Reading Gaol and the Kennet 

Reading Prison and Oscar Wilde

The current H M P Reading was once famously known as Reading Gaol.  The older prison buildings are  early Victorian built on the “model” style in cruciform shape by Sir Gilbert Scott, 1833.  The prison became famous throughout the world thanks to the “Ballad of Reading Gaol” - an epic poem by Oscar Wilde. 

Following one of the most sensational trials of the Victorian era, Wilde was imprisoned at Reading from 1895-97.  He wrote “De Profundis” while inside, and the Ballad while in exile in France, following his release.

The Oscar Wilde Memorial Commission, completed in 2000 by artist Bruce Williams and poet Paul Muldoon, incorporates gates, railings and seating.
The gates feature an image of Wilde and symbolically stand permanently open.  The railings alongside the Kennet proclaim “O Beautiful World” – Wilde’s words upon his release from prison.    

The Kennet

Chestnut Walk skirts the towpath behind the Abbey Ruins and the prison and leads  down to the towpath along the Kennet – one of Reading’s two rivers.  If you follow the towpath under Forbury Road, where the waterside East Gate of the Abbey once stood, you can look back  from the upper towpath for a clearer view of the Victorian prison buildings. 

In Reading, the name Kennet is linked to both river and canal.  First completed in 1810 to link the Thames with Bath and Bristol, the Kennet and Avon Canal played a vital role in Reading’s prosperity during Victorian times.  The opening of Brunel’s Great Western Railway in 1841 took most of the commercial traffic away from the canal and it gradually fell in to disrepair.  By the mid 1900’s it was largely unnavigable. Thanks to the work of the K & A Trust, the canal was completely regenerated and in 1990 was reopened along its whole length.   The River Kennet is the source of the K and A, and meets the Thames at Reading.  Along its route through Reading, the two waterways share the same path with the exception of the section between Queen’s Road and Blake’s Lock.   

Huntley and Palmers

Standing on the Kennet is the imposing Prudential building, once the site of Huntley and Palmers’ biscuit factory.   Delicious smells of baking once filled the air across the 24-acre site (much nicer than the brewing smells from the nearby Courage Brewery), and the factory even had its own railway sidings.

Little remains of the sprawling complex, but Huntley and Palmers was one of the three great Victorian businesses that put Reading on the map– forming Reading’s  famous “Three Bs” of Biscuits, Beer and Bulbs along with Simonds Brewery and Suttons Seeds. 

While modern Reading is possibly more about the Three I’s – Insurance, Investments and IT –  strong links with tradition remain.  On  Chocolate Island in the middle of the Kennet, you can see The Compleat Angler by Kevin Atherton.  This life size bronze of local man Eric Cooper, captures the spirit of Reading , while  reminding us that our rivers are far cleaner and more attractive to both fish and anglers than they were during our industrial period.  

Blake’s Lock

As the tow path ends you find yourself on Gasworks Road looking at the Borough Coat of Arms and the legend “Reading Gas Company 1880”.  British Gas owned much of this area until recently but it is now the site of some imaginative residential developments and a popular themed restaurant.

“Bel and the Dragon” at Blake’s Lock is  part of a complex that includes the Riverside Museum, all overlooking the first lock on the K & A.  The restaurant is on the site of the former pumping house (which  provided water treatment for the whole “New Town” area of Reading) while the Riverside Museum is a small but perfectly formed exhibition which includes a Reading-built Gypsy Caravan and artefacts connected with life on the Kennet.  You can also visit the turbine house, which produced power for the area in the early 1900’s.