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The front-runners for 2023

Reading-On-Thames, , 5 Comments
New apartment towers at the eastern end of The Oracle

The end of the year is the obvious opportunity to review the past 12 months, and to look at what’s to come during the next lap of sun. After a tumultuous year internationally, and nationally for that matter, let’s keep things local for a few minutes. 2022 saw a number of projects galloping forwards, whilst others seem perpetually stuck in the traps. One project that’s come up on the rails from nowhere is the Oracle’s major scheme, which was submitted for planning permission this week – more on that shortly. But let’s take a more leisurely canter through the runners and riders for 2023.

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The front-runners for 2023

Friar Street – Finding the Way Forward

Reading-On-Thames, , , 1 Comment

Recent months have seen a flurry of new and altered plans for developments along Friar Street, as well as construction continuing on the new Friars Walk. Let’s take a look through the progress, and the context of how this street fits within the evolving story of Reading Town Centre.

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Friar Street – Finding the Way Forward

Cosmo Corner – Future Friar Street

Reading-On-Thames, 5 Comments

New proposals have emerged for a 103-home build-to-rent scheme adjacent to the Station Hill development on Friar Street. The developer, Shaviram Group, held an online consultation and has published materials online where you can provide your feedback. Here’s what I picked up on this latest residential plan for Reading town centre.

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Cosmo Corner – Future Friar Street

A closer look at Kings Meadow View

Reading-On-Thames, , 7 Comments
Forbury Retail Park from above

Another vast new residential regeneration project has been unveiled this week. This time it’s Forbury Retail Park in the spotlight. As always, I went along to the public consultation to see what’s going on. I’ll try to cover the facts, but I can’t help but express more than one central reservation about these new plans.

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A closer look at Kings Meadow View

Jury’s Out for ex-Arcade Hotel Plan

Reading-On-Thames, , 5 Comments

New plans have been lodged for a hotel to replace the former Bristol & West arcade opposite Reading town hall. This is something of a saga site, with a troubled recent history of abandoned construction and a multitude of stalled proposals that I’ve covered on these pages before. The latest plans constitute only minor amendments to the physical appearance of the most recently approved scheme. However, developers now propose a hotel rather than an office/retail hybrid.

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Jury’s Out for ex-Arcade Hotel Plan

Queen Victoria Courtyard Scheme Unveiled

Reading-On-Thames, 11 Comments

On these pages, I’ve frequently emphasised the need to drive Reading’s offer forward, to keep the visitors from neighbouring towns coming, and therefore to underpin the overall vitality of the town centre. Yet I reflect now that perhaps the biggest competition to those aims is not Oxford, Basingstoke and Newbury, but rather Amazon, Deliveroo and Netflix. Will the Covid lifestyle stick, or will there be a collective clamour to return to the physical, or the “in real life”? Thankfully, whilst lockdowns have shut us all indoors, that hasn’t stopped the investors and architects forming new plans to haul us off our sofas and back into town.

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Queen Victoria Courtyard Scheme Unveiled

After Covid…

Reading-On-Thames5 Comments
sunrise over Kenavon Drive, Reading
Sunrise over Reading. Photo by Caroline Gratrix, Viva Photography

Readers may know this blog promotes the town centre. In the current Covid predicament, clearly the economic health of the high street is far surpassed as a concern by the public health risks of the pandemic. This is not a rallying call to head to the shops at the present time. But perhaps it is a good point to be asking questions about how we might plan for when the sun rises on a post-Covid Reading.

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After Covid…