Reading

Reading is a vast and a famous town located in Berkshire, England. It is a county city of England. In the Medieval period Reading was an important centre for trade. Reading Abbey was one of the richest monasteries in medieval England that have strong royal connections. During English Civil war, this town was severely affected. During the 19th century, Great Western Railway came and the brewing, baking and seed growing businesses developed. At present Reading is a major commercial centre due to the involvement of insurance and information technology. Economy Reading is an important centre of trade in Southern England and Thames Valley. This town has headquarters of various British Companies and foreign Multinationals UK offices.

Businesses and Markets

It is also a major retail centre. It is located close to London, and sometimes it is known as part the London Commuter Belt. Large companies in Reading include ING Direct, Microsoft, Oracle, Hibu and BG group, they have their headquarters here in Reading. Other significant businesses in Reading include Ericsson, Symantec, Verizon Business, Agilent Technologies, Cisco and Commvault. These are located in Reading, outside the borough boundary and some in Thames Valley Park, Arlington Business Park and Green Business Park.

This town is a major centre for shopping. It was placed as the 16th best performing retail centres in the UK in an independent poll conducted in the year 2007. The major shopping street is Broad Street that is located between Broad Street Mall in the west and The Oracle in the east. In Reading, there are three leading departmental stores namely House of Fraser, Debenhams and John Lewis Reading. Apart from two major shopping malls, this town also has three small shopping arcades namely The Walk, Harris Arcade and The Bristol. There is no indoor market in Reading, and a street market is located on Hosier Street. Farmer’s Market in Reading operates on two Saturdays a month.

Education

In the year 1125, Reading School was founded, and it is the 16th oldest school in England. In Reading, there are 37 state primary schools, six state secondary schools within the borough along with the various private schools, nurseries and independent schools. The University of Reading was created in 1892, and it is an affiliate of Oxford University. In 1904 this university moved to London Road Campus and in 1947 to new Whiteknights Campus. This university took over the Bulmershe College of Higher Education which was a teacher training college. Henley Management College is located in Buckinghamshire, and it is about 10 miles from Reading. Later it was taken over in 2008 and became Greenland’s Campus. The University of West London maintains its presence due to its higher education students. Reading also has some English language Schools that include ELC London Street, English Language Centre and Eurospeak Language School.