated Courage/Simmonds Brewery.
4.0 Historic development
4.1 Archaeology
The Domesday Survey for Reading, undertaken in 1085-6, described a large estate formerly held by King Edward and a church and estate held by the Abbot of Battle, evidence of a thriving urban community in the eleventh century. This was centred where the main north-south and east-west roads crossed to the south west of the current site of St Mary’s Church.
4.2 Historic development
The turning point in Reading’s history came in 1121 when Henry I founded Reading Abbey, later to become one of the richest religious houses in England until the Dissolution in 1539. The enormous abbey church now lies under the present Forbury Garden and Abbots’ Walk, to the east of Reading’s Market Place/London Street Conservation Area. This area became the centre of Reading following the building of the Abbey, taking over from the St Mary’s Butts area.
During the medieval period Reading developed rapidly, based on the manufacture of woollen cloth, leather goods and silk weaving. This was encouraged by its good location on the crossing of major historic land routes, and by the proximity of the two waterways – the River Kennet and the River Thames.
4.3 The effect of historical development on plan form; settlement pattern
The old Saxon Borough of Reading was centred on the Old Market and Old Street, which early maps indicate was what St Mary’s Butts was originally called, where the two main roads (Oxford to Winchester and London to Bath) crossed above the then lowest bridging point of the River Kennet. St Mary’s Church, mentioned in the Domesday Book, faced the market and originally occupied a corner at the cross-roads, now obscured by the southern extension of the graveyard which deflected Minster Street south towards properties in what is now Gun Street.
As mentioned above, the foundation of the Abbey to the east of the town resulted in a shift of economic balance from the area round St Mary’s Butts to the gates of the Abbey. This was also a shift from the unplanned original centre of “Old Street” (St Mary’ Butts) to a more planned new centre towards the end of “New Street” (now Friar Street), incorporating a large new market place and a grid of streets between Friar Street and Broad Street. London Street and a new bridge over the Kennet were part of this plan.
St Mary’s Butts can therefore lay claim to be the oldest part of Reading, dating from Saxon times. The current street pattern dates from medieval times, when the St Mary’s Parish was the original heart of the town. St Mary’s Butts takes its name from the range where local men were obliged by law to practice archery. Apparently this lasted until the seventeenth century, when guns became the weapon of war, and speculation is that Gun Street takes its name from the location of gun retailers in the street.
St Mary’s Church The main building, then as now, was St Mary’s Church, essentially a sixteenth century re-build on the Saxon site, but incorporating remnants of the early church and also using materials from the by now dissolved Reading Abbey. Another notable building in the area was the Oracle, built as a place of work for the poor, with its entrance adjoining 15 Gun Street (and now an entrance to the recently developed Oracle Shopping Centre, from which it takes its name). This existed until about 1850. Therefore, Reading grew up around the lowest point at which the River Kennet could be crossed. The original crossing place, the natural place for a town to be started, seems to have been at the bottom of today’s Bridge Street. Towards this crossing place came roads from Oxford, Southampton, Bristol and London. The earliest main south-north route followed Southampton Street and Bridge Street to St Mary’s Butts where the medieval St Mary’s Church still stands.
As the influence of the Abbey grew, the early route along the course of today’s Southampton Street, Bridge Street and St. Mary's Butts was rivaled by a south-north road leading directly to the newly established market place by St Laurence’s Church via a new bridge over the Kennet. This new road followed London Street over the Kennet at High Bridge and led along Duke Street to the Market Place i.e. the backbone of the Market Place/London Street Conservation Area.
The earliest map of Reading, published in John Speed’s atlas of Great Britain in 1611 shows that the plan of the town in the early 17th century resembled a triangle with a church roughly at each corner: St Mary’s, Greyfriars and St Laurence’s. The two long roughly north-south sides of the triangle are formed by the two old rival routes mentioned above. The River Kennet, spanned by two bridges (one over each route), flowed through the centre of the town. The northern side of the triangle was Friar Street. The most developed area is shown to be north of the Kennet and west of the site of Reading Abbey.
Reading was mostly contained within the medieval limits of the ‘triangle’ until the end of the 18th century when the town began to expand as a result of improved transport links and industrialisation. Rocque’s map of the mid- 18th century shows some development westward from Castle Street as well as the beginnings of development eastward along London Road. Tomkin’s map of 1802 is far more detailed and shows many buildings that are still standing today.
The most significant changes to Reading’s historic street pattern, are fairly recent and were caused by the construction in the 1970s of the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) around the western and southern parts of the town centre. This forms a physical and visual barrier to the west and south of the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area (see 5.1 Key Views and Vistas).
The newer 1970s redevelopment of the Police Station/Magistrates Courts/Civic Centre/Hexagon/Broad Street Mall and, later, The Oracle Shopping Centre, have already been cited as enclosing the Conservation Area, but there is an opportunity to improve the modern face to the Conservation Area with the proposed redevelopment of the Hosier Street Market site and land to the west.
5.0 Spatial analysis
5.1 Key views and vistas
The Conservation Area basically lies at the top of an incline from the Kennet river crossing, but because of the tightness of the properties at the northern end of Bridge Street to the back edge of the pavement, views of St Mary’s Church are not readily apparent until one is quite close to it. The same applies when approaching the site from other points of the compass. Nevertheless the tower of St Mary’s Church itself provides good views of these approaches (important historically to defend the church). The similarly named, St Mary’s Church in Castle Street is also another local landmark, but again, is more prominent close up and from views from either end of Castle Street. It is, however, less prominent nowadays, because it is missing the “pepper pot” (bell tower) feature which once adorned the plinth which still stands above the building.
A minor local landmark structure is the Victorian Fountain situated on the “island” in the middle of St Mary’s Butts, as is the facility provided by a refreshment kiosk adjacent to it. At the southern end of the island were once subterranean Victorian toilets, which are now closed/sealed off. The main historic views out of the area are: to Greyfriars Church to the north along St Mary’s Butts and West Street; up Castle Hill to the west, although this is interrupted by the Inner Distribution Road and the large roundabout above it at the western end of Castle Street; and south to St Giles Church down Bridge Street and Southampton Street (but again interrupted by the Inner Distribution Road). Views to the east are foreshortened by the closeness of buildings on this boundary. The Conservation Area is therefore very much an historic enclave surrounded by much more modern developments which do not provide significant views out of the area, but which generally benefit from good views in to it. It is situated at the centre of some very active parts of the town, which people walk across and often rest in, and (apart from the grassed area outside the Civic Offices) provides the only public green area at the western end of the town centre.
Within the Conservation Area there are potentially interesting views to and from the west from St Mary’s Church along the important east-west pedestrian axis via the site of the Hosier Street Market from the Civic Offices/Hexagon/Broad Street Mall southern entrance to St Mary’s Church. Currently the views to St Mary’s Church are significantly better than those from it. However, the previously mentioned development of the Hosier Street brings with it considerable potential for improvements to this part of the Conservation Area, its wider setting and views to and from it.
