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Reading Leasing

Did You Know?

Reading is the largest town without city status in the UK. A city is classed as 'an extensive human settlement with a sophisticated system of transport, communication, sanitation, and housing, among others' and has to be designated as such by the Monarch.

Reading is an agricultural centre noted for the bulbs produced in its nursery gardens. Its other best-known industries are biscuit manufacture and malting and brewing, and there is much business in printing, iron foundries, engineering works, and computers.

The first evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, where the town came to be known as Readingum. The name comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means "Reada's People" in Old English. The name Reada is thought to literally mean "The Red One."

In 1121 Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I and it was one of Europe's largest and wealthiest medieval buildings. King Henry I died before the Abbey was complete and was buried in the Abbey Quarters in 1136.

Did you know that Reading was considered a safe town during WW2 and deemed ‘unlikely to be bombed’? Many children from London were evacuated to the town early in the war to try to safeguard them from harm. Unfortunately, although our losses were minimal in comparison with other areas, an air raid hit on 10 February 194. 41 people were killed & 153 were injured.

We have a long list of famous people we are proud to claim as Reading natives including the beautiful Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge who was born in Reading’s Royal Berkshire Hospital in 1982. She shares Reading as her birthplace with controversial comedian Ricky Gervais.

Reading School is one of the oldest schools in England, dating back to the founding of Reading Abbey in 1125 (although some sources suggest in may have started even earlier than this date). The school was relocated to the Abbey’s Hospitium of St John and made a Grammar school by Henry VII in 1486.

Reading Town Hall was built over several phases. The original building, located behind the façade designed by Alfred Waterhouse, dates back to 1786. The original building was restored in 1864 in the Italianate style.