The Oracle Shopping Centre, Reading

I had various errands in and around Reading today. I avoid going into the town centre as much as I can due to the traffic congestion and when I do, I normally go by train. But today it tied in with other errands so I ended up driving and parking at the Oracle Car Park.

The Oracle is actually quite a pleasant shopping centre, straddling the River Kennet. There are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops to enjoy, and at some of them  you can even sit outside on a sunny day.  The Vue cinema is right there too. Boats can be seen navigating the river.  I'm not much of a shopper anymore but maybe I should visit a bit more frequently - I only had time for an hour today so no lounging over lunch or a cup of coffee for me!   These flower boxes on the pedestrian bridge over the canal made it even more attractive.

Two items of trivia:
1. The Oracle Shopping Centre takes its name from the 17th century workhouse which occupied a small part of the site of the shopping centre.  The Oracle workhouse was built by funds from a prosperous local cloth merchant, John Kendrick, a patron of Reading.  A local girls grammar school is also named after him.


2. The Oracle Shopping Centre won the 'Loo of The Year' award in 2001 and 2002

In other news:
I finally ordered my sofas today!  I'm very excited but will have to be extremely patient as I'm told they will take up to 14 weeks!