5.2 The character of spaces within the area
The Conservation Area is, generally speaking, a tightly knit urban area composed of continuous frontages of two- and three- storey buildings to the back of the pavement edge, fronting streets of varying length and width, with one major public open space, that of St Mary’s Churchyard, surrounding the area’s major landmark building, having pedestrian links around it to the wider area. This well maintained open space, based on St Mary’s Church, is surrounded by walls on its east, south and west sides, and provides a good focus and setting for the area’s historic buildings, although Castle Street runs westwards from the south-west corner of this area and therefore has a character of its own. It is a popular oasis where people can stop and relax from the bustle of urban life which surrounds it. Almshouses, Castle Street The Castle Street Almshouses at its western end do, however, contain an attractive open space running between the parallel terraces of which the Almshouses comprise. This leads down to the Holy Brook, which is an open linking feature at the southern end of this part of Castle Street until it disappears into the Grade II* listed culvert behind numbers 1-31 (odd) Castle Street, only to reappear intermittently behind properties in Gun Street. In parts, Castle Street presents a wide thoroughfare, but remains a major vehicular traffic route with narrow footpaths and few pedestrian resting spaces.
St Mary’s Butts itself is also a wide thoroughfare, with fairly narrow pavements, but has an interesting traffic island at its centre. As previously mentioned, this contains a commemorative fountain, popular refreshment kiosk, and was formerly the site of subterranean Victorian toilets. Opposite St Mary’s Church to the west, across St Mary’s Butts, is the fairly open site of the town’s four times weekly market. Although currently poorly defined and lacking character, and just outside the Conservation Area, this space will be redeveloped in the near future as part of the aforementioned Civic area redevelopment
The Churchyard, Almshouses and Holybrook open spaces display a much quieter character than the extremely busy St Mary’s Butts and the Gun Street/Castle Street axes which, although subject to some day-time traffic restrictions, are very busy, major bus routes through the centre of the town, affecting the character and appearance of these streets with the plethora of street furniture associated with this function.
Apart from St Mary’s Churchyard there is, therefore, limited green public open space in the area. With the exception of the Castle Street Almshouses, former back yards or gardens of properties fronting the conservation area have been developed or are used for car parking, reflecting the generally commercial function of this town centre area.
6.0 Definition of the special interest of the conservation area
6.1 Definition of character areas
The Conservation Area can be divided into three character areas:
• St Mary’s Church and Churchyard,
• St Marys Butts, and
• The Gun Street and Castle Street frontages.
Area 1: St Mary’s Church and Churchyard
St Mary’s Church lies at the heart of the Conservation Area, and is situated within its largest public open space. It is the most pedestrian-friendly part of the Area. The area is defined by walls round three sides and part of the fourth (north) side, with buildings facing it at the eastern end of the north side. The Grade 1 listed church, the open, people-friendly character of the churchyard around it, and the pedestrian routes through and around the space, are a marked contrast to the close-knit buildings beyond heavily used roadways outside the churchyard.
The churchyard was not always open to view as it is now, because from the sixteenth to the mid nineteenth centuries there were originally almshouses on its southern and western boundaries. Their removal clearly benefited the now open character and appearance of this part of the Conservation Area.
Character Area 1: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The site of the Minster Church of St Mary and its walled churchyard, which dominate the very core of the historical centre of Reading as well as the Conservation Area itself;
• Good pedestrian links through and around the site, and pedestrian links via Chain Street to Broad Street to the north and The Oracle to the south;
• Some potential to stop and sit in the churchyard;
• The generally well-maintained character of the site.
Character Area 1: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• Noise and fumes from a constant stream of vehicular traffic to the south and west of the Churchyard;
• Unattractive, if well-used pedestrian links to and from the west of the site across a heavily trafficked St Mary’s Butts.
Area 2: St Mary’s Butts
This broad thoroughfare is dominated by traffic and has potential for improvement, hopefully retaining the commemorative fountain in the central traffic island. The refreshment kiosk also provides interest as well as a local facility, but the erstwhile removal of the Victorian toilets from the southern end of the island means that it now lacks the character that it once had, and despite the presence of the refreshment kiosk, is not a pedestrian-friendly area at this point. The island is situated between two carriageways (effectively providing a north to south turning head for vehicles unable to progress north past a traffic restriction). Bus traffic dominates the western carriageway for a considerable number of routes travelling from the east, west and south, and the accompanying infrastructure, in terms of road layout, materials used and amount of street furniture pays little regard to the position of St Mary’s Butts in the Conservation Area or its setting in relation to St Mary’s Church.
The properties fronting St Mary’s Butts within the Conservation Area represent a genuinely historic part of the town, notwithstanding the relatively new buildings at numbers 32 and 34. These are some of the oldest surviving buildings in the town and, in terms of scale and architectural style relate to their neighbours to the south, particularly in Castle Street, with which some are contiguous. Pavement treatments in this locality are however generally poor.
Reading’s four times weekly market is held in Hosier Street, to the west of St Mary’s Butts and just outside the Conservation Area.
Character Area 2: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The traditional 16th century buildings at the southern end of St Mary’s Butts (numbers 35-37 St Mary’s Butts and “The Horn” adjoining them to the south), and at 57 St Mary’s Butts, the latter retaining its cobbled access and passageway and cobbles in front of the building;
• The Victorian Fountain and kiosk, which are local landmarks on the “island” in the centre of St Mary’s Butts;
• Views to St Mary’s Church and Churchyard.
Character Area 2: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The relative dominance of large modern buildings to the north (Broad Street Mall) and smaller buildings to the west (32-34 St Mary’s Butts, the Electricity Sub-Station) and the Civic Centre complex beyond these to the west;
• The wide, vehicle dominated thoroughfare of St Mary’s Butts itself;
• Modern carriageway and pavement materials (concrete and tarmac) which do not respect the historical importance of the street;
• A plethora of street furniture associated with the function of the street as an important vehicular, particularly public transport, route.
• The current unattractive appearance of the Hosier Street market area immediately adjoining and affecting the setting of the Conservation Area.
