- Mr. Rob Wilson MP (Reading, East), House of Commons debate.[7]
National government
Reading has elected at least one Member of Parliament to every Parliament since 1295. Historically Reading was represented by the members for the former Parliamentary Borough of Reading, and the members for the former parliamentary constituencies of Reading, Reading North, and Reading South.
Today Reading and the surrounding area is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Reading East, represented by Rob Wilson, and Reading West, represented by Martin Salter. The whole of the town is within the multi-member South East England european constituency.
Town twinning
Reading is twinned with:[8]
Geography
Reading is 41 miles (66 km) due west of central London, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Oxford and 40 miles (64 km) east of Swindon. The centre of Reading is on a low ridge between the Rivers Thames and Kennet close to their confluence, reflecting the town's history as a river port. Just before the confluence, the Kennet cuts through a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. The absence of a floodplain on the Kennet in this defile enabled the development of wharves.
As Reading has grown, its suburbs have spread in three directions:
- to the west between the two rivers into the foothills of the Berkshire Downs,
- to the south and south-east on the south side of the Kennet, and
- to the north of the Thames into the Chiltern Hills.
However outside the central area, the floors of the valley containing the two rivers remain largely unimproved floodplain, subject to occasional flooding. Apart from one road across the Kennet floodplain, and the M4 looping to the south, the only routes between the three built-up areas are in the central area, creating road congestion there.
Reading has its own subregional catchment area, incorporating the towns of Wokingham, Bracknell and Twyford, plus large villages such as Pangbourne, Theale, Winnersh, Burghfield and Shiplake.
Definition
Depending on the definition adopted, neither the town nor the urban area are necessarily co-terminous with the borough.
The borough has a population of 144,000 in an area of 40.40 km², while the Office for National Statistics' definition of the urban area of Reading is significantly larger at 232,662 people in an area of 55.35 km². This latter area – sometimes referred to as Greater Reading – incorporates the town's eastern and western suburbs outside the borough, in the civil parishes of Earley, Woodley, Purley-on-Thames and Tilehurst (see below for further details). This urban area is itself a component of the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area. Reading is the 17th largest settlement in England, based on the population of the urban area.[9][10] Furthermore, except for London boroughs, it is the most populous settlement that does not have city status.
Historically, the town of Reading was smaller than the current borough, and has had several definitions over the years. Such definitions include the old ecclesiastical parishes of the churches of St Mary, St Laurence and St Giles, or the even smaller pre-19th century borough.[5]
Suburbs
Besides the town centre, Reading comprises a number of suburbs and other districts, both within the borough itself and within the surrounding urban area. The names and location of these suburbs are in general usage but, except where some of the outer suburbs correspond to civil parishes, there are no formally defined boundaries. The borough itself is unparished, and the wards used to elect the borough councillors generally ignore the accepted suburbs and use invented ward names.
The suburbs and districts include:
- Beansheaf Farm
- Calcot, Caversham, Caversham Heights, Caversham Park Village, Coley, Coley Park
- Earley, East Reading, Emmer Green
- Fords Farm
- Holybrook, Horncastle
- Katesgrove
- Little Heath, Lower Caversham, Lower Earley
- Maiden Erlegh
- Newtown
- Purley-On-Thames
- Southcote
- Tilehurst
- West Reading, Whitley, Whitley Wood, Woodley
Institutions
Religion
Reading Minster, or the Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin as it is more properly known, is Reading's oldest ecclesiastical foundation, known to have been founded by the 9th century and possibly earlier. Although eclipsed in importance by the later Abbey, Reading Minster has regained its importance since the destruction of the Abbey.
Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121. He was buried there, as were parts of Empress Matilda, William of Poitiers, Constance of York, and Princess Isabella of Cornwall, among others. The abbey was one of the pilgrimage centres of medieval England, it held over 230 relics including the hand of St. James. The abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries and Henry VIII had the abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, hanged.
The mediaeval borough of Reading was served by three parish churches. Besides Reading Minster, these were St Giles' and St Laurence's churches, both of which are still in use as Anglican churches. The Franciscan friars built a friary in the town in 1311 and after the friars were expelled in 1538, the building was used as a hospital, a poorhouse and a jail, before being restored as the Anglican parish church of Greyfriars Church in 1863. There are several other Anglican parish churches in areas that are now part of suburban Reading.
St James' Church was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840, and marked the return of the Roman Catholic faith to Reading. Reading was also the site of the death of Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Catholic missionary to England in the 19th century who received John Henry Newman into the Catholic faith. The town contains many other churches and religious centres of varying faiths.
