HM Prison Reading

HM Prison Reading stands on the site of Reading Abbey beside the River Kennet in the centre of Reading, Berkshire. Built in 1844 as the Berkshire County Gaol, it replaced an earlier prison and was designed by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt. The building follows a cruciform plan modelled on Pentonville Prison, itself based on Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary. It was intended to enforce the separate system of penal discipline, keeping prisoners in isolation. Public executions once took place in the forecourt before moving inside in 1868, the last one occurring in 1913. The gaol held Irish prisoners after the 1916 Easter Rising and interned civilians during both world wars. In the First World War it housed mainly German internees alongside Belgians, Hungarians and Latin Americans. From 1973 it served as a local prison and later became a remand centre for young offenders aged eighteen to twenty-one. Its cells were arranged on three wings plus an open unit called the Kennet wing. The prison also ran education departments and a library, with records now kept at the Berkshire Record Office. Visitors today find a Grade II listed building with thick stone walls and barred windows. The former exercise yards and cell blocks remain, though some wings have been demolished. The site has hosted temporary arts events, including an Artangel exhibition that drew large crowds. A mural by Banksy appeared on the outer wall in 2021, showing a figure climbing a rope of bedsheets. Campaigns continue to turn the gaol into a permanent arts venue, with local figures such as MP Matt Rodda supporting the cause.