Area 3. The Gun Street and Castle Street frontages
The buildings in these streets, and the south/south-western end of St Mary’s Butts already referred to, are typically two and three storeys built right up to the back edge of pavement. This character is reflective of the medieval street pattern of this part of Reading, being the original core of the town, with good examples of buildings dating from all periods from the sixteenth century (indeed some of the oldest in the town). Despite the range of ages of buildings here, there remains a coherence of scale and massing throughout these streets, which has been maintained right up to the most recent developments. The main exception to this scale within the Conservation Area is St Mary’s Church in Castle Street, a landmark building in this street, and to a lesser extent the former Congregational Chapel, now “Dogma” at 11 Castle Street. Again, the dominance of vehicles travelling east and west along Castle Street and west along Gun Street spoils the ambience of these streets, as does the quality and materials used to form pavements and carriageways. The presence of parked cars and street furniture also gives a cluttered feel to this part of the Conservation Area, despite the attractive character of the building frontages themselves, which comprise an attractive sweep when seen from a number of viewpoints at either end and along the street – this is despite the visual intrusion and physical juxtaposition of the more monolithic Magistrates Court and Police Station buildings at its western end. Looking east along Castle Street
Character Area 3: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• St Mary’s Church in the centre of the northern part of Castle Street within the Conservation Area is a local landmark building even without its missing “pepperpot”;
• The corner buildings at Gun Street/Bridge Street, Bridge Street/Castle Street and Castle Street/St Mary’s Butts, at the crossroads of the Conservation Area are local landmark buildings;
• The “Sun Inn” is now also an important corner landmark building representing the western limit of the Conservation Area on the north side of Castle Street;
• The 16th Century survivors at numbers 15 and 17 Castle Street, the former retaining a cobbled passageway;
• The gentle curves apparent in the building frontages to Castle Street are also a key feature of the buildings here, giving further coherence to the matching scale of the buildings along the frontage;
• Traditional shop frontages in Gun Street;
• The open space between the almshouses between 51 and 55 Castle Street providing a unique green space seen from the frontage of this part of the Conservation Area;
• The Holy Brook which links the rears (albeit partly in a listed culvert) of the properties in Castle Street and Gun Street on their south sides, and which at its western end is an attractive landscaped foil to the generally built up of this part of the Conservation Area;
• Railings at the front of several properties on the south side of Gun Street and Castle Street.
Character Area 3: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• Noise and fumes from traffic;
• Modern highway and pavement materials and a plethora of street furniture associated with this important east-west vehicular (public transport), probably worst at the Gun Street end;
• Parked cars at various points along the Castle Street frontages also provide a visual distraction from the character and appearance of the Conservation Area;
• The historic and architectural character and appearance of Castle Street is diluted by the dominating presence of the Police Station and Magistrates Court on the north side/western end of Castle Street (outside the Conservation Area, but directly facing the “sweep” of Castle Street opposite);
• The Castle Street roundabout above the IDR which cuts off physical and visual links with historic parts of the town to the west;
• To some extent, The Oracle development also dominates behind properties in Gun Street, as does the “Fobney” office development behind properties in Castle Street, but these are less obvious when seen from street level;
• Although an important pedestrian route from the west, this is not an attractive pedestrian route, with pedestrian/traffic conflicts along it;
• Non traditional shop fronts in Gun Street.
Generally.
Apart from the much more contemporary buildings immediately outside it, the conservation area itself and the buildings in it have a somewhat medieval scale and appearance, and changes which have taken place (within the building street frontages of the Conservation Area itself) since those times have generally respected this character. Opportunities should however be taken to redress the negative impacts referred to on the peripheries of the Conservation Area, and to floorscapes generally.
6.2 Activities and uses
The Conservation Area is essentially a mixed use commercial area with some residential properties at the western end of Castle Street and the western end of Minster Street. There are however few residential units above ground floor uses throughout the Conservation Area. Retail and catering uses predominate at ground floor in Gun Street and St Mary’s Butts and at the eastern end of Castle Street, but elsewhere offices predominate. This mix has proved beneficial to high occupancy rates and the routine maintenance of properties in the Conservation Area, and there have only been isolated examples of neglect in recent years. Currently, buildings in the Conservation Area indicate high occupancy rates and good maintenance.
6.3 Architectural and historic character: building methods and materials
The Conservation Area contains buildings from the 16th century onwards with an obvious preponderance of late 18th and 19th century buildings. Fortunately, within the Conservation Area itself, newer redevelopment and more modern buildings have generally respected the design, scale and materials of the original buildings, and do not have a negative effect on the special architectural interest of the Conservation Area. St Mary’s Church, a Reading landmark, is one of the oldest buildings in the town. The current church dates in part from the 16th century, although there has been a church on this site since Norman times. This is a unique building in Reading, built in a distinctive chequer work of flint and ashlar with a tiled roof.
There are also a number of surviving buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries within the area, such that the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area shares with the Market Place/London Street Conservation Area the distinction of housing some of the very few surviving examples of Reading’s pre-industrial urban development, including timber-framed buildings, some with typical jetties at first floor level. Falling into this category are: 15 and 17 Castle Street, 2-6 Castle Street, and 35-37 and 57 St Mary’s Butts, some retaining cobbled access passageways to the rear. 17th Century buildings include: the rear of 8 Castle Street, 14-16 Castle Street (“The Sun”) and 15 Gun Street.
Save for the obvious exception of the “grander” architecture and materials used in the two churches in the Conservation Area, and the aforementioned timber-framed buildings, the buildings in the Conservation area are generally of brick, which is one of the distinguishing features of Reading’s architecture and there are examples of good quality brickwork throughout the conservation area. Brick was a popular building material in the 18th and 19th centuries and the ready availability of different coloured bricks provided the opportunity for the lively polychromatic brickwork found throughout Victorian Reading. The town had several brickworks, the most notable being S & E Collier Ltd at Water Road and Elgar Road and two brick works in the Tilehurst area.
6.4 Buildings of Townscape Merit
Most of the buildings in this Conservation area are listed as being of architectural or historic importance, both in their own right and for their group value. These are “Buildings of Townscape Merit” in their own right, particularly the churches and corner sites, but the unlisted former “Cross Keys” public house (now “ Sahara”) on the corner of Gun Street and Bridge Street is also considered worthy as being a “Building of Townscape Merit”. Buildings identified as having “townscape merit” will vary, but commonly they will be good examples of relatively unaltered 19th century and later buildings where their style, detailing and building materials provides the streetscape with interest and variety. Most importantly, they make a positive contribution to the special interest of a conservation area. The former “Cross Keys” displays all of these attributes, not least in the use of decorative and patterned brickwork, as well as a particularly striking bay window at first floor level. “Cross Keys” motifs also appear throughout the building.
6.5 Public realm, Floorscape, street lighting and street furniture.
Road and footway surfaces are predominantly modern i.e. tarmac and concrete products, with some brick at the Hosier Street crossing of St Mary’s Butts. Whilst generally in good repair, these surfaces are not attractive and not “traditional” in conservation area terms e.g. there is limited use of stone and brick paving.
St Mary’s Church has benefited from floorscape improvement by creating pavements along historical pedestrian “desire lines”, but only uses traditional stone flags in front of the church itself.
Cobbled passageways remain at 17 Castle Street and 57 St Mary’s Butts as part of the 16th century buildings on these sites, and there is a cobbled access area in front of number 57 St Mary’s Butts. Small areas of “cobble” survive in front of “The Horn” and “County Delicacies” in St Mary’s Butts and “The Sun” and “The Brewery Tap” in Castle Street. Any areas of historic floorscape should be preserved.
