Is Reading a nice place to live?

Hi all,

does anyone live in Reading, used live in Reading, or know anyone that currently does?

I'm trying to find out what it's like. I know there's been some recent bad press about it, but I'm guessing it's probably like any other place; good areas and bad areas.

Thanks for any feedback!

Reading is boring.

I do indeed. It's alright, I fit into the young professional bracket, it's geared towards us I guess. It lacks character, but there's some decent places, good shopping unless you want small independant shops or bars. But yeah, some nice areas, some not so nice like everywhere. Thishappened the other day outside my mate's house, and when I lived around that area there was a shooting out the front of the house and a stabbing out the back. So much like the rest of the UK really! It's definitely a good place to be if you work in IT. The surrounding area is very pretty, London is a stones throw away, I can be in central London in less time than most Londoners

Anyway, I've got beef with the pimp across the road and I have to go pull a drive by

Just make sure you avoid the Whitley area, and other places around south Reading. The Oxford road area is good for hookers and crack dealers, if that's your sort of thing. Personally I would want to stay north of the river. As smoothpete says, there are some nice areas around Reading and it's very easy to get out of on the train.

Be prepared for some fucking nightmare rush hour traffic if you're going to be driving, and get ready for congestion charging as that is bound to be introduced soon.

...I'm not really selling it to you am I.

Generic town #363: Reading

Not good, not bad. Some nice bits, some rough bits.

All depends on what you're looking for and what sort of person you are, but all in all it's a fairly small universtiy town with nothing outstanding to offer.

Gorobei wrote:
The Oxford road area is good for hookers and crack dealers

Interesting Reading Fact #1

The two kebab shops on Oxford Road with Hot Stuff signs are working brothels. If you go into one, don't for christ sakes ingest anything.

i just moved to reading, woodley to be exact. There was a shooting a couple of days after moving in but thats about it. Seems cool thou, i used to live in winchester which although a nice little city, is piss boring after 24 years.

Interesting Reading Fact #2

Woodly used to be the car crime capital of Reading, more shifty stereo's changed hands in the Checkers than balls at a juggler convention.

I lived here for 7 years - recently moved out to Wokingham, because I have a kid coming-up to school age, and all the Reading schools are pretty rubbish except the state grammar schools, which get excellent results, but are pretty-much a lottery, because they are tiny schools in a big town.

We lived in Oxford Road for 5 years, because it is one of the more affordable areas, and we found it okay - it has an "inner city" feel, and yes, there are brothels and drugs, but it is no different to Islington, where my sister lives, and I don't here people complaining about that!

Avoid Whitley/ Coley Park. Parts of East Reading are pretty grim too - the bits near the river, but the "university" area is much beloved by those who live there.

Caversham (north of the river) is nice, but much more expensive than the Wokingham areas - Wokingham itself, Early and Winnersh - the latter two are legally part of Wokingham, but for all practical purposes actually part of Reading. They have good schools; but Early and Winnersh are kinda dormitories - Winnersh specifically has no shops or "center" - you have to drive to Reading.

As someone said, traffic is a NIGHTMARE - I take the train from Wokingham to Reading , because I found driving too stressful - there are a LOT of cars in a town which is highly constrained and people drive aggressively because everyone is trying to get to work 5 minutes ago. If you have to drive, for God's sake try your route at commuter-time BEFORE you put down a deposit on a flat - someone who works for my wife didn't do this, and I journey she thought would take half an hour, takes well over an hour; and there are no real "rat runs" because the town is so small and concentrated, and has a one-way system which seems designed to make YOUR journey take longer!

Interesting Wokingham Fact #1

There were once more pubs in Wokingham per square mile than anywhere else in the country.

Interesting Wokingham Fact #2

All the pubs are shit.

The Sundays came from Reading, so it isn't all bad.

/sigh

I live in Lower Earley which is the OK bit of South Reading. You'll have to pay to live North (Caversham way) and the traffic can be a sod 'cos there are only 2 major routes over the river.

