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‘You Feel Goose Bumps’: The Push to Preserve Where Wilde Was Jailed for Being Gay Activists are trying to preserve the prison he was sent to after his conviction for “indecency,” saying his life is an important part of Britain’s history. The perimeter wall, right, of the now closed Victorian jail where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in 1895 on a charge of “gross indecency.” The ancient Reading Abbey is on the left.Credit...Mary Turner for The New York Times June 1, 2021Updated 4:32 p.m. ET READING, England —-The metal stairway creaks and groans underfoot on the way to cell C. 3....

Bastille Festival. Credit: Scott Critchley A FREE French themed festival is returning to Reading this July. Bastille Reading will go ahead in 2021 after the event was cancelled for the first time last year due to Covid. Organisers of the free, two-day, family festival at the Forbury Gardens say they will ensure the necessary safety procedures are adopted to enable it to take place. After last year’s cancellation, organisers turned their attention to registering it as a charity, which was confirmed earlier this year so the 2021 event, on the weekend of July 10 and 11, will be its fir...

A ROOM WITH A VIEW: Reading Gaol as seen from The Blade. More time is needed to develop a community bid for Reading Prison, a local MP has said. Reading East MP Matt Rodda has sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice, asking to give the community extra time to develop a bid for Reading Gaol. He said a significant amount of work is underway to develop the bid, but it is clear it will take longer to complete than the initial three months offered by the MoJ last year. In December, Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland offered Reading Borough Council (RBC) community a three-month...

Film that celebrates 900th year of abbey aims to boost tourism '); produced to coincide with Reading Abbey’s 900th anniversary this year. Reading Abbey 900 has been produced by Reading UK to raise awareness of the abbey, which was founded by Henry I. It will also be used to encourage visitors to Reading once the coronavirus pandemic fizzles out. The film was created as part of the tourism work Reading UK has undertaken with home and international travel trade operators to support the visitor and hospitality economy. But with 2021 starting with continued tightened restrictions on trav...

Reading Abbey Then and Now Although Reading Abbey is abandoned today, it would have been a marvelous site to see in its heyday. Had it survived, Reading Abbey would have been one of the most perfect examples of Norman architecture in England. The monastery was built between the two rivers Kennet and the Thames. It would have had an elaborate cloister which had monsters carved into the capitals, known as the “beak heads.” The size of the structure was grand and the abbey would have been painted in vibrant reds, yellows and blues. In 2018, Reading Museum created a digital model of what th...