Right I know naff all about Reading

Whats it like to live there?

Is rent reasonable?

Good points, bad points

it’s close to good riding in the chilterns & swinley 🙂

town is better than it was but still a bit chavy, various rent rates (i’d imagine).

if you use train it’s got good connections,
rush hour traffic is an issue (ditto parking esp in certain areas)
near M4 (see point about traffic)
local riding poss better than you think
Universities etc so own social life
what do you want to rent, can post you a local paper if needed but tinternet will probably be better
Central trendy 1bd flat 725pcm, 3bed semi cheap area 825,
has some ‘nice’ IMHO bits and some not so nice bits, strangely nice bits are more expensive
big enough to have a centre and a few ‘orbits’,

rent wise my criteria is difficult..

cheap as possible, 1 room in a shared house is fine, ideally 400/500 quid mark .. and I need a parking space

rush hours sounds problematic.. id be leaving the town and heading west for work

Its not bad but like any massive town there are good bits and bad bits to live in

Some decent pubs if you look. Lots of students if that’s your thing. Loads of good biking around.

I used to live by the hospital and one of the best times of my life.

Now live about 15miles out. Lots of good biking nearby

see spareroom,co.uk but that sounds doable
trouble is Reading is N of M4 (M4 = ..LONDON.., everybody goes to so you’ll be bollocked if you travel at normal rush hours….)
(and the sw bit of Reading is well, the phrase is Whitley whiff)
can you cope with a small village or are you city dependent ?

Whereabouts will you be working? It’s a nightmare to get out sometimes

newbury area for work

wouldn’t want village, small town ok

why not try Newbury, it’s ok, bit smaller, but from my VERY limited experience has enough facilities, IMHO I prefer it to Reading, riding to the N and further S, station, canal, pubs, centre, cinema, etc – everything you need

I’d live in Newbury tbh. Even better biking nearby!

You really want to be in reading but that’s a difficult journey unless you go by train then very easy!

Well it’s nicer than Slough.

Not cheap due to its proximity to London. Some lovely (and expensive) villages nearby.

Traffic’s a nightmare, whatever they do with the IDR, and evenings can be lively in town.
Bit too busy for me, depends what you are used to i suppose.

There are plenty of parts of Reading i wouldn’t want to live in, and a few parts that would be ok. Never thought i’d say it, but i’d probably rather live in Basingstoke 😕

Newbury’s ok, again has it’s nice and not so nice bits. A lot smaller town centre/shopping wise (but pleasant enough) than Reading and nowhere near as much going on entertainment wise.

Traffic’s loads better than pre-bypass (unlucky Swampy). If you’re working to the West/South of the town and drive then Andover is ok (never thought i’d say that!) and the riding between here and there is pretty good (typing this from my mums in Andover).

If you regularly want to go to London, then obviously Reading makes more sense being that much closer.

Use to live in Reading and now live in Newbury.

If you’re a young chap and want to feel like there’s stuff going on then Reading is a better bet. More people, shops, pubs, clubs etc. Just a much bigger town. North of the river is nicer but can be more expensive.

If you’re a bit older then you might prefer Newbury. Still some ok pubs and restaurants for evenings out.

There’s some ok places to ride from your door in either Newbury or Reading and lots of good opportunities to join group rides.

Commuting from Reading to Newbury is pretty simple, though getting into and out of Reading can be a pain depending on where you end up.

I lived in Reading and commuted to just the other side of Newbury each day for 6-8 months. I lived South Reading in the Lower Earley area. I rarely had any issues with traffic, most of it going into Reading missed the area and I found that on the motorway i would usually be going the opposite way to the larger volume of traffic. There’s also a station fairly close in Earley and pretty good bus links to the centre of town.

Quite a few times on my way home from work I’d skip a junction and go to Swinley for a couple of hours in the evening too.

It was also quite a nice area to live in, I walked back from around the station at daft o clock fairly drunk quite a few times and would rarely even see anyone around.

Also, I lived in Thatcham for a bit (still working other side of Newbury) and found that on a lot of days it’d take me much just as long as the commute from Reading!

I live in a small village about 10 miles outside Reading, Goring, I think as a town Reading is brilliant! Good connections great shops (think Christmas shopping random I know but Oxford is terrible in that respect) riding is good around here and every where else very accessible

I’ve lived in Reading for the last 17 years, and have to be honest I really enjoy it.
There are good places and bad places to live, but these can even be at different ends of the same street.
If you are going to be driving to Newbury daily then I’d think about Tilehurst/Calcot as its close to junction 12 and accessible to both the M4 and town when you need to.
If you’d like to know more PM or email me and we can have a chat if you want.

I live just outside Newbury and would choose there over Reading any day esp if you’re working there.Newbury obviously isn’t s big but has plenty of pubs and clubs as well as gyms,swimming pools, a new multi-screen cinema.Lots of good riding locally esp to the North.

Grew up in Reading. Great place and good pubs – you just need to know where its at. Also very handy for the airport (1 hour), south coast, can even make quick dashes to the quantocks south Wales etc.

Used to live just outside Reading but worked there at weekends.
Lots going on, plenty of choices for living, playing, etc… Like any large town or city there are good and bad places to live as said above. Oxford Road just avoid, unless somehow they have knocked it down and rebuilt it with a police station at every corner!

Too many people, takes ages to get anywhere at any time, but especially bad for rush hour. Public transport links are good, but they cost too much to use so not really a good alternative to the car. Car parking is definitely an issue for weekend town centre parking, don’t know about residential permits though.

Left for uni about 7 years ago, and now live in Scotland. I don’t like big towns or cities, so living up here I have space, no congestion and lots and lots of really good riding which I don’t have to share the trails with if I want some away time. If I was returning I would be looking outside Reading for living to avoid the issues above.

Wouldn’t say I hated living in the Reading area, but I’m not going to rush back! Scotland is just too good (as long as you don’t mind the long distances between places)!