5 Lower Brook Street

4 Katesgrove

Reading is well known for its large number of Victorian houses, many of which have patterned brickwork. Pell Street contains several examples of terraces which have particularly good patterned brickwork. These houses also have many of the other typical features of Victorian houses, such as slate roofs, chimneys and sash windows. Katesgrove school was also built during this period, and shows many of these features, although its roofs, instead of being made with slates from North Wales, were made with local tiles.

It was the railways that enabled slate to be moved inland in large quantities. Before Victorian times, it was very expensive to move heavy building materials around the country. Slate from the quarries near Blaneau Ffestiniog would have had to be dragged by horses to the port, taken by sailing ship around the coast, and then brought up the Thames to Reading. With the introduction of the railways, more and more of this journey could be completed by land, and the cost of slate as a building material fell. Before the railways, each part of the country had its own building style while nowadays houses are similar in all parts of the country.

The lower part of Pell Street has older houses than the upper part. This is because the first road into this area, Katesgrove Lane, ran along this side of the river. Roads were built up the hill off Katesgrove Lane, some of which led to clay pits which provided the raw material for the bricks and tiles. It was only later that Pell Street was built to join Southampton Street to Katesgrove Lane, which may account for the double bend in the road.