20th Century

Timeline

Shopping

Markets and Fairs

A Trading Town

Arcades

Department Stores

Malls

Chain stores, Malls and Supermarkets

At the same time as many of the local large shops were closing, many large chains of shops were moving into the town. Sainsbury’s opened their store in Friar Street in 1963, and BHS opened a shop in Broad Street on the site of the Angel Inn. In 1994 part of Broad Street was pedestrianised. For many years buses had been the only vehicles allowed down Broad Street, but with the bus loop around the town centre all vehicles were removed. The removing of the part of the roads meant for cars soon spread to other streets in the town centre with the eastern half of Broad Street being completed in 2000.

The shopping mall came to Reading with the Butts Centre which opened in 1972. This changed its name to the Broad Street Mall in 1987. This was soon followed by the Friars Walk Shopping Centre, which opened in 1973-4 and then by the Oracle which opened in 1999-2000. This was the largest of the centres, and as well as attracting lots of new shops to the town also encouraged other shops to move from Broad Street and Friar Street into the new centre. The Oracle was on the site of Simonds Brewery, Heelas depository, the old bus depot and various other buildings. For the first time in more than a hundred years it was possible to walk along the Kennet through the centre of Reading, with the opening of the riverside part of the Oracle with its cinema, cafes an restaurants.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s large shops began to open on the outskirts of the town with large car parks. At first, supermarkets selling food opened, such as Asda in Lower Earley and Savacentre in Calcot, but soon other shops were opening in out of town locations, such as furniture stores and electrical supermarkets.