Education
Reading School, founded in 1125, is the tenth oldest school in England. It is based in Victorian buildings designed by Alfred Waterhouse on Erleigh Road. There are 6 other state secondary schools and 37 state primary schools within the borough, together with a number of private and independent schools, kindergartens and nurseries. Some of the designated schools for pupils in the borough's catchment areas are actually in the neighbouring boroughs.[11] Besides mainstream schools the Reading area has a Steiner-Waldorf school and an active Education Otherwise home schooling network.
The University of Reading was established in 1892 as an affiliate of Oxford University, and moved to its London Road Campus in 1904. Reading was chartered as an independent university in 1926 and moved onto its new Whiteknights Campus in 1947. It took over the Bulmershe teacher training college in 1982, creating its Bulmershe Court Campus. All three campuses are still in use, although Whiteknights is by far the largest.
The more recent Thames Valley University, which also has campuses in Slough and Ealing, now runs what was previously Reading College & School of Arts and Design on two sites in east Reading.
Libraries and museums
The Reading Borough Public Library service dates back to 1877. The Central Library which was opened in 1985 contains the Reading Local Studies Library which provides books, maps, and illustrations of the history of the town and Berkshire.
The Museum of Reading opened in 1883 in the Town Hall, parts of which date back to 1786. The museum contains galleries relating to the history of Reading and its related industries and to the excavations of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester Roman Town), together with a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, an art collection, and galleries relating to Huntley & Palmers
The University of Reading runs the Museum of English Rural Life, the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, the Cole Museum of Zoology, and the Harris Garden. In the suburb of Woodley, the Museum of Berkshire Aviation has a collection of aircraft and other artifacts relating to the aircraft industry in the town.
Healthcare
The principal National Health Service (NHS) hospital in Reading is the Royal Berkshire Hospital, originally founded in 1839 but much enlarged and rebuilt since. Until recently there was a second major NHS general hospital, the Battle Hospital, but this closed in 2005 with the patients and most staff moved to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust runs a NHS hospital, Prospect Park Hospital, that specialises in the provision of care for people with mental health and learning disabilities.[12][13]
Reading is also served by two private hospitals, the Capio Reading Hospital in Coley Park and the Dunedin Hospital situated on the main A4 Bath Road.[14][15]
Economy
Reading is an important commercial centre in Southern England and is often referred to as the capital of the Thames Valley, with the headquarters of major British companies and the UK offices of major foreign multinationals, especially in the IT industry, including ING Direct, Microsoft, Oracle, Sage, Xansa, Cisco, Symbol Technologies, Websense and Yell.com. Several of these are at the Thames Valley Business Park. The head office of the natural gas major BG Group is also at the Thames Valley Business Park.
Retail
Reading is a major shopping centre. The principal shopping area is around Broad Street, which was pedestrianised in 1995. Broad Street is anchored at its east and west ends respectively by The Oracle and Broad Street Mall enclosed shopping centres. The opening of The Oracle shopping centre has put Reading on the national map as one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK since it 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), Debenhams and House of Fraser. There are also branches of the chains Marks and Spencers, Bhs, H&M, Primark and UNIQLO.
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.
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, a narrow pedestrianised alley lined on both sides by small independent stores, including open fronted fishmongers and greengrocers.
Other than Marks and Spencers, two small branches of Sainsbury's and a few speciality shops such as those in Union Street, food retail has largely deserted the town centre. Large branches of Tescos, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose supermarket chains, with their associated car parks, can be found in suburban and edge of town locations.
Utilities
Mains water and sewerage services are supplied by Thames Water plc, a private sector water supply company. Water abstraction and disposal is regulated by the Environment Agency. Reading's water supply is largely derived from underground aquifers, and as a consequence the water is hard.
As with the rest of the Britain, the choice of commercial energy supplier for electricity and gas is at the consumer's choice. Southern Electric runs the local electricity distribution network, while Scotia Gas Networks runs the gas distribution network. One notable part of the local energy infrastructure is the presence of a 2 megawatt (peak) Enercon wind turbine at GreenPark, which is wired to the local sub-grid. It was constructed in November 2005 just outside the borders of the borough in the civil parish of Shinfield and is owned by Ecotricity. This turbine can be seen from a large part of Reading, as well as from near junction 11 of the M4. Although the turbine has the potential to produce 3.5 million units of electricity a year (enough to power over a thousand local homes) it actually consumes power on windless nights, as the blades must be continually turned to prevent them obscuring the turbine's aircraft anti-collision lights.