Stone flagstones remain outside St Mary’s Church in Castle Street, but even here, repairs to the steps appear to be of concrete. The attractive Almshouses between numbers 51 and 55 Castle Street also do not benefit from traditional paving materials.
Brick paviours and some stone kerbs have been used in the area of the bus stop and parking lay-by at the western end of Castle Street, but generally this is not an attractive area.
Railings are to be found in front of some properties in Castle Street, including numbers 17, 19, 43, The Almshouses, the redeveloped number 57 and number 63 Castle Street. However, whilst these are attractive features adding interest to the Conservation area, they are not typical of the Conservation Area and, except for number 57, these appear to date from the 19th century.
Street lighting columns, signage and street furniture are modern, and this is another area with considerable potential for improvement. There are no examples of traditional lighting except in the Almshouses and in St Mary’s Churchyard.
As already stated elsewhere in this report, there is considerable potential to “improve” floorscapes throughout the Conservation Area.
6.6 Local details and features
The Queen Victoria Jubilee Fountain in St Mary’s Butts (1887) is a significant local landmark and is marked by its status as a listed building. It’s setting on a tarmac island in the middle of the busy St Mary’s Butts is not however attractive. The aforementioned refreshment kiosk on the island is also a well-used feature of the island.
There are two groups of tombs and a Jubilee Cross within the churchyard which are also listed, plus a local landmark tree, which are lesser features of the Conservation Area but which, together with the aforementioned list, add local character and a sense of place to the Conservation area.
6.7 Historic associations
Despite its place at the original heart and crossroads of the town, the Conservation Area is a little short on personalities who have graced the Area. However, local associations include: Sir Thomas Vachel, after whom the Almshouses in Castle Street are named (he founded the original almshouses at St Mary’s Church in 1634); William Henry Woodman, architect for the “new” (1864-7) almshouses; C R Hurell, watercolourist, who lived at 39 Castle Street; Dr Hurry, historian of Reading Abbey, who lived at 43 Castle Street; R Billing, architect of St Mary’s Church, Castle St, originally a simple Georgian building, but embellished with a hexastyle portico in Greek Corinthian style by local builders/architects Henry & Nathaniel Briant, who were also responsible for the King Street Bank and the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
St Mary’s Church, Castle Street stands on the site of the former Reading Gaol, and a “Norman Arch” in the grounds and the cellars of “The Sun” are also reputed to be part of the gaol. The Church has an interesting ecclesiastical history as a breakaway from St Giles in Southampton Street, and the former Congregational Chapel at 11 Castle Street was also itself a later breakaway from St Mary’s.
The long history of the Minster Church of St Mary is of course inextricably linked with the history of Reading itself, and has been referred to elsewhere in this report.
The origins of the street names in the Conservation Area have been discussed elsewhere in this report, but to this day no one can be sure that Castle Street (and Castle Hill) actually led to a Castle!
6.8 Green spaces, trees and other natural elements
Green spaces are uncommon in this urban conservation area. The three most significant green areas, softening an otherwise obviously urban environment, are the Churchyard of St Mary’s Church, the walkway between the Castle Street Almshouses and the Holy Brook where it appears behind properties on the south side of Castle Street and Gun Street.
The space which is occupied by the Hosier Street Market, although actually outside the Conservation Area, has a bland appearance, but has the potential to become an important and attractive linking space between the Conservation Area and the new Civic Centre complex proposed to the west. The Holy Brook is a notable linking feature on the southern boundary of the conservation area. Originally a natural branch of the River Kennet, it was later harnessed as a serial millstream serving early industries such as dyeing and tanning, and whilst it flows underground through the conservation area, it can be glimpsed from several places along the boundary of the Conservation Area. Behind numbers 1-31 Castle Street it flows through a grade II* listed culvert some 160m long.
Trees are few and because of their scarcity they make a significant contribution to this urban Conservation Area’s special character and sense of identity. Significant tree groups are to be found in the area’s three “green areas” mentioned above. There are no other significant individual trees and small groups outside of these areas. St Mary’s Churchyard has recently benefited from additional planting, funded by local businesses as part of the “Trees for Cities” initiative.
6.9 General condition of the area: The extent of loss, intrusions or damage i.e. negative features.
The general state of repair of buildings in the conservation area is good with few retail and commercial premises remaining vacant for any length of time.
The open spaces are also generally in good repair, without necessarily having a truly traditional feel about them, for example in the use of more appropriate floorscape materials and “furniture”.
It is the highway environment (roads and footways) which detracts most from the character and appearance of the Conservation Area as a whole, as has been discussed elsewhere in this appraisal.
All of these areas would benefit from continued monitoring, and the seizing of opportunities for improvement as they arise, not least in relation to the proposed Civic Quarter proposals which will have a considerable impact at the Hosier Street junction with St Mary’s Butts within the Conservation Area.
Back to top »
The text which follows was produced by Dennis Greenway, Chartered Town Planner and Building Conservation Advisor for Reading Borough Council
3.0 Location and setting
3.1 Location and context
The boundaries of the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area are shown at Appendix 2. It is situated immediately to the south of properties fronting Reading’s traditional main shopping street, Broad Street, from which it is accessible via the northern end of St Mary’s Butts and Chain Street.
It lies north west of the Oracle Shopping Centre, to which access can be gained at either end of Gun Street.
Two main road links cross the area, St Mary’s Butts/Bridge Street north to south, and Castle Street/Gun Street/and a small section of Minster Street west to east. Only the south side and a small stretch on the northern side of Castle Street (eastern end) lie in the Conservation Area. The remaining northern side of Castle Street comprises the Magistrates Court/Police Station Complex, behind which are the Civic Offices and the Hexagon, and to the north-east of which lies the Broad Street Mall Shopping Centre. The latter also faces the northern end (western side) of St Mary’s Butts. This whole area is a 1970s redevelopment; however, that part of this area centred on the site of the Hosier Street Market and land to the west is currently under discussion for further redevelopment and presents considerable potential to improve the appearance and setting of this part of the Conservation Area.
The western end of the Conservation Area is marked by the line of that part of the town’s Inner Distribution Road which separates the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area from the Castle Hill/Russell Street Conservation Area to the west.
The southern boundary of the Conservation Area is demarcated by the Holy Brook, south of which are more recent housing developments and offices accessed from Bridge Street on part of the former Simmonds/Courage Brewery site to the west of Bridge Street. The aforementioned Oracle Shopping Centre (a large part of which was also part of the former Simmonds/Courage Brewery site) also lies to the south of The Holy Brook to the east of Bridge Street.
The John Lewis (formerly “Heelas”) department store marks the eastern boundary of the site, and south of that, on the opposite side of Minster Street, is a main Telephone Exchange, with the “Oracle” beyond this and to the south.
