Buying a car and choosing a neighborhood in Reading
Discussion
Reading is a large town, plenty of varied areas with a mix of housing. All depends on if you want to live in town, or outside in the suburbs.
I live to the South of the town which is nice, but wouldn’t want to live any closer. Some areas have bad reputations.
eBay, Facebook marketplace, autotrader, gumtree for cars.
I live to the South of the town which is nice, but wouldn’t want to live any closer. Some areas have bad reputations.
eBay, Facebook marketplace, autotrader, gumtree for cars.
I`ve lived in and around Reading for 73 years, its certainly changed, its a boom town and very diverse. Property prices have gone through the roof. Great for people like me but may be a problem for young couples moving to Reading. Like most diverse boom towns some areas have problems, I would suggest you do plenty of research.
We moved to Charvil which is a couple of miles up the A4 near Twyford. It was a village but there has been so much house building and development its really part of Reading now and has a Reading post code. The area has everything, good schools, plenty of decent shops, large Waitrose, mainline rail station, link to M4. There is also the river Thames and River Loddon, lovely nature reserves with lakes and wild life. Perfect area for bringing up a family.
May be this forum will be of use to you? https://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum/
We moved to Charvil which is a couple of miles up the A4 near Twyford. It was a village but there has been so much house building and development its really part of Reading now and has a Reading post code. The area has everything, good schools, plenty of decent shops, large Waitrose, mainline rail station, link to M4. There is also the river Thames and River Loddon, lovely nature reserves with lakes and wild life. Perfect area for bringing up a family.
May be this forum will be of use to you? https://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum/
Edited by Old Merc on Saturday 3rd July 18:24
Mr Tidy said:
I've lived in Bracknell Forest since 2007 and never read anything positive about Reading! 
It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
I`m afraid I have to agree with you, that`s why we moved to the outskirts. I had a car business for 22 years just off the Oxford Road near the town centre. I was very glad to retire and get away. The area went steadily down hill, we were broken into twice, my mechanic had a guy threaten him with a knife, lots of strange people wondering around. I think I lost some business, as customers were nervous of being in that area. It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
I’ve lived in Caversham for 56 years and it’s generally a nice place to live with lots of open spaces close by, Covid has had an effect on local businesses but things are still alive with plenty of places to eat and drink out, some areas of Caversham tend to be a tad on the expensive side but there’s plenty of affordable places, Woodley has nice spots too as does Tilehurst and Earley. There seems to be crimes waves all over the country so I don’t think Reading is any worse off, I’ve never felt threatened in all my years.
Mr Tidy said:
I've lived in Bracknell Forest since 2007 and never read anything positive about Reading!
It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
That's a bit OTT. Cracknell has a much worse reputation for drugs and crime. There are some nice areas in Reading such as Caversham, Emmer Green, East Reading/Earley. Then there's the not so nice areas such as Oxford Road, Coley and Whitley. It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
Mr Tidy said:
I've lived in Bracknell Forest since 2007 and never read anything positive about Reading!
It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
It seems to be druggy crime-ridden sh*thole, but hopefully some of the outskirts are OK!
if you had said you lived in Windsor, Elton, Ascot then I’d understand that....... but Bracknell ffs what a s
th0le.Its not the areas that are the problem, its the people who have moved there and spoiled it. The Oxford Road was once nice tidy shops and clean pavements. Now its a mess, the pavements cluttered with stalls and waste bins, it looks like a car boot sale.
The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
Old Merc said:
Its not the areas that are the problem, its the people who have moved there and spoiled it. The Oxford Road was once nice tidy shops and clean pavements. Now its a mess, the pavements cluttered with stalls and waste bins, it looks like a car boot sale.
The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
Your business wasn't the one that turned into a Tesco Express, was it?The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
BrabusMog said:
Old Merc said:
Its not the areas that are the problem, its the people who have moved there and spoiled it. The Oxford Road was once nice tidy shops and clean pavements. Now its a mess, the pavements cluttered with stalls and waste bins, it looks like a car boot sale.
The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
Your business wasn't the one that turned into a Tesco Express, was it?The same when I started my car business in the 80`s. It was in a mews of small businesses where everyone kept the place tidy and parked cars sensibly. Now its a complete mess, cars all over the place, some half dismantled, piles of tyre`s and looks like a scrap yard. As for Health & Safety and environmental regulations, they just ignore them and get away with it?.
Now you can see why I`m glad to get away and retire to the nice Charvil and Twyford area.
Not one of the old names left now.
25yrs a Caversham resident here, moved here for a 2yr work contract, never left.
This is arguably the nicest suburb of Reading, with property prices to match. It's not 'non-diverse' but is hardly the epicentre of multi-culturalism either. Predominantly people like me - white middle-class IT workers, we are ten a penny.
Good schools, nice access to the countryside, good transport links, it's all generally positive. The big thing with Reading, like many other large towns, is traffic in the rush hour, trying to cross it can be difficult. If commuting I would advise you to choose your location based on where you need to get to, or be prepared to do a lot of sitting in the car. Not having to commute through town throughout the Covid lockdowns has been a massive bonus for me.
This is arguably the nicest suburb of Reading, with property prices to match. It's not 'non-diverse' but is hardly the epicentre of multi-culturalism either. Predominantly people like me - white middle-class IT workers, we are ten a penny.
Good schools, nice access to the countryside, good transport links, it's all generally positive. The big thing with Reading, like many other large towns, is traffic in the rush hour, trying to cross it can be difficult. If commuting I would advise you to choose your location based on where you need to get to, or be prepared to do a lot of sitting in the car. Not having to commute through town throughout the Covid lockdowns has been a massive bonus for me.
If Reading is your work location then I’d probably also consider Didcot which is on the main line into Reading and at 15 mins easily commutable. I’ve been in Didcot for 16 years it’s changed a lot and is pretty good for families with very good secondary schools and little or no crime apart from the odd murder!
It’s changed a lot and continues to change with more properties being built and Oxford council coming to stay. It has ambitions of being a technology town with super fast broadband etc. Shopping g is getting better and generally on the up. It is by no means perfect but it ticks a lot of boxes. The pragmatists choice.
It’s changed a lot and continues to change with more properties being built and Oxford council coming to stay. It has ambitions of being a technology town with super fast broadband etc. Shopping g is getting better and generally on the up. It is by no means perfect but it ticks a lot of boxes. The pragmatists choice.
Dynion Araf Uchaf said:
If Reading is your work location then I’d probably also consider Didcot which is on the main line into Reading and at 15 mins easily commutable. I’ve been in Didcot for 16 years it’s changed a lot and is pretty good for families with very good secondary schools and little or no crime apart from the odd murder!
It’s changed a lot and continues to change with more properties being built and Oxford council coming to stay. It has ambitions of being a technology town with super fast broadband etc. Shopping g is getting better and generally on the up. It is by no means perfect but it ticks a lot of boxes. The pragmatists choice.
Jeesus wept, The highlights of Didcot used to be the power station cooling towers (now demolished) and the Train museum for anoraks.It’s changed a lot and continues to change with more properties being built and Oxford council coming to stay. It has ambitions of being a technology town with super fast broadband etc. Shopping g is getting better and generally on the up. It is by no means perfect but it ticks a lot of boxes. The pragmatists choice.
Gassing Station | Thames Valley & Surrey | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff