Saunders' Boathouse

Summary

A commercial boathouse designed by the architect Percy Goddard Stone and built in around 1894 for Samuel Edgar Saunders, entrepreneur, engineer and boatbuilder. It was used for the display and storage of a variety of boats for sale or hire and incorporated a manager’s flat.

Reasons for Designation

Saunders Boathouse, built around 1894, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a rare and well-detailed survival of a large, late Victorian commercial boathouse on the non-tidal River Thames, arguably England’s most important river for leisure boating in this period;
* for the legibility and survival of the boathouse’s original plan form and function.

Historic interest
* as evidence of the period in which leisure boating along the River Thames was at its most popular;
* as the early business premises of Samuel Saunders (1857-1933) who became one of England’s leading boatbuilders and engineers;
* as a design by the architect Percy G. Stone (1856-1934), who lived at Goring and has several listed buildings to his name.

History

Although the railway reached Goring-on-Thames in 1840, significant development began only in the late 19th century. Large riverside villas and boathouses appeared, making the Goring Gap a popular destination, described as a “charming place” in Jerome K. Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat” (1889). The annual Goring and Streatley Regatta also attracted crowds.

Samuel Edgar Saunders (1859–1933), entrepreneur and boatbuilder, leased Goring Mill in 1892 to power batteries for his electric launches and to provide village houses with lighting. In 1894, he commissioned architect Percy Goddard Stone, who was also resident in the village, to design his boathouse. This included a showroom, manager’s flat, and two boathouses with a wharf. Saunders offered a range of boats, repairs, and rentals. Whilst at Goring he also patented the “Consuta” method of constructing a lightweight, durable sewn hull which was used for fast steam launches. In 1898 he built a launch by this name, as an umpiring boat for the Henley Royal Regatta. It was later used by the BBC for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race and is now preserved by the Consuta Trust.

In 1899, Saunders sold the boathouse to George Alfred Ellis, and in 1908 it was acquired by Hobbs of Henley. The showroom was later leased to WH Smith, then Royal Mail, and most recently served as a sorting office. Over time, the building was subject to some alterations, truncating chimneys and changing features of the former showroom’s entrance and some adjustment of the interior spaces through introduction of partitions, subdividing the manager’s flat and creating offices.

By 1911, Saunders had relocated to the Isle of Wight, building his first flying boat with a Consuta hull. His business expanded into powerboats, gunboats, airship gondoliers, lifeboats, and aircraft, producing record-breaking vessels. In 1928, Sir Edwin Alliott Veron Roe, aircraft designer and manufacturer, invested in the company, which became Saunders Roe (Saro Ltd), known for such famous designs as Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird speedboat (1937). An Oxfordshire Blue Plaque was added to Saunders’ Boathouse in 2013 to celebrate his achievements.

Percy Stone trained under George Devey and his father, Coutts Stone. During his time in Goring-on-Thames he designed several buildings including his own house (Nun’s Acre, about 1886, demolished) and the oak rood screen in St Thomas of Canterbury Church (Grade I-listed) in 1909-1910, after leading excavations of the priory in 1892. Stone is best known for his connections with the Isle of Wight, to which he moved in 1898, having published ‘Antiquities on the Isle of Wight’ in 1891. On the island, he worked on numerous buildings including rebuilding the chapel at Carisbrooke Castle from 1904 to 1905 (Grade I-listed).

Details

A commercial boathouse, including former showroom and manager's flat and two boathouses. Built in around 1894 and designed by the architect Percy Goddard Stone for Samuel Edgar Saunders in a Domestic Revival style. Altered in the C20 and C21.

MATERIALS: Flemish bond red brick with burnt headers, timbering, render, red clay tile hanging and red clay roof tiles.

PLAN: long, rectangular, orientated north-south parallel with the River Thames, originally comprising adjoined two-storey ranges for the showroom (east), and lower range (west) containing the former manager’s flat above the boathouses.

