|
Return To View All Towns In Berkshire
Bed And Breakfast In Reading
Telephone: 0118 9713282
The Comfort Hotel
Telephone: 0118 9692277
The Great House At Sonning
Telephone: 0118 9440066
Wee Waif
Telephone: 0118 9842120
Weir View House
Telephone: 0118 9334029
Wokefield Park
More Information About Reading
Reading is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some 40 miles (64 km) west of London. For ceremonial purposes it is in the Royal County of Berkshire and has served as the county town since 1867. Reading was an important national centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections. However it suffered economic damage during the 17th century from which it took a long time to recover. Today it is again an important commercial centre, with strong links to information technology and insurance. It is also a university town, with two universities and a large student population, and is home to one of England's biggest music festivals. Retail Reading town centre is a major shopping centre. The primary catchment area for the town centre (the area for which the centre attracts the largest single flow of generated expenditure) for non-bulky comparison goods extends as far as Goring-on-Thames, Henley-on-Thames, Pangbourne and Wokingham. The secondary catchment area (the area where the centre attracts 10% or more of generated expenditure) also includes Ascot, Bracknell, Camberley, Didcot, Farnborough, Fleet, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Newbury, Slough, Tadley, Thatcham, Wallingford and Windsor. In 2007 an independent poll placed Reading as one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK.[35][36] The principal town centre shopping area is around Broad Street, which was pedestrianised in 1995.[37] Broad Street is anchored at its east and west ends respectively by The Oracle and Broad Street Mall enclosed shopping centres. The Oracle shopping centre regularly attracts over 250,000 people passing through on a Saturday alone. It plays host to a number of major retailers which had previously not been present in the town. There are three major department stores in Reading: John Lewis Reading (formerly known as Heelas[38]), Debenhams and House of Fraser. There are also branches of many chain stores, including Bhs, Boots, fcuk, H&M, Marks and Spencers, Next, Primark and W H Smith. The booksellers Waterstone's have two branches in Reading. Their Broad Street branch is of particular interest, as it is a remarkable conversion of a nonconformist chapel dating from 1707.[39] Besides the two major shopping malls, Reading has three smaller shopping arcades, the Bristol & West Arcade, Harris Arcade and The Walk, which contain smaller specialist stores. An older form of retail facility is represented by Union Street, popularly known as Smelly Alley,[40][41] due to the former presence of many open-fronted fishmongers and butchers. More recently the trend has shifted more towards major retail chains, although a few of independent shops, including a fishmonger and butcher still remain here.[42] Unlike many English cities, Reading has no indoor market hall. There is a street market at Hosier Street in the town centre, open from Wednesday to Saturday, with 60 stalls selling a mixture of food, flowers and plants, cultural goods, and household goods. A farmers' market operates on two Saturdays a month at the cattle market.[43][44] Other than the markets, Marks and Spencers, a few small supermarket branches, and a few speciality shops, food retail has largely deserted the town centre. Large branches of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Iceland and Waitrose supermarket chains can be found in suburban and edge of town locations. Transport Reading's location in the Thames Valley to the west of London means that it has always had a significant position in the nation's transport system. River transport The town grew up as a river port at the confluence of the Thames and Kennet. Both of these rivers remain navigable, and the locks of Caversham Lock, Blake's Lock, County Lock, Fobney Lock and Southcote Lock are all within the borough. Today navigation is exclusively leisure oriented, with private and hire boats dominating traffic. Several scheduled boat services operate on the Thames, operating from wharves on the Reading side of the river near Caversham Bridge. Salters Steamers operate a summer daily service from just downstream of the bridge to Henley-on-Thames, taking somewhat over two hours in each direction and calling at the riverside villages of Sonning and Shiplake. Thames River Cruises operate several different trips from just upstream of the bridge, including a service on summer weekends and bank holidays to Mapledurham, taking 45 minutes in each direction and allowing two hours ashore for visits to Mapledurham Watermill and Mapledurham House Road transport Reading was a major staging point on the old Bath Road (A4) from London to Bath and Bristol. This road still carries local traffic, but has now been replaced for long distance traffic by the M4 motorway, which closely skirts the borough and serves it with three junctions (J10–J12). Within Reading there is the Inner Distribution road (IDR), a ring road for local traffic movements. The council has put forward a plan to make the IDR one-way. This has proved highly controversial and the plan is now (July 2008) waiting to be formally abandoned.