The town Reading is situated roughly 55 miles away from England's capital city, London. Reading is one of the best places in the south for employment. Currently there are more jobs available in Reading and not enough people to fill them. This is mainly due to the recent building of a 22 acre new shopping centre; The Oracle.

Where is it situated?

The Oracle is built just outside the town centre, which has even since the plans were laid out been a worry that it will move the entire town centre. Luckily this hasn’t happened, as Broad Street (the main street in Reading's CBD) is still popular, even if it is a little quieter.

Getting there

From the West

If you visit Reading from the west, chances are you will go by bus. Reading town centre resembles Rome in some ways; as that all roads (or bus routes) lead to it.

If you do enter Reading by bus the best stop would be either that in Friar Street, or the bus stop by Reading’s market place. The Friar Street bus stop is the closest to the Oracle, but the market place stop allows you to walk down Broad Street and maybe grab a sandwich. You could also double back on yourself and walk down a road named Gun Street, then into Minster Street (see more about the entrances later). Out of Reading town centre appears to be a much easier option; there is a bus stop about five minutes away in Gun Street, which you can get to by travelling west along Minster Street.

There are various bus routes which lead to Reading, most of which stop at Oracle-appropriate bus stops. From the town of Newbury, to the west of Reading, this route is well served by both Reading Buses and their subdivision Newbury Buses. A selection of bus routes from Newbury to Reading are the 101, 102, 103, 104, 106 and the 110.

It is also possible to get to Reading from the town of Tadley, using the bus routes 143 and 148. For more information about any of these routes, and more, visit Reading Buses website.

If you decide to drive into the town, it would be useful to know that the Oracle has been built with a brand new multi-storey car park, so this could be a good parking option. One problem with this car park is the many right-angled turns, navigating these corners is quite a feat! There are, though, a magnificent 2,300 parking spaces here and probably worth the try. By road the Oracle can be reached from the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) and the new A33 relief road.

From the East

There are also many ways of reaching the town from the opposite direction.

Another transport option is the train, but be prepared for a fifteen-minute walk to the town centre from the station. Reading is one of those places where you definitely need good shoes!

Entering the Shopping Centre itself

There are three main entrances to the Oracle. The normal entrance is on a road called Minster Street, and is very large, very modern and very big on glass. The other entrances are not quite as flashy. One leads down to the Oracle from another stretch of Minster Street and is almost like a small promenade, edged with shops like ‘The Pier’ and ‘The Natural World’. The final main entrance is from the Riverside, of which I will speak later. This entrance is almost as flashy as the main Minster Street one and leads in with ‘House of Fraser’ on your left and a café on your right. The main Minster Street entrance is, I have found, the best for general navigation, with sitemaps provided just inside the door.

Areas of special interest

Onto the Riverside I spoke of before. This is an outside leisure area, built along both sides of the River Kennet. This promenade is 270 metres long and includes a small range of outside seating, owned by the cafés flanking this area. Large performance areas each side of the river and seating has been promised, but is not yet, at the time of writing, deployed.

Two bridges span the river. One, Cooks Bridge, is a straight footbridge and allows easy access from the multi-storey car park to the previously mentioned Riverside entrance. The other takes you from the new ‘Warner Village‘ cinema to the main entrance of Debenhams. Cooks Bridge was named in memory of a councillor, John Cook, who had a lifelong interest with the River Kennet. The other bridge was named after a competion was launched for the people of Reading to find a name. This bridge is now officially named the Delphi Bridge after the home of the Oracle in Greek mythology.

The shops themselves

One of the largest shops is ‘House of Fraser’. This store covers more than 13,700 square metres and is designed in an exceedingly modern style, resembling large department stores normally found in London.

The Oracle is very good for expensive shopping, as it has attracted shops that would probably never before have considered Reading as somewhere to situate. A few of these more expensive shops are ‘Kookai’, ‘Ciro Citterio’ and ‘Dune’. Other companies that already have premises in Reading have expanded or moved to the Oracle. These include ‘Waterstones’ who are still trading from their original Broad Street shop but now have a massive shop in the Oracle. ‘Debenhams’ is one of those who have left their old store and moved.

Conclusion

I have come to the end of my very long entry about the Oracle. To sum up, this place is excellent for shopping and for having a very busy and fulfilling social life! If this entry has inspired you to come and visit (plus shop), then it may be an idea to tell you that the Oracle has a habit of being busy. You have been warned.