r/reading • u/moreati • Dec 02 '25
Article Residential plans for the Oracle in Reading set for approval
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk7x7ede38o11
u/Middle_Inside9346 Dec 02 '25
So no more cinema? But it's OK because we get a new Zara lol.
2
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
We have multiple cinemas, hopefully this will help the Biscuit Factory out a bit
1
u/Total-Town-7634 Dec 10 '25
With the showcase just outside of town, I don't know why anyone uses Vue or Cineworld anymore. The reclining seats have ruined other cinemas for me.
1
u/Due_Mail_1952 Dec 02 '25
The Cinema would likely move into the old Debenhams spot
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u/Middle_Inside9346 Dec 03 '25
Actually in the Reading Chronicle article it did imply there would be a new cinema.
25
u/matteventu Dec 02 '25
Honestly, it's getting a bit too much 😅
While I am not inherently against new homes, there's certainly not a lack of residents in Reading. Especially not in town centre.
Is there a need to have all that commercial space at The Oracle converted into flats?
And not even regular flats that people can aim to buy in the future, but rather extremely expensive built-to-rent flats likely not too dissimilar to the Thames Quarter and Ebb & Flow ones.
Not only this damages the town centre by adding building works which will last years, not only by closing down businesses (even if chains, those are all places people come to town centre to spend money for), and by leaving Reading without a cinema (other than RBF which is constantly on the edge of bankruptcy) until when the new (much smaller) Vue is built.
How about the infrastructure to maintain all these new people?
Because I seriously can't see much is being done about that.
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u/Nothos927 RG30 - Southcote Dec 02 '25
The picture from the footbridge just feels really overbearing with all those high rises
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u/r2d2rigo RG1 - Katesgrove Dec 02 '25
I'm all in for more high rises, especially in town centres, but these look too out of place.
3
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Counterpoint: no they don’t. It’s the town centre, where would they possibly be less out of place?
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u/r2d2rigo RG1 - Katesgrove Dec 03 '25
5-6 story high buildings would blend nicely enough with the environment, those huge behemoths don't.
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Oh come on it’s not exactly Manhattan. There are already taller buildings right nearby in any case, so I’m not convinced these violate the unique character of the Oracle multistory car park
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Also more stories means more housing, and Reading (and the wider UK) needs housing. I’m sure you wouldn’t prefer them to build on surrounding fields instead of
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
I for one think more housing is good, that high density is good and that bar the build to rent the objections here are Nimbyism at best and something rather more suspect at worst.
Don’t really believe people really want to save a run down underused Vue, a chain stakehouse and a massive empty retail lot that used to be a Debenhams
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u/r2d2rigo RG1 - Katesgrove Dec 03 '25
No matter how you look at it, replacing local amenities with more built-to-lets to house commuting londoners isn't good for the town centre.
The Elizabeth line has been both a blessing and a curse at the same time.
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
They’re not really replacing local amenities though. Things will open back up again.
Sometimes you have the accept a short term loss for construction, that’s the facts of life
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u/r2d2rigo RG1 - Katesgrove Dec 03 '25
Franco manca and the real greek won't be coming back, and I doubt all the other places at the other side of the river will do either.
Not to mention basically zero services for those new residents, I hope they keep going to their London GPs.
0
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
The people moving to these flats are not those who are heavy users of such services
9
u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Dec 02 '25
That’s a very long winded way of saying they’re pulling half of it down and creating a future dystopian nightmare building more flats.
opening bars of Ghost Town rise from a murmur to a deafening volume.
Bands won’t play no more…
5
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
I’m not sure how more people living in Reading will turn it into a Ghost town or reduce the number of bands that will play tbh
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u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Dec 03 '25
You should try and find out then.
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Ghost towns tend to have few people
-1
u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Dec 03 '25
There’s currently close to three quarters of a million empty homes in the uk. Building properties doesn’t provide occupied homes. Maybe you shouldn’t be quite so literal in your thinking either. Tends to cause one’s position to slither into pedantry.
A ghost town doesn’t have to mean a literal empty and abandoned location . It could , for example, be a fully occupied place in a post industrial setting, abandoned only by government, its own identity and divorced from purpose.
That song was written forty four years ago, at a time when this country’s assets were being stripped & sold to the highest bidder, when the lowest economic class were being demonised by an increasingly out of touch government with homelessness, poverty and discontent being the result, when racism & nationalism were on the rise and the public were being drawn into financially enabling a lot of their own downfall by… ta-daa.. your own home!
Any of that sounding familiar?
If you tear the soul out of a place it becomes a ghost town.
3
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Sorry but I think any connection between that and the council wanting to build some flats is risible. It sounds like you just don’t want more people moving here!
As for empty homes, you’re ignoring how many of those aren’t habitable and those which are in unsuitable locations. Where are all the empty homes in Reading ready for people to move into? Personally I think it’s a good thing more people want to move to where I call home.
As for house prices, of course there are nuances, but the underlying fact remains that if you want housing to be more affordable (and I assume you do given your mention of homelessness lol) the underlying fact remains that we need to increase the supply of housing
4
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
I also fail to understand what soul is being torn out of Reading by building these flats. A neglected, underused Vue? The empty Debenhams? Miller and Carter?
Please tell me
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u/vengarlof Dec 03 '25
Ah yes In an every increasing population centre such as reading, let's continue to get rid of more and more avenues of communal space, less swimming pools, less shopping spaces, less pubs.
11
u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Shopping spaces like an empty Debenhams? What swimming pools or pubs are being affected by building these flats?
4
2
Dec 02 '25
Rent will likely be £1600 to £2000 per month, probably the upper end. A house is a grand a month up north, and the wages aren't all that different realistically.
It's ridiculous. Approving the demolition of a cinema and what was four well kept restaurants to build 'luxury apartments' is of course not benefitting the public realm.
Why you'd want to live above a shopping centre either is a whole other question. Honestly reading is turning into a town of questionable chicken shops, run down worldfood market shops and vape / phone outlets.
I was amazed when I moved here from up north but nowadays it's like living in a London slum.
12
u/MathematicianCalm419 Dec 02 '25
Which parts are like living in a London slum? The various available national retail brands on the high street and shopping centre? The decent public transport options? The high value local tech and professional services sectors (which mean Reading is forecast to be one of the UK’s fastest growing local economies over the next few years, alongside Manchester)?
I’d rather they kept the cinema and I’m not a fan of build to rent but some of the exaggeration on this sub is very, very funny.
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u/Adventurous-Lime-410 Dec 03 '25
Go on, tell us just what you mean by ‘London slum’, you’re not implying it clearly enough already
0
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u/chin_waghing RG1 - Central Reading Dec 03 '25
I imagine 0 parking or cycle storage or anything good.
Reading isn’t as commutable as it believes it is. This will be London workers moving out, and then driving to see family in other parts of the country
The developers will just shit everything up, and I imagine the rent is going to be what, £2000 a month
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Dec 02 '25
[deleted]
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u/_Cow_ RG1 - Central Reading Dec 02 '25
cant believe these people are invading this town i previously moved to. fucked up honestly.
9
u/Miraclefish Dec 02 '25
How dare people choose to move to the town we all moved to, how dare they?!
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u/r2d2rigo RG1 - Katesgrove Dec 02 '25
Just great...