1 London Street (former Coroner’s Court)

Former police station and petty sessions court. Built in the Venetian Gothic style in 1862 to designs by Poulton and Woodman of Reading. Reconstructed in 1983 and converted to office use, it is understood that only the west and part of the northern façades of the original building remain, alongside iron railings to the north and west boundaries.

MATERIALS: the western range is faced in stucco. The late-C20 eastern range is of red brick with stone or concrete dressings. Both ranges have tile-clad mansard roofs. There are iron railings (perhaps replicas of the originals) to the west and north boundaries.

PLAN: the building, mostly of the 1980s, largely follows the plan of the original building, with a long, narrow range to the west and a wider, eastern, L-shaped range built up to the banks of the River Kennet.

EXTERIOR: the retained façade of the 1860s range is of three storeys, across five bays to the north and one bay to the west. The north elevation has alternating wider and narrower bays, with the two end bays flanked by giant order, Corinthian pilasters risings through all floors, rusticated to the ground floor. Each bay is ornamented with a series of Venetian Gothic motifs, with particularly elaborate window surrounds on the first floor, comprising half-columns with floral capitals rising to cusped, two-centred arches with floral details within the tympanum. Above, the second-floor windows have Classical window architraves with moulded cills and seven modillions to each window, rising to the dentilled cornice. Each floor has a range of modern, timber sash windows. Those on the ground floor alternate between tripartite sashes with a central sash with six-over-six glazing and narrower sashes with six-over-six glazing. The tripartite windows have vermiculated rusticated, segmental arches over, while the narrower sashes are flanked by quarter columns risings to round arches, with larger, flanking, half-columns with floral capitals rising to moulded corbels supporting large cills to the first-floor windows. On the first floor, the sashes have six-over-six glazing and on the second floor, they have three-over-three glazing and are shorter. Above is a tall parapet with simple moulding and square piers defining each bay. The single-bay western elevation onto London Street mirrors those bays on the north elevation with tripartite windows on the ground floor.

Running north from the retained north façade and continuing eastward along the bank of the River Kennet are iron, spearhead railings with a pair of gates onto London Street with a quadrilobed pattern.

Behind and to the east of the retained 1860s facades is a late-C20, three-storey building with a large mansard level. The building is of red brick with stone or concrete dressings.