Reading Walks Festival 2026

After enjoying the couple of walks we went on at last year’s event, and meeting a woman who’d taken the week off work to do some of the Walks Festival walks, I thought this was a good idea, and as we didn’t book to go away in May this year, thought I’d take a week off and do this instead.

I booked on to four walks. I’d made a note in my diary to check the schedule in plenty of time, but still found the Historic Holybrook walk booked up and had to put myself on a waiting list. Thankfully a place did become available. I think I heard someone say in the course of one of the walks that the idea of the festival had been to show the attractions of Reading to people not from the area, but that in reality the walks had mainly been attracting Reading locals. There’s also quite a heavy Ramblers presence, as evidently REDA had approached local groups to ask if any members would be prepared to lead walks. All four of the walks I did this year were led by members of local Ramblers groups.

First walk: River Kennet and Green Park [5 miles]

Walk led by Joyce, of Windsor & District Ramblers – I’d say 70-something. And her friend Rita, who acted as back marker.

We gathered outside the station in front of The Three Guineas pub. From there, we set off through the town centre and from Bridge Street headed down to the canal towpath, where we walked along past County Lock, under the IDR and Berkeley Avenue, past the back gardens of Elgar Road, under Rose Kiln Lane and the A33 to Fobney Lock, where we paused. When we resumed we walked away from the canal down Island Road to come out by the tip (aka Reading Recycling Centre) and continued along to cross the A33 at the lights and onto the Kennet Island development, where we paused at the Fidget & Bob café, which had kindly agreed to make its toilet facilities open to us. In practice a good many of us also bought some light refreshments.

The Kennet Island development started construction in the 2000s on the site of the old sewage treatment works. In addition to housing, the site also includes a Hilton and a private hospital. The new sewage works is the other side of the A33.

Looking out from Fidget & Bob's across some sort of piazza affair

We unfortunately lost two participants – a couple, who evidently found the pace of the walk too fast. For most of the walk I walked just behind the leader, Joyce, with Yvette, a retired lady who was evidently a keen walker, though a double knee replacement a few years back has meant she can’t do as much as before. While we were progressing along the canal bank through Katesgrove, Joyce got a call from Rita asking her to slow down as the group was getting too spread out. We paused at Fobney Lock to wait for the tail; Rita eventually appeared sans the couple, who had apparently bailed out – she had directed them to a local café for a sit down.

The River Kennet by Fobney Pumping Station

After the café/toilet stop, we retraced steps out of Kennet Island and walked south to enter Green Park and proceed via Brook Drive and footpaths to the new(ish) railway station, where most of the group got the train back. I had brought some sandwiches with me which I ate sitting by the lake near the station, intending to get a bus back into Reading, but as it happened there was a train arriving sooner, so I got that instead.

At Reading Green Park station

The route of the walk:

Second walk: Walking the Historic Holybrook [7 miles]

Led by Steve, of Loddon Valley Ramblers. The tail walker was another LVR. This walk started from Theale railway station, though I got the bus instead as the timings were more convenient and then walked the short distance down Station Road. The walk leads, plus two or three of the other walkers, were on the same bus.

The Holy Brook is an offshoot of the River Kennet that flows alongside it to the north, from Theale into Reading. This walk was clearly popular, as I'd had to go on a waiting list initially and it was scheduled to be repeated later in the week.

I was a bit disappointed not to start from Arrow Head, the actual source of the Holy Brook, but I assume it is on private land. Steve did note Arrowhead Road on the left as we passed it. Instead we walked down the road to the canal and joined the canal towpath, which we followed for about a mile, past Garston Lock and under the M4. We then turned off left across a meadow and over the railway line to join the Holy Brook.

Garston Lock with its two pillboxes

Crossing the meadow to join the Holy Brook

We walked eastwards through the Holybrook Linear Park, south of the Beansheaf, Fords Farm, Southcote and Coley Park estates. Most of the route until Coley Park Farm was new to me.

Walking through the Linear Park

The Holy Brook near Burghfield Road

We passed this curious bridge carrying Burghfield Road over the Holybrook. What's its story?

