19, Reading Street

No. 19 Reading Street is a house in a terrace built between 1853 and 1854 for the Great Western Railway Company. It is constructed from ashlar limestone set in black mortar and features a slate roof with brick gable stacks. The house is two stories tall, with one bay and a through side-passage, and it is two rooms deep. A 20th-century rear addition has been made. The building has chamfered door and window surrounds, a fifteen-pane door, and four-pane sash windows.

This terrace was part of a village designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to accommodate the workforce for the new Great Western Railway works. The village layout was based on Brunel’s early drawings from 1840, which included a grid of twelve terraces in six blocks along the High Street. Construction began in 1842, but financial difficulties delayed the completion until the 1850s. The village is recognized as one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally ambitious railway settlements.