Reading, Slough, High Wycombe, Staines, Maidenhead, Windsor, Bracknell

[LDN_EUROPE]

This thread may last longer than one just about Slough!

Plenty happening in Reading and Slough. Please post them here

[LDN_EUROPE]

SLOUGH - the very name may still make you cringe but this little town is changing. Its now quite a wealthy place with offices springing up all the way along the Bath road between Slough and its posher neighbour Maidenhead.

Anyway latest news is that the exulted 'Heart of Slough' project is go, go, go with work scheduled to start on site in 2007:
http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/slough.htm

£17.52m funding secured for Heart of Slough development
English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency, has announced a funding package of £17.52m for Slough Borough Council’s Heart of Slough project.

The ambitious project will include more than 1,300 new homes, 22,564 sq m of high quality office space, a new bus station, a revised road layout and new public recreation space as well as a new library and community facilities.

The funding from English Partnerships will now help the council to conclude the development agreement with partners Development Securities and Berkeley Homes, and clears the way for detailed work to start on buildings, highways design and public consultation.

Cllr Dexter Smith, commissioner for planning and transportation, said, “This is a great milestone in the Heart of Slough regeneration project. I am proud of the focus achieved on the project over the past two years. We have cut down the high rise element and dramatically reduced the amount of office space, increasing the amount of residential provision.

“We have listened to residents views and will be including a brand new state-of-the-art library in the plans.”

“The project has also already brought many benefits to the town over past few years, such as arts funding and a creative industries hub, and it is hoped we can now start making real inroads into the physical regeneration.”

David Warburton, Area Director for English Partnerships added, “We are delighted to confirm our commitment to this project which is key to the revival and future prosperity of Slough. The plans for the project tick all the right boxes for us in terms of helping to create a community where people will want to live and work. The delivery of affordable homes, regenerating the town centre and the re-use of brownfield land are key elements of the project and chime exceptionally well with our remit.”

English Partnerships will be a full partner in the planning and delivery of the project with specific responsibility for certain elements of the plan.

To date, external funding brought in by the Heart of Slough scheme includes:

a Creative Industries Enterprise Hub funded by SEEDA at Thames Valley University. The hub is currently full with 15 businesses in place
£3m European Equal funding for work on creative initiatives with disadvantaged communities. To date more than 4,000 people have been through programmes and eight new businesses have been created
£106,000 from South East Arts for Art at the Centre
Along with English Partnerships, Slough Borough Council will be working with development partners Berkeley Homes and Development Securities to deliver the scheme, which will lead to a total investment of over £200m.

Cllr Geoff Howard, commissioner for resources, said, “The Heart of Slough scheme will really help transform the gateway to Slough’s town centre, and radically improve the town’s image. Good management of our town’s assets is vital and pulling in extra funding to update and improve the town infrastructure and environment is part of our strategy to improve the quality of life in the town.”

http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk...A75C97F4C3DCF9

http://www.era-ltd.com/practical_sol...20Briefing.pdf <<----last page shows Skyscraper.

http://www.era-ltd.com/practical_sol...agship.shtml#2

[peterson]

Reading

The main development area in town in the next few years will be around the station. A scheme to build 4 new platforms and a new entrance is awaiting a government funding decision. Just to the south of the station John Madejski's Sackville Developments are in the early stages of planning a huge project potentially involving 5 20+ storey buildings around new civic squares. No planning application yet but they've got the land and hopefully demolition could begin in 2008. www.stationhillreading.co.uk

Chatham Place is a scheme under construction by AMEC. The first phase involves 300+ apartments and a new multi-storey carpark. The second phase is much more interesting and will provide office space, a new square and covering over the inner distribution road linking the site into the existing town(grrr) centre. www.chathamplace.co.uk

Abbey Mill House will be a 15-floor office block and construction begins in December this year. For images see http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum...p?TOPIC_ID=733

There is planning permission for a 22 storey residential tower also near the station but no sign yet of demolition of the existing buildings.

Other interesting developments in and around town:
Malmaison are refurbishing the old Station Hotel converting it back to its original usage. Great brand for the town to have attracted. Accor has recently opened a new 14-floor hotel (divided into two: Novotel and Ibis), but it's not the best looking new building you've ever seen. Out-of-town Green Park is still expanding with construction on new buildings taking place, and at Thames Valley Park Microsoft are building themselves another building on their plush 'campus'. A new wind turbine, among the tallest in the UK, towers over GreenPark, the M4 and the Madejski stadium - which shall itself be extended should Reading FC retain their newly gained premiership status.

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - Station Hill Reading (new skyline - one of the best in the UK?):


Station Hill Reading (view from the north):


Public space:




Mixed use ground floor (shops / restaurants etc):

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - Today Station Hill is a collection of tired, outdated and obsolete buildings that confront both residents and visitors to Reading as they arrive by bus or train. Station Hill is the major transport interchange in the town and by far its most significant gateway.

The transformation of this area is vital to securing the future of the town centre. Sackville’s development proposals will replace the current buildings with a development fit for 21st century
demands.

[peterson]

LDN_Europe, I think it's a little early to hail Station Hill as the best new skyline in the UK! These images are really only concept images at this stage. Sackville plan the buildings to be mainly office space and they want to build that element first. I'm not sure that's the right approach. With the out-of-town business parks doing so well and forever expaning, and other speculative office developments such as Abbey Mill House and Chatham Place in the pipeline, I'd have thought it would be worth making this scheme at least 50% residential and getting on with that bit first. There is definitely huge demand for more apartments in the town centre.