The curious bridge

I did a quick Google search but the only thing I could find concerning this specific bridge was this exchange on Reddit, part of a thread called 'The Double Bridge':

After going up to road level to cross Burghfield Road we carried along through Southcote Linear Park and passed under railway bridges two or three times. We briefly joined the path following the trackbed of the old Coley Branch Line, which Steve reckoned he could just about remember trains on. The line used to run from Southcote Junction to Reading Central Goods Depot. I have no memory of it; it closed in the early 80s and was never a passenger line.

Following the old railway trackbed

We turned off the railway trackbed to follow the Holybrook as it goes up towards Coley Park (footpath shown in the Explorer map snip). The path crosses water meadows and the Coley Park Flats can be seen in the distance.

Looking across to the Coley Park Flats

The stretch from Coley Park Farm to the metal gate just before the rear of the Reading Link Retail Park was not quite as overgrown as it had been when Ray and I passed along it in September 2023, but still fairly nettley. Instead of being forced to turn off to the right, as Ray and I had been, along the boundary of the retail park and then onto the road, this time we carried on, emerging at a bridge over the Holy Brook just by the Admirals Court development. At this point, Steve advised us that it’s possible at a push to carry on following the Holy Brook further, but it’s overgrown and not too attractive. So we turned off and walked through the Admirals Court development up onto Berkeley Avenue.

Met an interesting chatty chap – must have been slightly older than me – who had grown up in Coley and said his parents had come over on the Windrush. He recalled swimming in the Holy Brook as a lad, and also in County Lock in January (strewth). He also claimed that he and his friends used to pinch bottles of beer from Simonds Brewery and store them in the Holy Brook for when they fancied a drink. He also remembered the Coley Boys' Baths, which seem to have been about where Admirals Court now is, though he claimed they weren’t all that nice as water from the Holy Brook got into them. I found these notes from another of Steve Vale's walks, this one from the 2024 walks festival, which mention the baths. I was also amused by the extract above from a 1930 Reading Standard, posted in an 'old Coley' Facebook group. Those baths certainly don't sound appealing.

From Berkeley Avenue we walked down onto the canal towpath and back into Reading. The Holy Brook goes underground near Brook Street West, and surfaces at intervals in the town centre until it flows into the Kennet at Abbey Wharf. Building works to the Abbey Wharf offices were obscuring the viewpoint of the two waterways meeting, so the fourth photo below was as close as I could get.

The Holy Brook underground, near Bridge Street

The Holy Brook flowing past the Oracle shopping centre

Abbey Mill Wharf

The Holy Brook flowing under the offices at Abbey Wharf

This was a very interesting walk though some of the route was almost certainly not public footpath. I don't think the disused railway line path is, though it's evidently an accepted walking route. The path behind the retail park feels a bit unofficial - the top right of the OS snip above shows the green footpath dashes abruptly ending at the retail park. Who knows?

Walking behind the Reading Link Retail Park

This walk felt more difficult than the one the previous day, though it was not all that long and was fairly flat. Perhaps I was tired by the five miles the day before plus five more miles in the afternoon accompanying Ruth around the Caversham Arts Trail.

The route of the walk:

 

Third walk: The Sights and SANGs of Spencers Wood and Shinfield [7 miles]

This one was a walk to the south of Reading, probably the side of town I know least well. It started from the Mereoak Park and Ride, south of the M4 near Three Mile Cross. Part of a relaxing week for me is not doing any unnecessary driving, so I opted to take the park&ride bus 600 to get out there from the centre of town. I’d had some vague expectation that the site might include some basic facilities like a waiting room and toilets, but no, it’s just a big car park with a few bus shelters.

A SANG is, apparently, a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace. We passed through at least two on this walk, Langley Mead and The Ridge, and possibly more that I failed to note down.

The Reading Walks Festival assign various handy labels to the walks to assist with judging which ones would be suitable for you. One of these is “healthy” walks (more walking, less talking from the guide) vs. “sociable” walks (a walk designed to make new friends while walking). Of the four walks I did, this was the only one categorized in the latter group and also the only one billed as ‘child friendly’. In the event, this walk felt at a brisker pace than the two previous ones – certainly in the second half, the leader, Richard, was striding off in front and had a go at persuading us (unsuccessfully) to skip the refreshment stop in Shinfield, issuing warnings about how long modern coffees take to make. Not sure what the 'child friendly' bit was about - there were no children on the walk (or on any of the four I did); I suppose that if there had been the walk leader would have had to tailor the content a bit. Additionally, though I had picked the walk out of interest in the route rather than as an opportunity to make new friends (am not much good at doing that to order) it was if anything slightly less sociable than the previous two walks, probably because it seemed to have fewer people who’d come along on their own. I was though mightily impressed by two ladies who were visiting Reading from Hertfordshire specially to take part in the walks festival - they were staying overnight in a hotel in town and then doing another walk the following day.

