Statue of Queen Victoria, Reading

Reading Town Hall is the town hall of Reading, Berkshire, England. The town hall was built in several phases between 1786 and 1897, although the principal facade was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1875. Situated close to the site of Reading Abbey, it is adjoined to the north by the Hospitium of St John and to the south by St Laurence's Church.No longer the home of the town's administration, the Town Hall now houses the Reading Museum, a large concert hall, several smaller halls and conference rooms, a marriage Ceremony Room, and a public cafe. It is a listed building, with the block designed by Alfred Waterhouse being listed grade II*, whilst other parts of the building are listed grade II.

Reading Museum (run by the Reading Museum Service) is a museum of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. It is accommodated within Reading Town Hall, and contains galleries describing the history of Reading and its related industries, a gallery of artefacts discovered during the excavations of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester Roman Town), a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, finds relating to Reading Abbey and an art collection.

St Laurence's Church is a Church of England mission and former parish church in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated alongside the site of Reading Abbey, formerly bounded by the main Compter Gate to the south and the Hospitium of St John to the north. What was once the private chapel of the latter institution still remains in the north aisle. The church is a Grade I listed building.

The Corn Exchange is a former commercial building in Reading, Berkshire, England. The structure, which was commissioned as a corn exchange and the frontage of which is now used as an entrance to a modern shopping complex, is a Grade II listed building.

The Hospitium of St John the Baptist was the hospitium, or dormitory for pilgrims, of Reading Abbey, which today is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. The hospitium was founded in 1189, and at its maximum comprised a range of buildings that could accommodate 400 people. The main building has survived, and is grade II listed. Much of the remainder of the original hospitium was located where Reading Town Hall now stands.The abbey school, which was founded in 1125, moved into the hospitium in 1485 as the Royal Grammar School of King Henry VII. The surviving building probably dates from this date, albeit incorporating some of the earlier building. The abbey school still exists in the form of Reading School, a state grammar school, albeit in different buildings on a different site.About 100 years after the abbey school occupied the hospitium, and after the dissolution of the monasteries, Reading town council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the hospitium's refectory, leaving the lower floor to be used by the school. This was the home of the town's administration for about 200 years, but the old refectory building eventually became structurally unsound. Between 1785 and 1786, the refectory building was dismantled and replaced on the same site by the first of several phases of building that were to make up today's Town Hall. The main building of the hospitium survived this demolition, and various other uses followed.In 1892 the College at Reading was founded in the hospitium building as an extension college of the University of Oxford. The college occupied the hospitium until it was given a site on London Road in 1904 by the Palmer family of Huntley & Palmers fame. In 1926 the college received a Royal Charter and became the University of Reading. More recently the hospitium has been incorporated into an office development, and is occupied by a children's nursery.Today the surviving building occupies a rather isolated site, with no direct street access. It abuts the main concert hall of Reading Town Hall to the west, and the south of the building opens directly onto the churchyard of St Laurence's Church. The building is surrounded to the north and east by a modern office development, with a small intermediate courtyard.

The Simeon Monument, also known as the Soane Obelisk, the Soane Monument and the Simeon Obelisk, is a stone structure in Market Place, the former site of the market in Reading, Berkshire. It was commissioned by Edward Simeon, a Reading-born merchant who became extremely wealthy as a City of London trader. Edward Simeon's brother, John, was a former Member of Parliament for Reading who had lost his seat in the 1802 elections to the parliament of the newly created United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, since which time the family had been engaged in ostentatious spending locally in an effort to gain support among the town's voters. Although street lighting had been installed in Reading in 1797, the system used was one of lamps attached to the sides of buildings and as a consequence open spaces remained unlit. In 1804 Simeon persuaded the Mayor of Reading that it would be of benefit to erect a structure in Market Place, which would serve both to carry lamps to light the area and to improve the flow of traffic in the area, and volunteered to pay for such a structure himself. Simeon commissioned local architect John Soane to design a suitable structure. Soane designed an unusual triangular structure, 25 feet (7.6 m) high and built of Portland stone. It had no official unveiling or opening ceremony, but the stonework was complete by September 1804. The structure was immediately controversial, denounced within weeks of its opening as "a paltry gew-gaw thing without use, or name", built by Simeon to promote himself rather than for the public benefit. In early 1805 Simeon donated an annuity of 3% interest on £1000 to pay for the lamps on the obelisk to be lit in perpetuity. By 1900 a cabmen's shelter had been erected next to the monument, and in 1933 underground public toilets had been built alongside it. Although Simeon had stipulated that the lamps were to remain lighted forever, by this time the lamps were no longer operational, having been replaced by baskets of flowers in 1911. Although the monument was Grade II listed in 1956, by this time it was becoming extremely dilapidated. The market was relocated away from Market Place in the 1970s, and the obelisk avoided demolition primarily owing to lobbying by admirers of Soane, as it was the last surviving structure in Reading to have been designed by him. In 2005, Reading Borough Council agreed to landscape Market Place and to renovate the Simeon Monument. The now-disused toilets and other structures around the monument were removed, and the monument itself was restored to its former condition.

Reading Southern railway station was opened as the western terminus of the South Eastern Railway's route from Redhill, a junction station at the time of opening known as Reigate Junction in south-east Surrey, having direct links thence to Dover port, Brighton (a resort and fellow industrious town) and London Bridge. The station was referred to for exactly one century by an identical name to its neighbour, 'Reading', until 1949. Seven years after its opening the station expanded its uses by becoming the terminus of a new company's Waterloo to Reading line from London Waterloo station. This mid-length line added to the town's connections with more intermediate stops, beyond nearby Wokingham and mid-south parts of Surrey which had been directly served by the station and added a competing service, approximately one third longer in distance to a London terminus than the adjacent Great Western Railway. The station closed for all purposes in 1970 when its demolition began. It was adjacent to, and to the south-east of, the Great Western Railway's Reading General station known since the other station's closure as Reading railway station. Part of the latter's 1989-built concourse is on the site of the west end frontage of the demolished Southern station.

Broad Street is a main pedestrianised thoroughfare and the primary high street in the English town of Reading. The street is situated in the town centre, running for approximately 0.25 miles (0.40 km), from west to east. The western end of the road lies at the crossroads with Oxford Road, West Street and St Mary's Butts. The eastern end continues as King Street after the junction with Minster Street and Butter Market (Market Place). Today the street is principally known as a shopping destination, being anchored at its east and west ends respectively by The Oracle and Broad Street Mall enclosed shopping centres. However the street has also played an occasional role in English history, most especially during the Battle of Reading (1688), sometimes referred to as the Battle of Broad Street.

The Malmaison Hotel Reading (formerly the Great Western Hotel) is a grade II listed hotel in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated at the junction of Blagrave Street and Station Road, directly opposite the main entrance to Reading railway station. It was opened in 1844, shortly after the Great Western Railway opened its line from London, and is thought to be the oldest surviving purpose-built railway hotel in the world.

Queen Victoria Street is a pedestrianised thoroughfare in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. It connects Broad Street with Friar Street and Station Road.

The George Hotel is a hotel and former coaching inn in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated in the eastern end of the town centre, on the corner of King Street and Minster Street, next to The Oracle shopping mall. It is a Grade II listed building.

Jacksons Corner is a thoroughfare in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. It is a prominent landmark site and is on the corner of Market Place and Kings Road.