The Conservation Area therefore represents an historic oasis surrounded on three sides by post 1970s and later developments, and only to the north by the more historic Broad Street, which however backs on to the Conservation Area, often in the form of rear service yards and parking spaces which are accessed from St Mary’s Butts adjacent to St Mary’s Church.
3.2 General character and plan form
Essentially the Conservation Area lies at the crossing of two north/south and east/west roads. Except for St Mary’s Church and Churchyard, which form a key open space and landmark building in the north-east segment of the cross-roads, the character of the area is one of two and three storey buildings built right up the back edge of pavements. This character is reflective of the medieval street pattern of this part of Reading, which is recognised as being the original core and market place of the town, before the advent of Reading Abbey “drew” the centre of gravity of the town and its market place to the western end of Friar Street. More recently, the market has moved to its current position, in Hosier Street, once again close to its original home.
With this background in mind, it is not surprising to find that St Mary’s Butts was shown as “Old Street” on older maps of the town, whereas Friar Street was shown as “New Street”.
The cross-roads lie immediately north of the original fords/bridging points of the River Kennet upon which Reading grew, providing the main route south to places like Winchester and Southampton and north to Wallingford (historically a very important town) and Oxford. The Minster Street/Gun Street/Castle Street axis was originally the main east-west route between London and Bath.
Originally, there was a row of back-to-back houses running down the middle of the southern end of St Mary’s Butts and on the outside of the churchyard The latter were actually almshouses, built in the late sixteenth century, rebuilt in the late eighteenth century and demolished circa 1865, when they were “relocated” to the western end of Castle Street. A plaque on the wall of the latter testifies to the original almshouses in the Churchyard. The cross-roads should therefore be seen as a busy centre of life in Saxon and medieval times, centred on the market, St Mary’s Church, the churchyard and the cross-roads. Historically, there have been at least 4 public houses (inns) and 2 or 3 churches in this small area, and before it was redeveloped, a number of industries were situated in the area immediately surrounding the Conservation Area, for example early mills based on the River Kennet, and latterly the now relocated Courage/Simmonds Brewery.
4.0 Historic development
4.1 Archaeology
The Domesday Survey for Reading, undertaken in 1085-6, described a large estate formerly held by King Edward and a church and estate held by the Abbot of Battle, evidence of a thriving urban community in the eleventh century. This was centred where the main north-south and east-west roads crossed to the south west of the current site of St Mary’s Church.
4.2 Historic development
The turning point in Reading’s history came in 1121 when Henry I founded Reading Abbey, later to become one of the richest religious houses in England until the Dissolution in 1539. The enormous abbey church now lies under the present Forbury Garden and Abbots’ Walk, to the east of Reading’s Market Place/London Street Conservation Area. This area became the centre of Reading following the building of the Abbey, taking over from the St Mary’s Butts area.
During the medieval period Reading developed rapidly, based on the manufacture of woollen cloth, leather goods and silk weaving. This was encouraged by its good location on the crossing of major historic land routes, and by the proximity of the two waterways – the River Kennet and the River Thames.
4.3 The effect of historical development on plan form; settlement pattern
The old Saxon Borough of Reading was centred on the Old Market and Old Street, which early maps indicate was what St Mary’s Butts was originally called, where the two main roads (Oxford to Winchester and London to Bath) crossed above the then lowest bridging point of the River Kennet. St Mary’s Church, mentioned in the Domesday Book, faced the market and originally occupied a corner at the cross-roads, now obscured by the southern extension of the graveyard which deflected Minster Street south towards properties in what is now Gun Street.
As mentioned above, the foundation of the Abbey to the east of the town resulted in a shift of economic balance from the area round St Mary’s Butts to the gates of the Abbey. This was also a shift from the unplanned original centre of “Old Street” (St Mary’ Butts) to a more planned new centre towards the end of “New Street” (now Friar Street), incorporating a large new market place and a grid of streets between Friar Street and Broad Street. London Street and a new bridge over the Kennet were part of this plan.
St Mary’s Butts can therefore lay claim to be the oldest part of Reading, dating from Saxon times. The current street pattern dates from medieval times, when the St Mary’s Parish was the original heart of the town. St Mary’s Butts takes its name from the range where local men were obliged by law to practice archery. Apparently this lasted until the seventeenth century, when guns became the weapon of war, and speculation is that Gun Street takes its name from the location of gun retailers in the street.
St Mary’s Church The main building, then as now, was St Mary’s Church, essentially a sixteenth century re-build on the Saxon site, but incorporating remnants of the early church and also using materials from the by now dissolved Reading Abbey. Another notable building in the area was the Oracle, built as a place of work for the poor, with its entrance adjoining 15 Gun Street (and now an entrance to the recently developed Oracle Shopping Centre, from which it takes its name). This existed until about 1850. Therefore, Reading grew up around the lowest point at which the River Kennet could be crossed. The original crossing place, the natural place for a town to be started, seems to have been at the bottom of today’s Bridge Street. Towards this crossing place came roads from Oxford, Southampton, Bristol and London. The earliest main south-north route followed Southampton Street and Bridge Street to St Mary’s Butts where the medieval St Mary’s Church still stands.
As the influence of the Abbey grew, the early route along the course of today’s Southampton Street, Bridge Street and St. Mary's Butts was rivaled by a south-north road leading directly to the newly established market place by St Laurence’s Church via a new bridge over the Kennet. This new road followed London Street over the Kennet at High Bridge and led along Duke Street to the Market Place i.e. the backbone of the Market Place/London Street Conservation Area.
The earliest map of Reading, published in John Speed’s atlas of Great Britain in 1611 shows that the plan of the town in the early 17th century resembled a triangle with a church roughly at each corner: St Mary’s, Greyfriars and St Laurence’s. The two long roughly north-south sides of the triangle are formed by the two old rival routes mentioned above. The River Kennet, spanned by two bridges (one over each route), flowed through the centre of the town. The northern side of the triangle was Friar Street. The most developed area is shown to be north of the Kennet and west of the site of Reading Abbey.
Reading was mostly contained within the medieval limits of the ‘triangle’ until the end of the 18th century when the town began to expand as a result of improved transport links and industrialisation. Rocque’s map of the mid- 18th century shows some development westward from Castle Street as well as the beginnings of development eastward along London Road. Tomkin’s map of 1802 is far more detailed and shows many buildings that are still standing today.
The most significant changes to Reading’s historic street pattern, are fairly recent and were caused by the construction in the 1970s of the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) around the western and southern parts of the town centre. This forms a physical and visual barrier to the west and south of the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area (see 5.1 Key Views and Vistas).
The newer 1970s redevelopment of the Police Station/Magistrates Courts/Civic Centre/Hexagon/Broad Street Mall and, later, The Oracle Shopping Centre, have already been cited as enclosing the Conservation Area, but there is an opportunity to improve the modern face to the Conservation Area with the proposed redevelopment of the Hosier Street Market site and land to the west.