There are reasons why this scheme has a good chance of eventually turning out something like these drawings. Firstly, the council is massively pro-development and keep pleading with developers to build higher. The scheme will get good public support and no nimby opposition. It's a large site that is totally in the ownership of Sackville (as far as I know). And the location right by the station could hardly be better (Reading has direct links to 300+ stations and only Birmingham New Street is busier outside London). However the council have set a height guide of 25-storey office or 30-storey residential in the belief simply that anything taller would just look silly.. and they're probably right. So Reading won't be competing with the London/Mancs/Brums of this world.. but there is a good chance that this site will eventually house a well-designed co-ordinated cluster of 5 or 6 tall buildings

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - I know Reading quite well and agree that the area around the station is a bit crap at the moment but is the ideal place for tall development.

Reading is booming and at the heart of what is often called the British silicon valley (the M4 corridor). The population of reading continues to increase too.

Its also nice to see Slough doing so well.

[DMT20]

Wow, its important to remember that this is all proposed not for London, Manc, Brum etc so its great to think that the high rise rennaisance is happening in places like reading and Slough(!). Impressive

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - is Huge now - it must be one of the largest 'towns' in the country. I think it should be called a city. If it wasn't so close to LDN it may have been upgraded some time ago.

[peterson]

LDN_europe, Reading is definitely one of the largest towns in Britain without city status. This site actually shows it as the largest: http://www.lovemytown.co.uk/CityStat...atusTable2.htm. However, the official population is a lot less than this site gives due to the ancient boundaries that effectively outline what most people would call the 'inner city' of the town as it is today. Large suburbs (30K+) of Earley and Woodley are technically part of neighbouring authorities. I know many towns have this sort of thing going on but in Reading it is extreme. The low official population probably has a lot to do with the failed city status bids.

Personally I don't think the 'town' status is a major problem. In recent years I hear more and more people refer to the place as a city.. perhaps nudged by a bitter council that changed lots of signs in the aftermath of the a recent failed bid to be upgraded! But it's no longer laughable to consider Reading as a city so I'm sure the official status will come along eventually. In the meantime it doesn't appear to be hampering investment. I actually wonder whether the council is missing a trick with this... could they re-brand as "Reading Town"??!

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - I know Reading quite well and in my opinion Earley and Woodley are certainly suburbs of Reading! As Reading continues to sprawl outwards it could even be argued (less convincingly) that the likes of Wokingham and Theale are also its suburbs.

[gothicform]

reading has it in extreme??? not compared to lincoln the city of lincoln has boundaries drawn up in the victorian times and spreads into two neighbouring district councils. 40% of the population of these councils lives in what is lincoln in all but name, where i live in north kesteven the second largest "town" is north hykeham, a suburb of lincoln. actually maybe its the largest now. the situation gets more stupid every year because these two district councils have the fastest growing population in the country and with the govt spending levels years behind real population levels we are being massively short-changed. another great example is the wikipedia article which wont state the true population because it constitutes "original" research. i believe reading also suffers from what i like to call boom-town syndrome. in otherwords it gets short-changed by the govt because the population is growing whilst people think its much smaller than it is. towns like this need to have their borders changed but they wont...

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - I agree. Reading has been booming away for years. By the time (if ever) borders are adjusted I expect it'll be in decline!!

[moseeds]

Originally Posted by LDN_EUROPE

I know Reading quite well and in my opinion Earley and Woodley are certainly suburbs of Reading! As Reading continues to sprawl outwards it could even be argued (less convincingly) that the likes of Wokingham and Theale are also its suburbs.

I thought Early and Woodley were already part of the border? Is Caversham within the border because I've noticed people from Caversham don't like putting Reading on their address and end it with Caversham, RGXX XXX!?

[LDN_EUROPE]

READING - That's because some of Caversham is posh and seperated from the town/city centre by the river. In my opinion Caversham is 100% Reading!!

That's like people in Langley don't like to admit that they're part of Slough.

[JDRS]

Can a mod combine my Wycombe thread with this one?

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=386135

[peterson]

Originally Posted by LDN_EUROPE

That's because some of Caversham is posh and seperated from the town/city centre by the river. In my opinion Caversham is 100% Reading!!

That's like people in Langley don't like to admit that they're part of Slough.

this is true! I live in Caversham but I proudly include a block-capitalled READING on my address. It's outragous that some of the local snobs think that their mail reads better without it!!

[Caversham is included in Reading's boundary but Woodley, Earley, Calcot, Shinfield, Purley and parts of Tilehurst all lie ouside it]

[LDN_EUROPE]

HIGH WYCOMBE - If a mod does this,

Can a mod combine my Wycombe thread with this one?

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=386135

could they also ad 'High Wycombe' to the title of the thread? many thanks.

[peterson]

Planning application for Station Hill Reading submitted.

Since the concept images they've moved the tallest building to the station end and defined the first phase as comprising two towers, one office one residential

story from property week:
____________________________________________________________


£500m mixed use scheme planned for Reading

Sackville Developments has submitted plans for its £500m Station Hill mixed-use scheme next to Reading Station


16.02.2007

By Deirdre Hipwell

The company, which is owned by Reading Football Club chairman John Madejski, plans a 1.4m sq ft (130,060 sq m) scheme comprising a cluster of tall buildings.

The first £160m phase will comprise a 230,000 sq ft (21,370 sq m) residential tower with 32 storeys and a £150m, 24-storey office tower equating to 270,000 sq ft (25,085 sq m) of office space. The second and third phases will include two office towers of 240,000 sq ft (22,300 sq m) and 170,000 sq ft (15,800 sq m), and two residential towers of 87,000 sq ft (8,080 sq m) and 154,000 sq ft (14,310 sq m).

Shops, cafes, restaurants and an arts centre will also be included in the scheme which was designed by Scott Brownrigg,

It plans to start the speculative development, next year. The first phase will be complete by 2011.

[Marky_boy]

No doubt Madejski will name every part of the new development after himself.