Reading’s rich Victorian architecture celebrated in a new self-guided walk

20th May 2026

A new self-guided walking tour of Victorian Reading has been published, following this year’s Reading Walks Festival. 

The Victorian Reading Self-Guided Walking Tour leaflet takes the visitor around Reading, highlighting some of the remarkable buildings from the period 1837 - 1910 that proliferate in Reading. 

Produced by Dr Stephen Gage, Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Reading, in partnership with REDA (Reading's Economy and Destination Agency), the new guide draws on the guided walks that Dr Gage has developed to showcase the many buildings of architectural interest in Reading. Dr Gage led the first Victorian Reading walk as part of this month’s Reading Walks Festival. 

Highlights of Reading’s Victorian architecture include the numerous buildings designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who lived in Reading from the late 1860s, including Reading Town Hall, Reading School, Foxhill House on the University Whiteknights campus and the Rising Sun Arts centre among many others. He also designed London’s Natural; History Museum and Manchester Town Hall. 

Many of the wonderful Victorian buildings in Reading were realised thanks to the civic zeal of Reading’s leading citizens, including the Palmer and Sutton families. As well as financing grand civic buildings, they also demonstrated industrial responsibility in the development of high-quality housing for their workers, which can be found in the streets of New Town and The Mount. 
The self-guided walking trail offers three distinct plotted routes from Reading town centre to the east and the south which can be combined into one longer tour.

Dr Stephen Gage, said: “The Victorian period has left Reading with a wonderfully rich architectural legacy, from the impressive array of civic and cultural buildings to the exuberant ornament of town centre banks and shops and the inventive patterned brickwork of its residential neighbourhoods. 
“Many of these buildings were designed by talented local architects but they were joined in Reading by some of the best-known names in Victorian architecture such as Pugin, Scott, Woodyer and of course Waterhouse himself. 
“Today, Reading has preserved much of this fine Victorian architecture, despite the developments of subsequent eras. This new walking tour shows how Waterhouse and his contemporaries believed in the power of design creating architecture that delights and nurtures the spirit.”
The walking leaflet will be available from Reading Museum, libraries, the tourism information kiosk at Reading Station and to download online from Visit-Reading.com. It accompanies the first self-guided walk in the series, Georgian Reading.