Woodcock Lane

We started off by heading north out of the car park up Mereoak Lane and then crossed the A33 into Three Mile Cross, where we turned immediately right onto Woodcock Lane, now a footpath but previously, apparently, an old droving road that went all the way to Basingstoke. We turned off after a bit and followed a path into woodland, and then across a field into Spencers Wood. I think Richard said the field was part of Spencers Wood Common.

Crossing field towards Spencers Wood

We walked through residential development in Spencers Wood and then towards Shinfield. I don’t know Spencers Wood well; was amused by Richard’s comment that although SW is called a village, it’s actually a T-junction. The old Basingstoke Road goes through SW, long since bypassed by the main A33 to the west of the village.

We detoured to High Copse Pavilion for a toilet stop; the festival had evidently arranged for us to be let in specially for this. (The downside of these sorts of events mainly attracting people of middle-age upwards, I guess.)

We walked through Langley Mead, apparently the biggest SANG on the route. It seems to be owned and managed by the University of Reading. I think the photo below was taken there though I neglected to label it when my memory was fresher.

Langley Mead, I think

We stopped, despite Richard's reluctance, at the School Green Centre in Shinfield, which includes a café selling light refreshments. I availed myself of a cup of tea and some sort of sweetmeat. Regarding the Centre's architecture: Richard told us that it had been controversial, but that he quite likes it. The building seems to have won a RIBA award. According to the linked RIBA piece, it's a "playful" extension to an old parish hall. This 2023 Observer review is headed "where Lidl meets idyll" (there's a Lidl next door to it - evidently many Shinfield residents had wanted a Waitrose, with a view to their house prices, but Lidl had won the day).

School Green Centre, Shinfield

After the break, we walked through The Ridge, another SANG and apparently the highest part of the walk, and noted the views of Reading to the north.

View from The Ridge

Towards the end of the walk the weather turned, becoming something resembling hail. I took the pic below as we were walking back through Three Mile Cross and I was wishing I'd brought gloves with me. Richard (in red) was taking no prisoners by this point.

Walking back through Three Mile Cross

The handful of us who'd taken the bus thankfully didn't have too long to wait for one. I went home to warm up.

The route of the walk:

 

Fourth and final walk: Kennet and Southcote [6 miles]

Another walk led by Steve Vale, a knowledgeable chap who’s apparently lived in Reading his whole life. In previous walk festivals he’s evidently led an interesting-sounding walk around Old Coley – a neighbourhood decimated by the construction of the IDR – but he told me he’s got a bit bored with it now so didn’t offer it this year. Fair enough. Maybe next year.

We walked along Bridge Street again and I was expecting this walk to have to repeat part of the route along the Kennet that I’d already walked the previous Saturday, so I was pleased that instead Steve led us over the bridge and through the foot tunnel under the IDR by County Lock. This comes out into Katesgrove, by what used to be the Hook & Tackle pub (and, even more previously, the Tanners Arms) but is currently the Namaste Kitchen.

We walked past the massive Victorian primary school and across down Elgar Road, a street of Victorian terraces. The houses on the west side of the road have gardens that run down to the Kennet. As we walked down Elgar Road there was a lot of comment from some in the group on the various modifications that have been made to some of the houses (as is the case on a lot of terraced streets). I took this photo of three that had retained a reasonably uniform look. Impressively decorative brickwork for such modest houses.

Well-preserved terraces on Elgar Road

Steve paused to look up Dale Road, saying that the site used to be Colliers Brickworks. I can find a reference to Colliers Brickworks’ Grovelands site, but I assume that was near what’s now Grovelands Road. So I'm not sure what that was about - perhaps I misheard.

The southern half of Elgar Road is industrial estate. Just before that, we turned off into Waterloo Meadows, an "urban park" next to the Kennet. I don't think I'd ever walked through there before; it's actually quite nice and surprisingly rural-feeling.