It's OK. Having lived in Guildford, Cardiff, Nottingham, London, Middlesbrough and Stockton on Tees, I can assure you that there are a lot worse places to live in the Country than Reading ;)

All useful, thanks a lot guys for replying.

Sounds like the schools situation could be a problem though if planning on bringing up kids there (as it's a lottery getting your kids into a good one).

Reading's boring. Watch a film instead.

One of the things with Reading is that no-one lives here because they want to live in Reading - we are all here for the jobs. (Well, obviously SOME people love Reading, though most of them seem to live in Caversham!) And it really is a town of averages - there are NO independent shops and very few independent restaurants - the "Riverside" night-life area is fine, but there is nothing there that isn't somewhere else, if you know what I mean. So, there is no one "thing" to recommend it - no history, no civic vales, not much sense of community, but... it is near Heathrow, and there are plenty of good jobs!

Thought it was pretty good when I was at uni there till '99. Although that might have been a case of semi-permanent beer goggles. It certainly improved in the time I was there in terms of choice of bars etc.

Not been back for ages, is the purple turtle still there?

Interesting Wokingham Fact #3

It was the site of the last bull-baiting in England.

I live in Wokingham, and used to live off the Oxford Road in Reading. I think FairgroundTown is stalking me.

coderkind wrote:
I'm trying to find out what it's like. I know there's been some recent bad press about it, but I'm guessing it's probably like any other place; good areas and bad areas.

I'm pretty damn sure there was an article running on the front page of the Evening Post a while back stating that this was a cock up and not true at all. Meh.

Sounds like the schools situation could be a problem though if planning on bringing up kids there (as it's a lottery getting your kids into a good one).

Don't send them to Little Heath in Tilehurst. They say they have a policy about stamping out bullying but do they hell. Crap facilitys too. That said there are some worse schools out there...

Saying that Tilehurst can be a nice place to live. I've been here all my life in 3 different houses and it's not bad if you get the right road. Obviously not next door to the pubs or shops. Only a 5-10 minute drive to town at most.

Edit:

Not been back for ages, is the purple turtle still there?

Yeah it is. Went there with some of the lasses from my old workplace. Lots of teenagers with multicoloured hairdos and loud music. Far too cramped to move. Nice outside bit though!

Edited by MercenaryRaiden at 21:51:20 20-05-2007

Tomnd wrote:
i just moved to reading, woodley to be exact. There was a shooting a couple of days after moving in but thats about it. Seems cool thou, i used to live in winchester which although a nice little city, is piss boring after 24 years.

A mate of mine used to live in woodley and I visited him a couple of times. All I can say is jeeeeeeeeezus:-)

I'm mailing from Maritius at the moment on me hols..

Dirtbox wrote:
Interesting Wokingham Fact #2

All the pubs are shit.

The only one i've ever been in is the Ship in the centre, and yeah, it's shit.

Does anyone live in Reading but commute to London? Wondering how do-able that is on a daily basis...

There's a train every few minutes to London Paddington and I think every half hour to London Waterloo.
One of the Paddington trains gets there in about half an hour, Waterloo takes a while longer.

Sorry to drag up an old post from the past, but I'm about to relocate to Reading, so very much in the same boat as the OP.

Looking at a place in Edgehill Street initially (RG1 2PU) - does anything know what it's like?

Dragging this up too. For some reason this forum post is popular on Google for getting info about moving to Reading.

I've lived here for 2 months in Tilehurst and it's not too bad.

There's also a gamerbase opened as well which is awesome http://www.gamerbase.com/?a=post&id=33240

thisisgil wrote:
Looking at a place in Edgehill Street initially (RG1 2PU) - does anything know what it's like?

Not that you'll see this post seeing as that post you made was your only one ever, but yeah, not a bad part of town at all. About 5 minutes away from my house. It's close to the town centre, a decent pub close by. Should be fine

phoenixology, we get high google ratings for nearly everything

Everything I said 2 years ago still stands.

Hi Katie....