Reading prison: for art or the community?

While modern buildings now tower over the town, its Victorian prison has been a long-standing feature of Reading’s architecture.

The Grade II listed building stands on the old Abbey grounds and was completed in 1844, starting out as a gaol. Executions were conducted there until 1913, including some public ones which attracted crowds of onlookers. One of Reading’s most embarrassing claims to fame is that the famous author and poet Oscar Wilde, was imprisoned at the gaol from 1895 to 1897 for being homosexual.

In 1992, the prison was repurposed as a Young Offenders Institution and has been permanently closed since 2014. Some locals still refer to it as a gaol, but the terrible history of the prison as a gaol has less than desirable connotations.

Five years ago, Artangel hosted a hugely popular art exhibition at the prison, giving hope to the community that the prison could be put to good use. The exhibition ran for three months and was extended due to its popularity.

However, to the dismay of the community, the building has been empty ever since. In 2018 local resident Piers Knight, started a petition to repurpose the prison as a shelter for the homeless.

While there was some local support, the Ministry of Justice (which ultimately owns the prison) responded by putting the building up for sale. Three years later, the Ministry of Justice still own the building and there has been no steps forward in repurposing it.

On the March 1st 2021, infamous street artist Banksy added to the local debate about the fate of the prison with a painting of Oscar Wilde using tied together bedsheets to escape down the outside wall with a typewriter tied to the bottom.

Word quickly spread of the new addition to the wall and crowds surrounded the painting day and night. Banksy later confirmed that the artwork was authentic with a video posted to instagram with footage of the painting being completed.

The art was left unprotected and two weeks later, with no security to ensure the painting remained intact it was defaced. While it was disappointing that the painting had been vandalised, not many people were surprised, it seems that Reading can’t have anything nice.

The artwork was defaced by Team Robbo, the group continuing King Robbo’s feud with Banksy posthumously. The red paint covered the typewriter and their logo underneath. Soon after an imitation of Banksy’s typewriter appeared on Reading Bridge. Again, this artwork was defaced by Team Robbo, however the street artist Peachy covered the Team Robbo logo with another Banksy style painting, apparently practising their Banksy lookalike work.

This same artist, Peachy, attempted to restore the Banksy typewriter, after the Robbo damage was partially removed. A security guard is now posted by the painting and fencing has been erected so you can no longer get close to the wall. The Team Robbo logo is still visible despite efforts to remove it.

The Banksy artwork has been praised by local community group Save Reading Gaol who are campaigning for the prison to be turned in to an arts and culture centre.

After the success of Artangel’s exhibition the prison could house an arts centre however it is unlikely that there would be sufficient funds to maintain and secure Reading prison as an arts centre.

Instead, Mr Knight suggests “that building would be far better used as an actual community centre, for drug rehabilitation…you could house homeless people.”

As a former property developer, Mr Knight also highlighted that Reading has a “surplus of housing with no demand,” so the prison wouldn’t be a good location for more housing. In fact, there are 750 flats being built directly opposite the prison.

So while some have taken Banksy’s art as a statement that the prison should be repurposed as an arts centre, there’s far wider reaching social issues that could be remedied by using it for the wider benefit of the community.

Feature image by Trinity Francis.