Walking through Waterloo Meadows

The Kennet from Waterloo Meadows

We briefly went up onto Rose Kiln Lane to cross over the Kennet and then re-joined the river path on the other side, and continued on as far as Southcote Lock, where we paused for a sit down and I had another go at a selfie.

The Kennet from Rose Kiln Lane

Fobney Lock with the pumping station beyond

Pausing by Southcote Lock (behind me) and Milkmaid's Bridge

Another selfie attempt

After the break, we crossed Milkmaid's Bridge and followed the path northwards across the water meadows, reaching Circuit Lane and the Southcote estate. We continued through the estate coming out on the Bath Road. At this point, two women reckoned they'd had enough and were going to catch a bus back into town. The rest of us walked through part of Prospect Park to come out on Liebenrood Road.

Kennet water meadows near Southcote

Trees in Prospect Park

The last part of the walk was along roads, which Steve seemed to think was less interesting but I quite enjoyed the cut-through via Kearsley Road and Parkhouse Lane as I'd never walked that way before. We walked back into town via Brunswick Hill and Baker Street, then down Russell Street onto the Oxford Road. Steve noted the Nag's Head on Russell Street, plus the former Pavilion Cinema, now the home of Life Spring Church.

The route of the walk:

 

Various photos were taken by the walk leaders; Alex of REDA assured me that they'd be made available after the festival finished but no sign as yet.

A few trips to London

August 2025

Don’t think I’d been up to London since March when Helen and I went to an exhibition of Picasso prints at the British Museum. Have just had a flurry of trips in August.

UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, 20 August

With Ray. He had spotted a World of Wasps exhibition on at this little museum in Bloomsbury. I’d never been to the museum so was happy for a trip there.

We walked over to the museum from Paddington, starting off by taking in the redevelopment alongside Paddington Basin. Then across to the Marylebone Road, where we crossed to avoid a noisy pro-Pal demo and detoured round in front of Marylebone station, then turned south down Baker Street and across through Marylebone to Tottenham Court Road, where I suggested having lunch in the branch of Byron that’s part of the Central St Giles Piazza. Have been here quite a few times. I do like Byron but they’re unfortunately another chain that has closed quite a lot of branches. This one seems to be hanging on.

Our walk route

Bloomsbury Street

The Grant Museum of Zoology is an intriguing place. Apparently the museum moved to its current premises, a former UCL library, in 2011. It’s a single large room, with a galleried upper level (that bit doesn’t seem to be open to the public). Aside from the World of Wasps exhibition, there were a whole host of fascinating specimens of various types, some quite weird (e.g. the jar of moles). Things we saw included a jar of pig foetuses, a glass case of rabbit legs, a cod heart, a rabbit brain (quite small, alas), a pigeon nervous system and a ‘wall of mice’ comprising 4000 mouse skeletons. Makes you think.

Rabbit legs

The jar of moles

Surprised-looking pufferfish

The World of Wasps exhibition included two virtual reality exhibitions, one enabling a wasp’s-eye view of a nest and the other a journey through a wasp habitat. Both slightly disconcerting as they involved you barrelling towards enormous virtual wasps. The exhibition was intended to encourage greater appreciation of the much-maligned creatures by highlighting their importance to ecosystems, as well as showing the complexity of their nests. According to this interview with the exhibition’s creators, it’s the world’s first exhibition devoted to wasps.

Ray in one of the VR headsets

View of the museum interior

UCL has several museums. Ruth and I visited the UCL Pathology Museum as part of the London Open House in 2018. That one is open by appointment only, but there are also the UCL Art Museum and the Petrie Museum, which both do seem to be open to the public.

We took a bus part of the way back to Paddington and then walked the remainder after it unexpectedly terminated us on Oxford Street. We had tea and cake at Gail’s before catching our trains home.

Gallery and architecture, 28-29 August

This trip was meant to be taken much closer to my birthday, on 14-15 August, but Auntie Anne’s death and subsequent funeral meant that it had to be postponed by two weeks.