[51] The A329(M), A33 and A4 national routes link the town with junctions 10, 11 and 12 of the M4 motorway respectively. The IDR is linked with the M4 by the recently constructed A33 relief road, which runs past the Madejski Stadium and Green Park Business complex. National Express Coaches run out of Calcot, just off the M4 at junction 12. The Thames is crossed by both Reading and Caversham road bridges, while several road bridges cross the Kennet. There has long been a desire to construct a third bridge across the Thames, to the east of the existing bridges. Some people believe that this will remove one of the town's bottlenecks and ease traffic congestion. Others believe that it will induce more traffic, move bottle necks and open up swathes of South Oxfordshire to unwanted development. However, the proximity of the county border means that any such route will have to pass through South Oxfordshire, and this development has so far been blocked by its residents and politicians. Rail transport Reading is a major junction point on the national rail system, and as a consequence Reading station is a major transfer point as well as serving heavy originating and terminating traffic. Plans have been agreed to rebuild Reading station, with grade separation of some conflicting traffic flows and extra platforms, to relieve severe congestion at this station.[53] Railway lines link Reading to both Paddington and Waterloo stations in London. The route to Paddington offers both non-stop (taking around 30 minutes) and stopping services, whilst that to Waterloo offers only a stopping service. Inter-city services also link Reading to Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff and South Wales, Exeter, Plymouth and South West England, Birmingham and the North of England, and Southampton and Bournemouth. Local services link Reading to Oxford, Newbury, Basingstoke, Guildford and Gatwick Airport. Other stations in the Reading area are Reading West, Tilehurst and Earley, but all serve local trains only. A new Reading GreenPark railway station is planned. Air transport Historically, there have been two airfields in Reading, one at Coley Park and one at Woodley, but these have both long since closed. Today Reading is within reach of several international airports. The nearest airport is London Heathrow, which is 30 miles (48 km) away by road. An express bus service named RailAir links Reading with Heathrow, or the airport can be accessed by changing at Hayes and Harlington railway station from the local rail service to Paddington to the Heathrow Connect rail service. London Gatwick is 60 miles (97 km) away by road and is served by direct trains from Reading. London Luton is also 60 miles (97 km) away by road, whilst London Stansted is 90 miles (140 km) away; both can be reached by rail by changing stations in central London. The airport at London City can also be reached by a combination of rail services. Away from London, Southampton Airport and Birmingham Airport are both served by direct trains from Reading and can faster to reach than the more distant London airports. Southampton is 45 miles (72 km) away by road, whilst Birmingham is 92 miles (148 km) distant 20th century and beyond The town continued to expand in the 20th century, annexing Caversham across the River Thames in Oxfordshire in 1911. This expansion can be seen in the number of 1920s built semi-detached properties, and the 1950s expansion that joined Woodley, Earley and Tilehurst into Reading. Miles Aircraft in Woodley was an important local firm from the 1930s to 1950s. The Lower Earley development, started in the 1970s, was the largest private housing development in Europe. This extended the urban area of Reading up to the M4 motorway, which acts as the southern boundary to the town. Further housing developments have increased the number of modern commuter houses in the surrounding parts of Reading, and 'out-of-town' shopping hypermarkets. At the end of 1966 the Yield Hall multi-storey car park was opened, providing covered space for 522 cars.[16] It was noted that the ramps were arranged to segregate up-traffic from down-traffic, with "one-way circulation" through most of the building.[16] The local shopping centre, The Oracle, built in 1999, is named after the 17th century workhouse founded by John Kendrick which previously occupied the site. It provides three storeys of shopping and boosted the local economy by providing 4,000 jobs. Reading has also made itself more appealing to tourists by pedestrianising Broad Street.
This Article was sourced using Wikipedia
|