5.0 Spatial analysis
5.1 Key views and vistas
The Conservation Area basically lies at the top of an incline from the Kennet river crossing, but because of the tightness of the properties at the northern end of Bridge Street to the back edge of the pavement, views of St Mary’s Church are not readily apparent until one is quite close to it. The same applies when approaching the site from other points of the compass. Nevertheless the tower of St Mary’s Church itself provides good views of these approaches (important historically to defend the church). The similarly named, St Mary’s Church in Castle Street is also another local landmark, but again, is more prominent close up and from views from either end of Castle Street. It is, however, less prominent nowadays, because it is missing the “pepper pot” (bell tower) feature which once adorned the plinth which still stands above the building.
A minor local landmark structure is the Victorian Fountain situated on the “island” in the middle of St Mary’s Butts, as is the facility provided by a refreshment kiosk adjacent to it. At the southern end of the island were once subterranean Victorian toilets, which are now closed/sealed off. The main historic views out of the area are: to Greyfriars Church to the north along St Mary’s Butts and West Street; up Castle Hill to the west, although this is interrupted by the Inner Distribution Road and the large roundabout above it at the western end of Castle Street; and south to St Giles Church down Bridge Street and Southampton Street (but again interrupted by the Inner Distribution Road). Views to the east are foreshortened by the closeness of buildings on this boundary. The Conservation Area is therefore very much an historic enclave surrounded by much more modern developments which do not provide significant views out of the area, but which generally benefit from good views in to it. It is situated at the centre of some very active parts of the town, which people walk across and often rest in, and (apart from the grassed area outside the Civic Offices) provides the only public green area at the western end of the town centre.
Within the Conservation Area there are potentially interesting views to and from the west from St Mary’s Church along the important east-west pedestrian axis via the site of the Hosier Street Market from the Civic Offices/Hexagon/Broad Street Mall southern entrance to St Mary’s Church. Currently the views to St Mary’s Church are significantly better than those from it. However, the previously mentioned development of the Hosier Street brings with it considerable potential for improvements to this part of the Conservation Area, its wider setting and views to and from it.
5.2 The character of spaces within the area
The Conservation Area is, generally speaking, a tightly knit urban area composed of continuous frontages of two- and three- storey buildings to the back of the pavement edge, fronting streets of varying length and width, with one major public open space, that of St Mary’s Churchyard, surrounding the area’s major landmark building, having pedestrian links around it to the wider area. This well maintained open space, based on St Mary’s Church, is surrounded by walls on its east, south and west sides, and provides a good focus and setting for the area’s historic buildings, although Castle Street runs westwards from the south-west corner of this area and therefore has a character of its own. It is a popular oasis where people can stop and relax from the bustle of urban life which surrounds it. Almshouses, Castle Street The Castle Street Almshouses at its western end do, however, contain an attractive open space running between the parallel terraces of which the Almshouses comprise. This leads down to the Holy Brook, which is an open linking feature at the southern end of this part of Castle Street until it disappears into the Grade II* listed culvert behind numbers 1-31 (odd) Castle Street, only to reappear intermittently behind properties in Gun Street. In parts, Castle Street presents a wide thoroughfare, but remains a major vehicular traffic route with narrow footpaths and few pedestrian resting spaces.
St Mary’s Butts itself is also a wide thoroughfare, with fairly narrow pavements, but has an interesting traffic island at its centre. As previously mentioned, this contains a commemorative fountain, popular refreshment kiosk, and was formerly the site of subterranean Victorian toilets. Opposite St Mary’s Church to the west, across St Mary’s Butts, is the fairly open site of the town’s four times weekly market. Although currently poorly defined and lacking character, and just outside the Conservation Area, this space will be redeveloped in the near future as part of the aforementioned Civic area redevelopment
The Churchyard, Almshouses and Holybrook open spaces display a much quieter character than the extremely busy St Mary’s Butts and the Gun Street/Castle Street axes which, although subject to some day-time traffic restrictions, are very busy, major bus routes through the centre of the town, affecting the character and appearance of these streets with the plethora of street furniture associated with this function.
Apart from St Mary’s Churchyard there is, therefore, limited green public open space in the area. With the exception of the Castle Street Almshouses, former back yards or gardens of properties fronting the conservation area have been developed or are used for car parking, reflecting the generally commercial function of this town centre area.
6.0 Definition of the special interest of the conservation area
6.1 Definition of character areas
The Conservation Area can be divided into three character areas:
• St Mary’s Church and Churchyard,
• St Marys Butts, and
• The Gun Street and Castle Street frontages.
Area 1: St Mary’s Church and Churchyard
St Mary’s Church lies at the heart of the Conservation Area, and is situated within its largest public open space. It is the most pedestrian-friendly part of the Area. The area is defined by walls round three sides and part of the fourth (north) side, with buildings facing it at the eastern end of the north side. The Grade 1 listed church, the open, people-friendly character of the churchyard around it, and the pedestrian routes through and around the space, are a marked contrast to the close-knit buildings beyond heavily used roadways outside the churchyard.
The churchyard was not always open to view as it is now, because from the sixteenth to the mid nineteenth centuries there were originally almshouses on its southern and western boundaries. Their removal clearly benefited the now open character and appearance of this part of the Conservation Area.
Character Area 1: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The site of the Minster Church of St Mary and its walled churchyard, which dominate the very core of the historical centre of Reading as well as the Conservation Area itself;
• Good pedestrian links through and around the site, and pedestrian links via Chain Street to Broad Street to the north and The Oracle to the south;
• Some potential to stop and sit in the churchyard;
• The generally well-maintained character of the site.
Character Area 1: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• Noise and fumes from a constant stream of vehicular traffic to the south and west of the Churchyard;
• Unattractive, if well-used pedestrian links to and from the west of the site across a heavily trafficked St Mary’s Butts.
Area 2: St Mary’s Butts
This broad thoroughfare is dominated by traffic and has potential for improvement, hopefully retaining the commemorative fountain in the central traffic island. The refreshment kiosk also provides interest as well as a local facility, but the erstwhile removal of the Victorian toilets from the southern end of the island means that it now lacks the character that it once had, and despite the presence of the refreshment kiosk, is not a pedestrian-friendly area at this point. The island is situated between two carriageways (effectively providing a north to south turning head for vehicles unable to progress north past a traffic restriction). Bus traffic dominates the western carriageway for a considerable number of routes travelling from the east, west and south, and the accompanying infrastructure, in terms of road layout, materials used and amount of street furniture pays little regard to the position of St Mary’s Butts in the Conservation Area or its setting in relation to St Mary’s Church.
The properties fronting St Mary’s Butts within the Conservation Area represent a genuinely historic part of the town, notwithstanding the relatively new buildings at numbers 32 and 34. These are some of the oldest surviving buildings in the town and, in terms of scale and architectural style relate to their neighbours to the south, particularly in Castle Street, with which some are contiguous. Pavement treatments in this locality are however generally poor.
