If you live in the town you will know that over the years Reading has played host to many an important person. It is the burial place of a king, King Henry I, the prison of a poet, Oscar Wilde, and the school of an author, Jane Austen. Only it turns out that Austin was actually only in Reading for 18 months before the money for her schooling ran out.
I know all this because we went for a tour around the Grade I listed Abbey Gateway which once housed the school that Austen attended. It is one of the best preserved parts of what was once Reading Abbey and that’s likely because it wasn’t asset stripped to the same extent as the Abbey itself and it has had extensive restoration work carried out on it.
Once a gate that gave access to the private areas of the Abbey it has been many things over the years but today it is preserved as it might have looked as a Victorian school room – so after Austen’s time.
The first school was started by a Mrs Spencer in the 1750s and was for the poorer middle class girls. The school comprised of the gate with a house alongside and could accommodate 40 pupils each paying £18 for a five month term. Little is known about Austen’s time at the school.
The real reason for our tour, however, was to gain access to the roof of the building which isn’t normally open to visitors. The sloping, lead-lined, roof faces out over modern buildings to its rear but at the front it gives views over Forbury Gardens – the only green space in central Reading.
The volunteer guide was probably a little too enthusiastic to get across every single point about the building but it was worth it for the trip up top.
Fascinating piece of history! The Abbey dates from about 1170AD. I believe Henry VIII had the Abbott imprisoned in one of the walls – his remains were found by archaeologists centuries later. Also, Reading Magistrates Court, the Crown Court and Juvenile Court rooms were part of the Abby complex before the the new Police and Court buildings were built on Castle Street in 1976.
The police building you refer to is about to be shut and flats built on it.