EXTERIOR: the building displays characteristic features of the late C19 Domestic Revival style: red brickwork, tile hanging, gabled dormers, and decorative timbering.

The east showroom range has a tall, pitched roof with six half-timbered gabled dormers on each face containing three-light casements and a four-light casement in the north gable. There are roof lights in the slope of the pitch. The south end, facing the High Street, is brick with a large semicircular moulded brick arch with moulded keystone below a moulded brick cornice and rendered panel (originally half-timbered). Within the arch is the entrance, surrounded by multi-pane windows, as originally designed. The door probably dates from its mid-C20 period as a Post Office and also of this date are flanking windows with concrete lintels. The original steps to the entrance have been replaced. The present metal steps and platform are C21. Each bay of the showroom’s brick east elevation is separated by a buttress and most contain segmental-headed windows set low down.

The west boathouse range is lower and largely unaltered, with a partly open ground floor between battered end walls, and four timber posts on concrete padstones supporting a balcony with timber balustrade, running the length of the building. This has a staircase at the north end with carved splat balusters and ogee decoration between timber posts. The first floor, which contained the manager’s flat, has tile-hanging and half-glazed panelled doors flanked by sidelights in the first, fourth and seventh bays and three- and four-light casement windows in the other bays. Each window has scalloped lead flashing. Above are seven slightly jettied gables with pegged timbers and louvred vents. The roof of the north gable is carried down as a catslide to cover the staircase and this part of the range extends back to cover the north end of the show room range. At ground floor it has, from left to right: timber double doors, a segmental-headed three-light casement window (with louvre insert) and a segmental-headed doorway containing a late C20 half-glazed door and sidelight. The first floor has a late C20 four-light window and a two-light casement window. This range’s south end has a secondary entrance to the flat from the High Street and chimney stack (truncated). The area beneath the first floor has cast-iron columns, grey engineering brick and concrete paving. There are enclosed spaces for office use (north-west) and boat sheds (south-west) behind large timber boarded doors.

INTERIOR: the former showroom in the east range (although partly partitioned for C20 uses) has an exposed timber queen-post roof structure with three arch-braced trusses supported on moulded brackets and by decorative cast-iron straps clasped to the tie beams. The walls either have tongue and groove panelling or are of exposed brick, painted white. Some doors retain historic brass furniture.

The former manager’s flat in the west range included five bedrooms, a dining room and drawing room overlooking the River Thames but has been sub-divided into two by partitioning the central corridor which runs the length of the first-floor. Throughout are original doors with brass door furniture and joinery, including skirtings, picture rails, coving and tongue and groove panelling. In one part (now used as a dental surgery) is a large decorative cast-iron radiator cover with a marble top.

Sources

Books and journals
Sherriff, C, Boathouses (2008),
Bradley, S, Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South-East (2023), 645-647
The Boathouse by Goring Bridge in Goring Gap News, ,Vol. , (February 2024), 22-25
Goring-on-Thames in Reading Standard, ,Vol. , (6 June 1908), 1
Important Property Sale at Goring in Reading Mercury, ,Vol. , (28 October 1899), 3

Other
Ordnance Survey map of 1899 (1:2500)
Oxfordshire Buildings Record Report, Saunders' Boathouse, OBR.519 (2024), unpublished
Historic image from Historic England archive, ref: HT07962. Available online at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/HT07962
Historic image from Historic England archive, ref: CC72/02197. Available online at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/CC72/02197
Historic image from Historic England archive, ref: HT05740. Available online at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/HT05740
Dawson, M, Saunders' Boathouse – Supplementary Information, Saunders’ Boathouse in Context, Oxford (2024), unpublished
Information on Samuel E. Saunders and the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme. Available online at: https://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/saunders.html
Information on the Consuta and Consuta Trust. Available online at: https://www.consuta.org.uk/workshop/home

End of official list entry