Queen Victoria’s Monument, Gunners’ Parade, Gibraltar c. 1910
Queen Victoria’s Monument on Gunners’ Parade in Gibraltar is in the form of a drinking fountain with a bowl for dogs at the base. On the rear is the inscription “Erected by the inhabitants of Gibraltar 1910”.
Pell Street looking west
Nikolaus Pevsner‘s edition of the Berkshire volume of ‘Buildings of England’ was published in 1966, the thirtieth county guide of forty-six. The Reading section starts with the Abbey, followed by churches and finally public buildings.
The Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC) at the foot of London Street houses the Global Café and the World Shop. The Global Café does not usually open on Mondays and so on the evening of Sunday 23 December it will open for the last time in 2018 and will not re-open until Wednesday 2 January.
Reading CAMRA are publishing an A to Z advent calendar of Reading and Mid-Berks CAMRA pubs on their twitter account (@ReadingCAMRA). They say that they are doing this “… [to] encourage you to give them some support especially during January, one of the quietest periods of business for the pub trade.”
A horse bus at the corner of West Street and Broad Street looking east c.1895
On 9 November 1895, Alderman Charles James Andrewes was travelling on a Reading Omnibus Company horse bus from the Queens Head public house, via the Whitley Pump, to West Street, when his fellow passengers noticed that he was unwell.
ei publican partnerships are advertising for new tenants for the Queens Head, locally known as ‘The Nob’, on Christchurch Road in Reading.
Atlantis Holdings, the owners and renovators of the old Wellington Arms on Whitley Street, has applied to Reading Borough Council for a lawful development certificate to convert the upper floors to bed and breakfast accommodation.
The owner of the former Woodley Arms on Waldeck Street, Lainston Woodley Arms LLP, has told Reading Borough Council that they plan to secure the site this week.
The IDR as it was intended to be built at the time that Stage I was under construction.
The Whitley Pump is leading a walk around Reading’s Inner Distribution Road (IDR) as part of this year’s Heritage Open Days in September. Reading’s post-war history, in which it transformed from a primarily industrial to a retail town, circle the IDR like the IDR circles the town centre.
For this year’s Heritage Open Days festival the Whitley Pump will be leading a walk around the IDR on Sunday 16 September at 11am.
The Woodley Arms
Property developer Lainston Woodley Arms LLP has appealed to the government’s planning inspectorate against the Reading Borough Council (RBC) decision to refuse planning permission to demolish the Woodley Arms and build student accommodation on the site.
Chaats Indian Street Food at the Craft Theory Festival, South Street
I missed out on the first Craft Theory festival at Katesgrove’s South Street Arts Centre last year, but I read the reviews with excitement and suffered a major case of FOMO [note 1]. I was in a unique position for the festival on 13 and 14 April this year; not only did I volunteer for Friday behind the jump [note 2], pouring drinks and loving it, but I also arrived bright-eyed on Saturday to spend the afternoon getting merry with my pals.
You can now read everything you ever wanted to know about Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) new local plan on a dedicated web page. Once adopted, it will be the main planning document for Reading until 2036.
The Berkshire book of song, rhyme and steeple chime was published in 1935 and is a unique record of country song, children’s games, epitaphs, droll church inscriptions, poems, doggerel, social history and some scurrilous local gossip. These pieces were lovingly collected over twenty years or so by the publisher and author Arthur L Humphreys.
Red Lion Southampton Street – the pub was withdrawn from sale in advance of the advertised auction
Property developers MacNiven Quays have submitted a planning application to demolish Red Lion public house on Southampton Street, as well as the house next door to it, and replace them both with a four-storey block of flats.
With help from Sue Beckett, Matt Davies and Simon Sheppard.
While our University students are engaged in scholarship sublime or out volunteering, or maybe just kicking wheelie bins down Hatherley Road after flooding Reading pubs dressed as golfers (for reasons I don’t want to understand), you could be using one of their three great bars, where well-behaved townies are welcome. All three have reasonable prices and well-trained, polite staff, but refreshingly little else in common with each other. I have been wearing the hair-shirt by breaking dry January and drinking and eating in all of them. They have varied opening times, so best to check the links.
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