BT provides fixed-line telephone coverage throughout the town, and ADSL broadband internet connection to most areas. Parts of Reading are cabled by Virgin Media, supplying cable television, telephone and broadband internet connections. The dialling code for fixed-line telephones is 0118.
Mobile phone service is available throughout the town, from all the UK licensed network operators and using the GSM and UMTS standards.
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, Yale 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.[16][17]
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 (June 2007) under review.[18]
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.
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.[19]
Rail transport
Reading is a major junction point on the national rail system, and as a consequence Reading station is the UK's second busiest transfer point outside London (after Birmingham New Street), as well as serving heavy originating and terminating traffic. There are current plans to rebuild Reading station, with grade separation of some conflicting traffic flows and extra platforms, to relieve severe congestion at this station.
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. Long distance services also link Reading to 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.
Reading area stations at Reading West, Tilehurst and Earley 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 served by several nearby airports.
The nearest airport is London Heathrow, which is 30 miles away by road. An express bus service named RailAir links Reading with Heathrow, or alternatively it can be accessed by changing at Hayes and Harlington railway station, on the local rail service to Paddington, to the Heathrow Connect rail service.
London Gatwick is 60 miles away by road and is served by direct trains from Reading. London Luton is also 60 miles away by road, whilst London Stansted is 90 miles away; both can be reached by rail by changing stations in central London. The airport at London City, principally used by short-haul business travellers to and from London's financial district, can also be reached by a combination of rail services.
The smaller regional Southampton Airport also provides services to short haul destinations. It is 45 miles away by road, and served by a direct train service.
Local public transport
Local public transport is largely road-based, and can be affected by the significant peak hour congestion in the borough. A comprehensive and frequent local bus network within the borough, and a less frequent network in the surrounding area, are provided by Reading Buses. Other bus operators include:
Culture
Arts
Reading has a number of arts centres, including concert halls, fine art galleries and general use spaces, with a vibrant arts scene.
In 2006 the Reading Fringe Festival was launched, striving to prove that Reading was "a hotbed of talent" worthy of city status.[20] Local arts organisations, groups and individuals promote themselves at venues throughout the town in the run-up to Reading Festival.
Reading is home to Remix Reading, a free culture project with a particular focus on copyright and the local arts scene.
Reading is also the home to Gen Con UK, a Games Convention.
Music
Every year Reading hosts the Reading Festival, which has been running since 1971. While WOMAD found a home in the town in 1990,[21] it has been announced that after 17 years WOMAD Reading is to find a new location, having outgrown the Rivermead site.[22] Internationally, it is perhaps for these two events that the town is best known.
The town has had mixed fortunes in creating home-grown artists over the years. Perhaps most notable is Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. More recently, Slowdive, The Cooper Temple Clause, Stuart Price, Three Litre, Morning Runner, My Luminaries, SixNationState, new prog band Pure Reason Revolution, nationally acclaimed heavy rock group Exit Ten, and indie-synth-pop artist Mr Fogg have had some degree of success. David Byron, first and most famous singer of heavy metal band Uriah Heep lived his last years in Reading before he died in 1985. Also, local Metal band SinTuition made an appearance at Download Festival 2006.[23]
Reading plays host to semi-professional and amateur choirs and choral societies. Reading Festival Chorus has just celebrated its 60th anniversary. RFC sings a diverse music programme, with works like Mozart's Requiem, Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man in 2005 to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and a summer programme of English and American Folk songs by Tippett and Aaron Copland.
Reading also has orchestras including the long-established Reading Symphony Orchestra (RSO) and Reading Youth Orchestra (RYO). The Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra (APO), named after Richard Aldworth, the founder of Reading Blue Coat School (where it rehearses and plays most of its concerts), was formed relatively recently, in 2002. APO's remit is to be as innovative as possible, giving more local people the chance to play by rehearsing exclusively at weekends, attracting a wider audience to classical music (especially younger people) through its 'Concert Virgin Scheme' & education projects, and championing the music of talented young composers.
Theatre
Reading has several theatre venues, including The Hexagon and 21 South Street, which are professional venues supported by Reading Borough Council. The Hexagon is a multi-purpose venue in the heart of Reading that provides a programme of events including rock, pop, comedy, classical music and dance as well as theatre.[24] South Street also presents a diverse range of performing arts from both the professional and community sectors, including fringe theatre, comedy, music, dance and live literature.[25]
Amateur theatre venues in Reading include Progress Theatre,[26] a self-governing, self-funding theatre group and registered charity founded in 1947 that operates and maintains its own 97-seat theatre.[27] Progress Theatre produces a yearly open air Shakespeare production in the Reading Abbey Ruins that has come to represent a highlight of Reading's cultural calendar.[28]
Reading also has Bohemian Night, a weekly Open Mike event that many ameuters perform at.
