Church House, Reading

This is an early to mid-18th century house, extended and altered in the 1930s and later converted to a restaurant in the 2010s. The house is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with a rendered east elevation, all under a clay tile roof.

The original plan was square and double-pile, subsequently extended to the west side, resulting in a broadly rectangular layout. The principal south-facing elevation, facing Chain Street, is two storeys plus a lit attic, arranged across five bays. A three-bay, single-storey extension projects to the left side. The original part of the house features a wide entrance on the left side, with a pair of two-panel doors beneath a radiating fanlight with curved glazing bars. A 20th-century panelled doorcase supports a segmental, open pedimented hood with a panelled soffit, flanked by elaborately carved scroll brackets decorated with cupids and inverted acanthus. To either side are two-over-two sash windows with a cornice above. To the right are three timber sash windows with six-over-six glazing, set within gauged brickwork arranged as a flat arch. The first floor has five similarly designed sash windows, set below a stucco string and coped, brick parapet. The roof is hipped with a central, square valley, punctuated by three flat-roofed dormers with timber casements.

The east elevation has irregular window placement and a brick chimney stack protruding from the south end. A three-over-three timber sash window sits on the ground floor, with a nine-over-six timber sash on the first floor, both beneath a stucco string course. Adjoining to the north is a 19th-century extension, featuring a ground floor four-over-eight timber sash and a carriage entrance with timber doors and a moulded stucco surround. The first and second floors have pairs of modern, two-pane, timber sashes. The roof over the north extension is pitched, with the rear slope partially levelled. The west front retains original glazing bars and a modillion cornice.

The 1930s extension is single-storey, centered around a wide doorway with modern glazed doors, flanked by a pair of narrow timber sash windows with four-over-four glazing, all with flat-arch heads in gauged brickwork. A brick string course and coped, brick parapet top the elevation, with moulded, iron rainwater goods at either end, bearing the inscriptions ‘MDE’ (on the western hopper) and ‘1931’ (on the eastern hopper). The extension has a flat roof.

The interior includes a staircase from around 1740, featuring a wide, oak, moulded handrail, ramps, and wide, turned balusters that extend to the basement. Two pedimented doorcases are present—one segmental, the other triangular. A ground floor room features an eared chimneypiece with a pulvinated frieze, while the room above has a marble fireplace with an Adam-style surround including a swaged frieze with cupids and a lion. In the attic, a partition wall retains part of a reused, moulded timber jetty.