One of my best birthday celebrations was in 2021 when Ruth and I did two ‘perambulations’ from the range published by Stefi Orazi, of the Modernist Estates Instagram account. I fancied doing another one and because I wanted to combine it with an exhibition showing at Tate Britain, chose Perambulation No 26: Pimlico, Knightsbridge and Chelsea. There are 24 properties on this perambulation and we actually only got as far as number 12, so the rest will have to be done on some future occasion.

One arriving in London, we took a bus to Victoria Station and then walked across to the Hub by Premier Inn Westminster Abbey, on Tothill Street. In fact, to correct that slightly, we initially walked to the Hub by Premier Inn Westminster, St James’ Park, on Dacre Street, to be told we were in the wrong Hub (suspect the staff are used to telling people that). When we arrived at the correct hotel (which is only about two streets away) we were able to leave our bags. This hotel’s staff were a model of efficiency over the two days.

Two Westminster 'Hubs'

As rooms in the ‘Hub’ hotels are tiny and there were going to be two of us in it, I had paid the extra £10 for a slightly bigger room, which did seem worthwhile as it at least meant we had some floor space to put stuff on.

We walked across to Tate Britain where I had booked tickets to see the Edward Burra exhibition that runs until 19 October. I didn’t know a great deal about Burra beyond that he was an English watercolour painter active in the 1930s, but his painting ‘Izzy Orts’, with its blank-eyed sailor, had made enough of an impression for me to be quite interested in seeing more of his work. I found it interesting though I enjoyed the ‘urban underworld’ stuff more than the later, more serious war-themed stuff.

Burra's painting Izzy Orts

Burra’s paintings of sailors in tight trousers led Ruth to mutter “Bottoms” at intervals while going around the exhibition.

We had lunch in the Tate café, saw the exhibition and returned to the café afterwards for tea and cake, all at massive expense but that’s gallery cafes for you. We also visited the shop where I made an entirely unnecessary purchase of a woollen Miffy.

Unnecessary purchase

Our ticket for the Burra exhibition also got us in to see an exhibition of the painter Ithell Colquhoun. I can’t say I had ever heard of her, not that that means much necessarily. I was intrigued to see her billed as, among other things, a “practicing occultist”. Evidently she was thrown out of the British Surrealist Group owing to her refusal to renounce her association with various occult groups. In fairness, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn does sound quite fun.

Colquhoun was given to sexual symbolism in her paintings. Painting of sunset over a jutting rock, etc, and you learn from the accompanying text that the rock could also be viewed as a massive clitoris. Makes you think.

Scylla by Ithell Colquhoun (1938)

We then set off to Pimlico underground station to make a start on the perambulation. Our first port of call was Ventilation Shaft Cover (Eduardo Paolozzi, 1982) on Bessborough Street. It's Grade II-listed.

Me by Ventilation Shaft Cover

We then walked through Bessborough Gardens to the Thames Path by Vauxhall Bridge, where we viewed the attractive Crown Reach development, completed in 1983 and built by the Crown Estate Commissioners, apparently as part of a wider effort to transform the area into a luxury residential zone. I really liked this development.

Crown Reach (1983)

Our next stop was St George’s Square and a gander at Nos 72-74, a 1958 infill development into a stucco-fronted terrace. This replaced two war-damaged houses.

72-74 St George's Square (1958)

We walked down Chichester Street past the Dolphin Square development. This wasn't part of the perambulation, but the leaflet noted that it was the largest residential complex in Europe when it was completed in 1937.

The Dolphin Square development

We crossed Claverton Street and entered the Churchill Gardens estate. The leaflet described this as "a landmark, early post-war housing scheme". The first block opened in 1952 and the development was completed in the early 1960s, when it won a Civic Trust Award.

Entrance to the Churchill Gardens estate

Seen on the wall of one of the blocks

On our way along Lupus Street to see the Lillington Gardens estate, we passed some pleasant but unremarkable school buildings which I guessed were what had replaced the good deal more remarkable Pimlico School. This was one of the first notable postwar buildings that I remember seeking out for myself, when I was 20 or so and probably while on the way to the Tate Gallery, as it was then. Evidently not everyone who had to teach in the building admired it (True hothousing at Pimlico school) though one Bob Giles issued a robust retort here: Pimlico school was architectural jewel. This Architectuul piece has some photos of the interior.