Media
Reading has two local newspapers.
Three local radio stations broadcast from Reading: BBC Radio Berkshire, Reading 107 FM and 2-Ten FM. Other local radio stations, such as London's 95.8 Capital FM, Basingstoke's 107.6 Kestrel FM and Slough's Star 106.6 can also be received.
Local television news programmes are the BBC's South Today and ITV's Thames Valley Tonight.
Sports
Reading Football Club, an association football club nicknamed The Royals, has played in Reading since 1871. Formerly based at Elm Park, the club has played in the 24,500 capacity Madejski Stadium home since 1998. Reading are participating in their second season in the elite Premier League in the 2007-08 season, having won the 2005-06 Football League Championship with a record breaking 106 points and 99 goals scored. The Town's second team, Reading Town play in the Combined Counties Football League Premier Division.
Reading is a centre for rugby union football in the area, with the Guinness Premiership team London Irish as tenants at the Madejski Stadium. Reading is also home to another three senior semi-professional rugby clubs; Reading R.F.C., Redingensians R.F.C. and Reading Abbey R.F.C.. The town plays host to a number of other football variants, such as Gaelic football's St. Anthony's GAA, Australian rules football team Reading Kangaroos, and American football team Reading Renegades. The sport of field hockey is represented by Reading Hockey Club.
The Reading Half Marathon is held on the streets of Reading in March of each year, with as many as 13,000 competitors from elite to fun runners.
The Reading Rockets, are a basketball club that play in the English Basketball League. The Rockets were formed in 1997 by the owner Gary Johnson. The Rockets won the National Cup, and reached EBL Championship Final in 2005, and were League runners-up and Cup Finalists in 2006. In 2007 they won the National Trophy and were league runners-up again. They are thus already firmly established among the elite teams of the EBL.
Like many Thames-side towns, Reading has several rowing clubs, representing both town and university. The local Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake provides training facilities, although much rowing is also conducted on the river itself. Dorney Lake, some 27 km (17 miles) to the east of Reading, provides a full international competition venue and will host the rowing events of the 2012 Summer Olympics. There are also several sailing lakes to the south and southwest of the town, the largest being Theale Lake close to junction 12 of the M4. These lakes are also popular with water-skiing and jet-skiing enthusiasts.
From 1984 to 1994, The Hexagon theatre was home to snooker's Grand Prix tournament, one of the sport's 'big four' Grand Slam events.
Britain's first-ever triathlon was held just outside Reading at Kirtons's Farm in Pingewood in June 1983. The Reading International Triathlon was revived in 1994 and 1995. Thames Valley Triathletes, based in the town, is Britain's oldest triathlon club, with origins in the 1984 event at nearby Heckfield. The British Triathlon Association was also formed in the town in 1982.
Reading's Palmer Park was also the host of the UK's first-ever outdoor Aerobics display; pre-dating the more famous Hyde Park (London) event by a year.
Reading is also in the history books of motorsport. Reading-born Richard Burns became the first Englishman to win the World Rally Championship, in 2001.
The town is also home to Reading Greyhound Racing and the Reading Racers speedway team, and there is a velodrome at Palmer Park where many of Britain's junior champions train and race.
Literature
- See also: List of residents of Reading, Berkshire
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading (HM Prison) from 1895 to 1897. While he was there he wrote De Profundis, which was published in 1905. After his release he lived in exile in Paris and wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, published in 1908.
Jane Austen attended Reading Ladies Boarding School, based in the Abbey Gateway, in 1784-86.
Thomas Hardy painted a rather disparaging picture of the town, lightly disguised as Aldbrickham, in his 1895 novel Jude the Obscure.
T. E. Lawrence lost the first draft of his Seven Pillars of Wisdom at Reading railway station.
Thomas Noon Talfourd, the judge and dramatist was born in Reading and later became MP for the town.
Mary Russell Mitford lived in Reading for a number of years and then spent the rest of her life just outside the town at Three Mile Cross and Swallowfield.
Charles Dickens was asked to stand as MP for Reading, but declined. He became president of the Reading Athenaeum. In his Bleak House, Esther Summerson goes to school in Reading. His great-granddaughter Monica Dickens died in Reading in 1992.
