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

[Frankus Maximus]

An update on the development next to Slough train station.

The 10 floor Hotel (on right) is complete and operational, the 15 floor residential (centre) has topped out.




Also, this eight floor office development is going up on the Windsor road - very visable from the M4:

[jeremai]

Council approves car park housing development
By Sam Blackledge 8/1/2009

PLANS to build a controversial housing development on the site of a car park in Staines have been given the green light by Spelthorne Borough Council.



http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/20...g_development_

[jeremai]

From the article above:

“It will overshadow and dominate the region. The visual impact will be enormous. In the most basic, brutal sense it’s a huge block of Lego. It’s totally unsuitable for the area.”

How on earth can an urban building be more unsuitable for a town centre location than the bleak blank walls of a two storey car park?

[Rational Plan]

Having lived in Staines, my objection to the scheme is the loss of the Car Park. Staines does not have a lot of parking to begin with and this is the only one in that part of town. The pubs and restaurants along the river will lose even more trade. The main car park at two rivers retail is the most popular car park in the evening due its good lighting and close proximity to the High Street. The others to the South of the town are cut off by the shopping centre in the evening and you don't feel that safe in them because of the low pedestrian traffic. The councils greed for a quick profit will cost the town.

[jeremai]

Yeah, you're right. Parking is a nightmare in Staines, especially in Two Rivers on a Saturday. However, that is a different issue to the building being "unsuitable for the area" which is completely ridiculous.

[gothicform]

by the way gothicform just out of interest, what hill were you walking down?

thats the view ! it was more to the left than your picture but you've got the right place generally.

[Frankus Maximus]

A few pics of Chatham Place I took yesterday:


The car park at the back




Some detailing


and over the bridge

[Frankus Maximus]

Also the Blade:

Popping up all over the place




I'm sure he would approve


Good soar

[jeremai]

Great updates!

[reading general]

beat me to it frankus

one reading central (yell building) i think this is as high as its going to to get.




and the oracles public/private property with rules

this country!

[Rob stem]

Hi everyone!

Really happy to come on here and find this whole Reading section looking amazing, some fantastic photos.. !

I've had loads of photos hanging around for ages, made me laugh to see loads of the same shots I've been to, Royal Berks NCP and Railway Station multi-storey- classics!!!

Reading General: where's that last skyline from?? It's cracking, makes us look amazingly dense from that angle. Is it McIlroy Park?!







Pretty similar to what's already been posted but never mind!



August '08



October '08



November '08



January '09

[Rob stem]

Just for the sake of local pride I'd like to suggest that Reading actually looks more impressive from a distance than a city of twice it's size- Bristol.

Although Bristol benefits from far superior topography, it is of course a gorgeous and diverse collection of Somerset villages all smashed together and never really rises to any big city feel 'downtown' area. There is the cluster around Cabot Circus but pretty modest for a city of half a mil.

I've spent the last 6 years living between Reading and Bristol and know both very well and although I find Bristol a much more positive place to exist, (much friendlier atmosphere, much, much, more going on for young people- as a 25 year old male and a more traditionally attractive city) one thing I can testify to is just how much Reading has changed over the last 15/20 years. For the better. In nearly every sense.

As people has said loadsa times on here already- it really is the perfect location to develop a proper skyline. Nearly all of our historically relevant areas have been tarnished by usually having some massive, modern apartment building right next door to it, so although these little oasis' are often fairly well preserved in themselves, the overall feeling is certainly not one of tranquility and sympathy.



Reading has undergone some strange changes in the past. An obvious point I'd like to make is the fact that the central cluster around the station didn't really change at all throughout my lifetime and then when it did, it was the consent of the Novotel building, hardly an improvment on Thames Tower/Western Tower/ NCP school of architecture.

In fact, I remember this building receiving the prestigious 'worst high rise development in the UK 2006' award on skyscrapernews.com a while back.

My grandad wrote letters to the paper expressing his sheer dismay at such a structure.. The sky blue cladding does look absolutely bloody awful from Friar street, next to all the red brick Georgian stuff.



The hotel in question sits just to the left of this shot, I'll have to go and grab it later with my trusty camera(phone!) yuk.

Couldn't believe they waited 30 years to finally just build that!

I can find it in my heart to forgive the Novotel though for being bulky and tall(ish) and for letting me break in whilst under construction and get on the roof..!

Blade cool though, although grey coloured material surrounding the glass doesn't look at 'high quality' as I was expecting.

Has the Radisson Hotel plan been shelved then??? I really like the old blue glass design.

Oh yeah, the building that occupies that site at present is easy to get on the roof of if anyone wants to brave the skag-heads, kebab meat and vomit that guard the fire escape steps up the back.

[peterson]

Reading

As referred to, Novotel:
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


Forbury Square with the Blade behind and Reading Central in the reflection:
image hosted on flickr

[Frankus Maximus]

Love the last photo peterson.

Also Rob stem, I completely concur re your comments on how much Reading has changed over the last 15/20 years, this is partly due to the population increase and Reading has (IMO) reached a critical mass re its claim to becoming recognised as a city.

[LDN_EUROPE]

Good work Berkshire crew. Good to see pics of Slough, Reading and Staines. Keep the Berks pics coming.

[reading general]

"berkshire crew", like that.
yep rob, spot on straight away. mcilroys

[gothicform]

the novotel from the front really isn't the worst thing i have ever seen although the cladding colour makes little sense (what was wrong with brick?)



the problem is the frontage, which is underwhelming at best is the best part of the building. the back and sides of it are unforgivable.



i forgot i had been so withering of it, actually i forgot i wrote it at all but pleased people are using it as justification for just how crap the novotel is. living at the time in reading i watched it go up and as the scaffolding revealed what was under it i felt an increasing sense of horror.

Take a bow, Reading's new Novotel. Although the frontage does step back with a spot of colour, when viewed from Forbury it is an enormous grey block with small rectangular windows more fitting for a development built by dwarves. Three sides without a single redeeming feature make it the sort of thing that we had hoped had been left behind in the sixties. Even more puzzling is that next door Kier Properties planned Station Road Tower, an elegant piece of glass and steel, had to fight through the planning system because it was tall. No accounting for design in the eyes of Reading Council and local NIMBYs.

[reading general]

q2 residential block in queens road reading is starting to take shape



will be similar to q1 behind it just a bit taller i think.



also sort of thames valley is basingstokes skyline plaza. a refit of the former ibm building with 2 extra floors on top.
85 metres apparently, almost complete

[van heckler]

What is the round building on the left? Is it new or photoshopped?

Originally Posted by reading general

[reading general]

the one on the furthest left is the thames water building(picture in post 97).
next along are the newtown gas holders.