I had seen on the Reading Walks Festival site that one of the walks this year was around Reading’s Inner Distribution Road. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make this but that didn’t stop me from doing the walk myself, so I did!
Queens Road
I got the bus into town and alighted at Duke Street so an obvious place to start my walk was where Duke Street meets the Queens Road. This is pretty much directly opposite the Black History mural, one of the highlights of the walk (there aren’t many to be honest).
I was walking the IDR clockwise so I turned right and headed along the path that runs between the Oracle shopping centre and the IDR flyover. It was a pretty grey and grim start to the walk.
Crossing Bridge Street I picked up the path that to the right has the County Lock on the River Kennet. This is pretty much the only green area that you can see from the route so spend some time taking it in and try not to look left at the concrete wall retaining the IDR.
The next section is the only place where I managed to get lost. I had thought that I could walk down the side of the Hexagon to remain on the same side of the road but the path ran out and I had to cross to the other side. This led me to Chatham Street which has changed considerably over the years and is probably tider now. There were a few interesting murals here which I will return to at a later date.
Caversham Road
The next stage of the route travels along the Caversham Road with the fire station on the left and the now empty Royal Mail sorting office on the right.
You reach a roundabout with a TGI Friday’s on the corner. It has been there a very long time, probably since about 1990 and when it first opened we went and the waiters and waitresses tried very hard to recreate the vibe of an American TGIs but it didn’t really work and so that was quickly dropped. I’m surprised that it has lasted as long as it has there but as I write this it is still hanging on.
Diagonally opposite that was a shop called Carters, which has not been so lucky. Mind you, it was a pretty niche business catering for the ski set, meaning sales must have been pretty seasonal and now replaced by the internet and other chain operators. In its place, there is now being built more flats called, appropriately enough, Carter’s Court.
Vastern Road
Turn right onto Vastern Road, which until very recently was dominated by the very ugly Southern Electricity building. Now that is literally a pile of rubble waiting to be cleared to make way for Reading Riverworks— yep, more flats.
Further down the road you pass the north entrance of the station and opposite that the headquarters of Thames Water in the building that is somewhat ironically called Clearwater Court.
Forbury Road
Turning right, you pick up Forbury Road, which takes you under the railway before turning left and passing Forbury Gardens, the only green space of any size in central Reading. On the other side of the road are several modern and anonymous office blocks, a couple of which replaced the slightly more interesting Metal Box building, demolished in 2014.
Towards the end of the road, before it turns right again, you reach the prison made famous by one occupant— Oscar Wilde. A Victorian building hidden mainly by a very high wall and on which Banksy has made his mark. The building has been closed for a while, now sold on, and Reading waits to see what is to become of it— the fear is more flats.
Opposite the prison once stood the Huntley and Palmer biscuit factory, which has long since been replaced by flats, one of which has the words BISCUIT FACTORY stenciled up its side.
Queens Road
Forbury Road turns right and we are back once more on to Queens Road. This end of the road is where I spent many years working out of a small building now, of course, turned into flats. You can see the building and me as we were immortalised on Google Street View for a while before they updated the pictures.
There is an interesting and attractive curve of properties on the opposite side of the road, looking more like something you might find in Bath than Reading. I know nothing about them, but they seem out of place given what’s around them.
Finally, past the ugly Queens Road Car Park and we are back to the starting point.
Grey and Grim
It was a 2.5 mile walk in total and I am not going to say that it was beautiful and, in fact, most of it is pretty grey and grim but it was interesting nevertheless.
If you want to walk it too and you’re not familiar with Reading’s IDR then you can find a detailed route here. There are some pictures of the delights you will see on the way round below.