Reading’s four times weekly market is held in Hosier Street, to the west of St Mary’s Butts and just outside the Conservation Area.
Character Area 2: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The traditional 16th century buildings at the southern end of St Mary’s Butts (numbers 35-37 St Mary’s Butts and “The Horn” adjoining them to the south), and at 57 St Mary’s Butts, the latter retaining its cobbled access and passageway and cobbles in front of the building;
• The Victorian Fountain and kiosk, which are local landmarks on the “island” in the centre of St Mary’s Butts;
• Views to St Mary’s Church and Churchyard.
Character Area 2: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• The relative dominance of large modern buildings to the north (Broad Street Mall) and smaller buildings to the west (32-34 St Mary’s Butts, the Electricity Sub-Station) and the Civic Centre complex beyond these to the west;
• The wide, vehicle dominated thoroughfare of St Mary’s Butts itself;
• Modern carriageway and pavement materials (concrete and tarmac) which do not respect the historical importance of the street;
• A plethora of street furniture associated with the function of the street as an important vehicular, particularly public transport, route.
• The current unattractive appearance of the Hosier Street market area immediately adjoining and affecting the setting of the Conservation Area.
Area 3. The Gun Street and Castle Street frontages
The buildings in these streets, and the south/south-western end of St Mary’s Butts already referred to, are typically two and three storeys built right up to the back edge of pavement. This character is reflective of the medieval street pattern of this part of Reading, being the original core of the town, with good examples of buildings dating from all periods from the sixteenth century (indeed some of the oldest in the town). Despite the range of ages of buildings here, there remains a coherence of scale and massing throughout these streets, which has been maintained right up to the most recent developments. The main exception to this scale within the Conservation Area is St Mary’s Church in Castle Street, a landmark building in this street, and to a lesser extent the former Congregational Chapel, now “Dogma” at 11 Castle Street. Again, the dominance of vehicles travelling east and west along Castle Street and west along Gun Street spoils the ambience of these streets, as does the quality and materials used to form pavements and carriageways. The presence of parked cars and street furniture also gives a cluttered feel to this part of the Conservation Area, despite the attractive character of the building frontages themselves, which comprise an attractive sweep when seen from a number of viewpoints at either end and along the street – this is despite the visual intrusion and physical juxtaposition of the more monolithic Magistrates Court and Police Station buildings at its western end. Looking east along Castle Street
Character Area 3: Features that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• St Mary’s Church in the centre of the northern part of Castle Street within the Conservation Area is a local landmark building even without its missing “pepperpot”;
• The corner buildings at Gun Street/Bridge Street, Bridge Street/Castle Street and Castle Street/St Mary’s Butts, at the crossroads of the Conservation Area are local landmark buildings;
• The “Sun Inn” is now also an important corner landmark building representing the western limit of the Conservation Area on the north side of Castle Street;
• The 16th Century survivors at numbers 15 and 17 Castle Street, the former retaining a cobbled passageway;
• The gentle curves apparent in the building frontages to Castle Street are also a key feature of the buildings here, giving further coherence to the matching scale of the buildings along the frontage;
• Traditional shop frontages in Gun Street;
• The open space between the almshouses between 51 and 55 Castle Street providing a unique green space seen from the frontage of this part of the Conservation Area;
• The Holy Brook which links the rears (albeit partly in a listed culvert) of the properties in Castle Street and Gun Street on their south sides, and which at its western end is an attractive landscaped foil to the generally built up of this part of the Conservation Area;
• Railings at the front of several properties on the south side of Gun Street and Castle Street.
Character Area 3: Features that have a negative impact on the historic character and appearance of the conservation area:
• Noise and fumes from traffic;
• Modern highway and pavement materials and a plethora of street furniture associated with this important east-west vehicular (public transport), probably worst at the Gun Street end;
• Parked cars at various points along the Castle Street frontages also provide a visual distraction from the character and appearance of the Conservation Area;
• The historic and architectural character and appearance of Castle Street is diluted by the dominating presence of the Police Station and Magistrates Court on the north side/western end of Castle Street (outside the Conservation Area, but directly facing the “sweep” of Castle Street opposite);
• The Castle Street roundabout above the IDR which cuts off physical and visual links with historic parts of the town to the west;
• To some extent, The Oracle development also dominates behind properties in Gun Street, as does the “Fobney” office development behind properties in Castle Street, but these are less obvious when seen from street level;
• Although an important pedestrian route from the west, this is not an attractive pedestrian route, with pedestrian/traffic conflicts along it;
• Non traditional shop fronts in Gun Street.
Generally.
Apart from the much more contemporary buildings immediately outside it, the conservation area itself and the buildings in it have a somewhat medieval scale and appearance, and changes which have taken place (within the building street frontages of the Conservation Area itself) since those times have generally respected this character. Opportunities should however be taken to redress the negative impacts referred to on the peripheries of the Conservation Area, and to floorscapes generally.
6.2 Activities and uses
The Conservation Area is essentially a mixed use commercial area with some residential properties at the western end of Castle Street and the western end of Minster Street. There are however few residential units above ground floor uses throughout the Conservation Area. Retail and catering uses predominate at ground floor in Gun Street and St Mary’s Butts and at the eastern end of Castle Street, but elsewhere offices predominate. This mix has proved beneficial to high occupancy rates and the routine maintenance of properties in the Conservation Area, and there have only been isolated examples of neglect in recent years. Currently, buildings in the Conservation Area indicate high occupancy rates and good maintenance.
6.3 Architectural and historic character: building methods and materials
The Conservation Area contains buildings from the 16th century onwards with an obvious preponderance of late 18th and 19th century buildings. Fortunately, within the Conservation Area itself, newer redevelopment and more modern buildings have generally respected the design, scale and materials of the original buildings, and do not have a negative effect on the special architectural interest of the Conservation Area. St Mary’s Church, a Reading landmark, is one of the oldest buildings in the town. The current church dates in part from the 16th century, although there has been a church on this site since Norman times. This is a unique building in Reading, built in a distinctive chequer work of flint and ashlar with a tiled roof.
There are also a number of surviving buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries within the area, such that the St Mary’s Butts/Castle Street Conservation Area shares with the Market Place/London Street Conservation Area the distinction of housing some of the very few surviving examples of Reading’s pre-industrial urban development, including timber-framed buildings, some with typical jetties at first floor level. Falling into this category are: 15 and 17 Castle Street, 2-6 Castle Street, and 35-37 and 57 St Mary’s Butts, some retaining cobbled access passageways to the rear. 17th Century buildings include: the rear of 8 Castle Street, 14-16 Castle Street (“The Sun”) and 15 Gun Street.
Save for the obvious exception of the “grander” architecture and materials used in the two churches in the Conservation Area, and the aforementioned timber-framed buildings, the buildings in the Conservation area are generally of brick, which is one of the distinguishing features of Reading’s architecture and there are examples of good quality brickwork throughout the conservation area. Brick was a popular building material in the 18th and 19th centuries and the ready availability of different coloured bricks provided the opportunity for the lively polychromatic brickwork found throughout Victorian Reading. The town had several brickworks, the most notable being S & E Collier Ltd at Water Road and Elgar Road and two brick works in the Tilehurst area.
