Research dates Northbrook Street building back to Henry VII

Recent analysis has revealed that the timbers of the former Clarks and Accessorize stores, at 102 and 103 Northbrook Street, formerly known as the Tudor Café, dates the original building to 1497 and the reign of Henry VII.
This means that the building even pre-dates St Nicolas’ Church, which was built in the early 1500s.
Full details of the Grade II-listed building’s interesting history only came to light during research into tree-ring dating, or dendrochronology, commissioned by Newbury Town Council’s heritage working group, made up of councillors, local historians, and heritage enthusiasts.
However, the historic building could soon become an restaurant, as French chain Côte is known to be looking at moving into the merged units.
Although Côte has not yet submitted an official planning application, it has applied to serve alcohol on the premises and has also advertised job opportunities there. Newbury historian David Peacock said: “It is far earlier than many people thought and is very exciting.
“I have been pushing for the research to be carried out for the past 10 years and it’s thanks to the heritage working group for making that happen. It easily makes this one of the five oldest buildings in the town of Newbury.”
As to the possibility of Côte moving in, he added: “If they didn’t make too many changes and left the beams intact, then I don’t think there would be a problem necessarily.
“However, if they proposed to knock the beams down or make any major changes, I would hope that any application would be very carefully considered.”
The chairman of the town council heritage working group, Anthony Pick, said: “This very exciting research confirms our perspective on the early dates of many Newbury buildings. The heritage working group will press ahead with its programme of dating other Newbury buildings whose early date is suspected.”
He added that “everything would be taken into account” should a formal planning application be lodged by the restaurant chain.
He said: “As it is a listed building, any work or planning application must first be referred to the conservation officer and it will be placed on the West Berkshire Historic Environment Record – that is the protection we have. “If a planning application is submitted – which we have to assume it will be – we will, of course, take the recent findings and all other things into consideration.”
The analysis was carried out by specialist Andy Moir of Tree-Ring Services, Hungerford, and information on the building’s history was supplied by Dr Peacock.