On Friday, I called into the exhibition showing new development proposals for 175 Friar Street – the former Bristol & West Arcade.  The developers appear to be trying to a new tactic of keeping expectations incredibly low.  The advert for the exhibition, which was shared on social media, was a grainy black and white image of their proposed Friar Street frontage, which people on reading-forum had assumed must be the building to be demolished!  Then they chose to host the event in Novotel.  If you’re thinking of hosting a gathering of people potentially concerned with the evolution of modern Reading then the ONE PLACE you don’t take them is Novotel.  The high-rise hotel, which has added some life to an area of no-man’s-land between the station and shopping area, did sadly herald the demolition of the art deco ABC cinema.  That frontage should have been retained, and Novotel’s upper floors constitute a grey lumpy box that can be seen from miles around.   When I entered the event, the bemused town planning consultant found herself listening to complaints about Novotel rather than her proposed scheme.  I appeared to have stumbled into a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous hosted in a local boozer – was this going to end well?

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