50 and 51 Market Place is a Grade II listed building in the Reading local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 July 1973. Former bank.
50 and 51 Market Place
- WRENN ID
- sunken-pewter-khaki
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Reading
- Constituency
- Reading Central MP: Matt Rodda (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 26 July 1973
- Type
- Former bank
- Address
- 50 and 51 Market Place, RG1 2DT
- OS grid reference
- SU 717 734
- Coordinates
- 51.45531, -0.96946
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
This is a former bank, built in 1900, now converted into a restaurant and café. The building is of red brick and ashlar stone, with a plain tile roof. It is a three-storey building with an attic, and is understood to be internally connected to adjacent buildings.
The building is constructed in a Flemish style. The north elevation, facing Market Place, has a granite ground floor with three central bays of fixed, swept-head windows. Flanking these bays are two doorways. The western doorway has a rusticated doorcase with brackets supporting a dentilled semi-circular pediment, incorporating a tympanum reading 'BANK' in gilt, Art Nouveau lettering. The eastern doorway is similar in style to the swept-head windows. Both doorways retain their original elaborately-carved timber doors.
The first floor has plate-glass sash windows arranged in a 2:4:2 pattern, designed to appear as mullion and transom windows through the use of external ashlar stonework. A lintel separates the first floor windows from those on the second floor, which are arranged in a 1:4:1 configuration. Pilaster strips separate these windows, terminating in a second lintel with contrasting bands of gauged brick and ashlar. A modillion cornice sits above the second floor, leading to a false parapet topped by a moulded eaves cornice.
The north elevation includes a Flemish gable projecting into the steeply pitched roof. This gable has a central bay of four windows topped by an arch of contrasting ashlar and gauged brick, and features an ashlar cartouche bearing carved insignia. Large chimney stacks flank the roof. A flat roof extends over the rear, south section of the building, continuing the flat rooflines of neighbouring properties. The rear elevation appears to be a later 20th-century reconstruction matching the rear elevations of adjacent buildings.
Internally, the building is connected to 3-5 King Street, sharing its function as a bar and restaurant. Upper floors are also connected to 53 Market Place, providing shared office space.
Local climate
50 and 51 Market Place sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 73% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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