Jerome K. Jerome did not warm to the town on his famous journey up the Thames in Three Men in a Boat (1888): "The river is dirty and dismal here. One does not linger in the neighbourhood of Reading". He does, however, recognise the historical significance of Reading in local history.
Jasper Fforde set his series of Jack Spratt novels in this town.
The comic novel A Melon For Ecstasy by John Fortune and John Wells is set in and around Reading.
The 1992 radio serialisation of Mark Wallington's Boogie Up The River by the BBC (a modern-day Three Men in a Boat) includes a spoof lament entitled O Caversham Man.
Other
A Reading edition of Monopoly is available (see Localized versions of the Monopoly game). Perhaps surprisingly, given its size and status in the South East, Reading is not yet officially a city, having missed out during the millennium celebrations when the Queen instead granted Brighton & Hove city status in 2000.
The interview show As It Happens, which airs on CBC Radio One in Canada, is notable for its mention of Reading. Frequently, after concluding an interview with someone in the UK, the host will describe the individual in relation to how far they live from Reading. For example, one might hear "That was professional bagpiper William J. Tweed from Biggleswade, which is about 81 miles north of Reading."
In 1974, the BBC filmed The Family in the town. The show, considered to one of the first reality television shows,[29] followed the lives of the Wilkins family.
The roadside chain of restaurants Little Chef began in the town back in 1958. Its first branch was a small eleven-seater venue.[30]
When Ricky Gervais (who comes from Reading) used to perform a stand-up comedy segment on the British TV show The 11 O'Clock Show, he would often (comically) describe the residents of the Reading suburb Whitley as the lowest members of society. This turned Whitley into a household name for the duration of the series.
Reading in Pennsylvania and Reading in Massachusetts are both named after Reading.
In a 2007 poll by Readers Digest, Reading was named the worst place to live for families[31]
See also
References
- ^ Fox-Talbot, William Henry (1800–77), pioneering photographer. Reading Borough Libraries. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ Ford, David Nash. Abingdon. Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved on July 6, 2006.
- ^ Berkshire (Structural Change) Order 1996.
- ^ Phillips, Daphne (1980). The Story of Reading. Newbury: Countryside Books.
- ^ a b c
- ^ Third Thames bridge. South Oxfordshire District Council. Retrieved on 3 August, 2006.
- ^ Transport (Greater Reading), 11 January 2006. Hansard. Retrieved on 3 August, 2006.
- ^ Town twinning. Reading Borough Council (2000-2006). Retrieved on February 6, 2006.
- ^ Table KS01 Usual resident population. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved on July 6, 2006.
- ^ Population overview. LoveMyTown.co.uk.. Retrieved on July 6, 2006.
- ^ List of schools. Reading Borough Council (2000-2006). Retrieved on February 23, 2006.
- ^ Book Launch: Battle Hospital History. Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
- ^ Welcome to Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
- ^ Capio Reading Private Hospital. Capio Healthcare UK. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
- ^ Dunedin Hospital. Classic Hospitals. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
- ^ Reading to Henley Service. Salters Steamers. Retrieved on April 30, 2007.
- ^ Boat service from Reading to Mapledurham. Thames River Cruises. Retrieved on April 29, 2007.
- ^ IDR on hold. Get Reading. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
- ^ Local Transport Plan 2006-2011, chapter 6, figure 6.7. Reading Borough Council. Retrieved on 9 August, 2006.
- ^ Reading Fringe Festival Press release, 24 June. Reading Fringe Festival. Retrieved on 29 August, 2006.
- ^ WOMAD in Reading. Guardian Unlimited - Arts. Retrieved on July 6, 2006.
- ^ Womad venue change after 17 years. BBC News. Retrieved on October 3, 2006.
- ^ SinTuition at Download Festival 2006. Download Festival Website. Retrieved on November 4, 2007.
- ^ The Hexagon, Reading Arts.
- ^ 21 South Street, Reading Arts. Retrieved on 14 March, 2007.
- ^ Progress Theatre homepage. Retrieved on 15 March, 2007.
- ^ Progress Theatre, Reading Arts. Retrieved on 14 March, 2007.
- ^ Progress Theatre Open Air Shakespeare. Retrieved on 14 March, 2007.
- ^ When reality TV was in the real world. Telegraph, UK. Retrieved on July 12, 2006.
- ^ Little Chef, A65 near Clapham, Lancs.. Guardian Unlimited, UK. Retrieved on August 9, 2006.
- ^ Reading named worst for families. BBC News. Retrieved on April 18, 2007.
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