Street View snip of Pimlico Academy on Lupus Street

To round off the afternoon we visited the Lillington Gardens estate. This brick-clad development apparently marked a move away from high-rise blocks to low- and mid-rise estates. It is quite a pleasant-looking development.

Lillington Gardens (Darbourne and Darke, late 1960s)

For dinner, I had wanted to return to L'ulivo on Villiers Street, where we had eaten before seeing Cabaret in 2022. We were less pressed for time on this occasion so I got that second glass of wine in.

Our seafood starter at L'ulivo

Westminster Abbey at night

The following morning we breakfasted in the hotel as it was raining. Then we took a bus back over into Pimlico, to cut out the walk to the start point. We went to view 7-9 Moreton Street, apparently an early example of postmodernist details in council housing.

7-9 Moreton Street (Goldfinger and Miles, 1984-7)

We then walked a bit to get to Cambridge Street where we viewed another infill development that had replaced bomb-damaged buildings. The architects of 76-78 Cambridge Street were directors at Arup and this building is described as "bold and uncompromising". Ruth didn't like it, but I loved the concrete and smoked glass, and how exuberantly not-at-all-in-keeping with the surrounding houses it is. Architects in the 1960s, unlike latterly, don't seem to have worried about their designs being "in keeping" with neighbouring buildings - I think rightly, as there'd never be any new styles of domestic architecture otherwise.

76-78 Cambridge Street (Foggo and Thomas, 1969)

We then went to view numbers 50 and 50a Winchester Street, two maisonettes converted in 1970 from a Victorian house.

An irrelevant building I photographed by mistake

Most of 50/50a Winchester Street (I chopped a bit off)

From Winchester Street, we walked via Ebury Bridge and Pimlico Road to view 1-6 Sloane Square, then went around the corner to view the adorable artists' studios at 1-3 Sedding Street.

1-6 Sloane Square (Harrison and West, 1965)

Sedding Studios

Then up into Belgravia to view Lowndes Lodge. Like some of the buildings we'd seen previously, this was built on a bomb-damaged site.

Lowndes Lodge (Aslan and Freeman, 1950s)

Then via Motcomb Street to view 35 Kinnerton Street. Kinnerton Street is a lovely street of mainly older houses. The Perambulation leaflet describes number 35 as "an unusual house for the area". The house has a double garage at street level and I was interested to read that this was included "to meet planning regulations of the time, which required space for two cars". Would this still apply today? It was nice to see a house after all the apartment blocks, and I think this was my favourite property of the day.

35 Kinnerton Street

Closer-up view pinched from Google Street View

We called it a day at this point and resolved to do the rest of the perambulation at a later date.

Helen and Grayson Perry, 30 August

Helen and I met at the Baker Street branch of Honest Burgers for lunch, then made our way to the Wallace Collection to see Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur.

I had never really formed much of an opinion on Perry, but evidently Helen’s husband Greg is a big fan. Based on this exhibition, I have to say I’m slightly at a loss as to how he’s as successful as he is, but maybe his approach of including himself as part of the art is a winner. After talking to Helen, I did seek out via YouTube an episode of Grayson's Art Club, the Channel 4 show that Perry made during the COVID lockdown with his wife Philippa. It’s watchable stuff - in fact I quite wished I'd come across it myself during lockdown - and GP is quite an agreeable presenter/narrator, with a pleasant voice.

Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, 1624

Laughing Cavalier by G. Perry, 2024

The exhibition was centred around the character of Shirley Smith, a fictional artist persona created by Perry. Shirley, in turn, appeared to believe that she was, in fact, the Hon. Millicent Wallace, the rightful heir to Hertford House (the building that houses the Wallace Collection). I found this character-within-a-character stuff a bit confusing; Helen, being a bit more familiar with GP's approach to art, seemed to take it more in her stride. I decided to approach the exhibition with an open mind though and did enjoy it. It was accompanied by an audio narration by Perry himself.

After leaving the Perry exhibition, we had a wander through a few of the permanent galleries. I don't think I'd been to the Wallace Collection since going there with Mum in my teens. I think I rather dragged my feet on that occasion. There's now a covered café in the central courtyard, where we had some nice cake.

Afterthought

From Perry's audio re Shirley: "She never really had that many friends but she had a lot in her head. She was quite lonely because of her mental health issues."