6.4 Buildings of Townscape Merit
Most of the buildings in this Conservation area are listed as being of architectural or historic importance, both in their own right and for their group value. These are “Buildings of Townscape Merit” in their own right, particularly the churches and corner sites, but the unlisted former “Cross Keys” public house (now “ Sahara”) on the corner of Gun Street and Bridge Street is also considered worthy as being a “Building of Townscape Merit”. Buildings identified as having “townscape merit” will vary, but commonly they will be good examples of relatively unaltered 19th century and later buildings where their style, detailing and building materials provides the streetscape with interest and variety. Most importantly, they make a positive contribution to the special interest of a conservation area. The former “Cross Keys” displays all of these attributes, not least in the use of decorative and patterned brickwork, as well as a particularly striking bay window at first floor level. “Cross Keys” motifs also appear throughout the building.
6.5 Public realm, Floorscape, street lighting and street furniture.
Road and footway surfaces are predominantly modern i.e. tarmac and concrete products, with some brick at the Hosier Street crossing of St Mary’s Butts. Whilst generally in good repair, these surfaces are not attractive and not “traditional” in conservation area terms e.g. there is limited use of stone and brick paving.
St Mary’s Church has benefited from floorscape improvement by creating pavements along historical pedestrian “desire lines”, but only uses traditional stone flags in front of the church itself.
Cobbled passageways remain at 17 Castle Street and 57 St Mary’s Butts as part of the 16th century buildings on these sites, and there is a cobbled access area in front of number 57 St Mary’s Butts. Small areas of “cobble” survive in front of “The Horn” and “County Delicacies” in St Mary’s Butts and “The Sun” and “The Brewery Tap” in Castle Street. Any areas of historic floorscape should be preserved.
Stone flagstones remain outside St Mary’s Church in Castle Street, but even here, repairs to the steps appear to be of concrete. The attractive Almshouses between numbers 51 and 55 Castle Street also do not benefit from traditional paving materials.
Brick paviours and some stone kerbs have been used in the area of the bus stop and parking lay-by at the western end of Castle Street, but generally this is not an attractive area.
Railings are to be found in front of some properties in Castle Street, including numbers 17, 19, 43, The Almshouses, the redeveloped number 57 and number 63 Castle Street. However, whilst these are attractive features adding interest to the Conservation area, they are not typical of the Conservation Area and, except for number 57, these appear to date from the 19th century.
Street lighting columns, signage and street furniture are modern, and this is another area with considerable potential for improvement. There are no examples of traditional lighting except in the Almshouses and in St Mary’s Churchyard.
As already stated elsewhere in this report, there is considerable potential to “improve” floorscapes throughout the Conservation Area.
6.6 Local details and features
The Queen Victoria Jubilee Fountain in St Mary’s Butts (1887) is a significant local landmark and is marked by its status as a listed building. It’s setting on a tarmac island in the middle of the busy St Mary’s Butts is not however attractive. The aforementioned refreshment kiosk on the island is also a well-used feature of the island.
There are two groups of tombs and a Jubilee Cross within the churchyard which are also listed, plus a local landmark tree, which are lesser features of the Conservation Area but which, together with the aforementioned list, add local character and a sense of place to the Conservation area.
6.7 Historic associations
Despite its place at the original heart and crossroads of the town, the Conservation Area is a little short on personalities who have graced the Area. However, local associations include: Sir Thomas Vachel, after whom the Almshouses in Castle Street are named (he founded the original almshouses at St Mary’s Church in 1634); William Henry Woodman, architect for the “new” (1864-7) almshouses; C R Hurell, watercolourist, who lived at 39 Castle Street; Dr Hurry, historian of Reading Abbey, who lived at 43 Castle Street; R Billing, architect of St Mary’s Church, Castle St, originally a simple Georgian building, but embellished with a hexastyle portico in Greek Corinthian style by local builders/architects Henry & Nathaniel Briant, who were also responsible for the King Street Bank and the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
St Mary’s Church, Castle Street stands on the site of the former Reading Gaol, and a “Norman Arch” in the grounds and the cellars of “The Sun” are also reputed to be part of the gaol. The Church has an interesting ecclesiastical history as a breakaway from St Giles in Southampton Street, and the former Congregational Chapel at 11 Castle Street was also itself a later breakaway from St Mary’s.
The long history of the Minster Church of St Mary is of course inextricably linked with the history of Reading itself, and has been referred to elsewhere in this report.
The origins of the street names in the Conservation Area have been discussed elsewhere in this report, but to this day no one can be sure that Castle Street (and Castle Hill) actually led to a Castle!
6.8 Green spaces, trees and other natural elements
Green spaces are uncommon in this urban conservation area. The three most significant green areas, softening an otherwise obviously urban environment, are the Churchyard of St Mary’s Church, the walkway between the Castle Street Almshouses and the Holy Brook where it appears behind properties on the south side of Castle Street and Gun Street.
The space which is occupied by the Hosier Street Market, although actually outside the Conservation Area, has a bland appearance, but has the potential to become an important and attractive linking space between the Conservation Area and the new Civic Centre complex proposed to the west. The Holy Brook is a notable linking feature on the southern boundary of the conservation area. Originally a natural branch of the River Kennet, it was later harnessed as a serial millstream serving early industries such as dyeing and tanning, and whilst it flows underground through the conservation area, it can be glimpsed from several places along the boundary of the Conservation Area. Behind numbers 1-31 Castle Street it flows through a grade II* listed culvert some 160m long.
Trees are few and because of their scarcity they make a significant contribution to this urban Conservation Area’s special character and sense of identity. Significant tree groups are to be found in the area’s three “green areas” mentioned above. There are no other significant individual trees and small groups outside of these areas. St Mary’s Churchyard has recently benefited from additional planting, funded by local businesses as part of the “Trees for Cities” initiative.
6.9 General condition of the area: The extent of loss, intrusions or damage i.e. negative features.
The general state of repair of buildings in the conservation area is good with few retail and commercial premises remaining vacant for any length of time.
The open spaces are also generally in good repair, without necessarily having a truly traditional feel about them, for example in the use of more appropriate floorscape materials and “furniture”.
It is the highway environment (roads and footways) which detracts most from the character and appearance of the Conservation Area as a whole, as has been discussed elsewhere in this appraisal.
All of these areas would benefit from continued monitoring, and the seizing of opportunities for improvement as they arise, not least in relation to the proposed Civic Quarter proposals which will have a considerable impact at the Hosier Street junction with St Mary’s Butts within the Conservation Area.
Back to top »
2010 - Present © Frank Toogood (Design) and Potts VC Trust (Content)