Reading Abbey

The People of Reading: After the Reformation

There are many early illustrations of the Gateway showing the building alterations to it; by 1861 it had become so dilapidated that it fell down in a thunderstorm. The famous architect Sir Gilbert Scott was commissioned to rebuild it and now it is managed by Reading Museum Service.

After the Dissolution the perimeter wall of the Abbey and the four gates were soon demolished to allow easy access from the town, and only a small stretch of the wall north of the modern prison still remains. The cemetery for St Laurence's Church, which had been to the north of the nave of the Abbey Church, was moved to its present position around St Laurence's in 1556. The fairs in the Forbury continued to be held into the early 19th century; it was a favourite place for exercise and playing cricket. Buildings never encroached onto this open area so that it was available to be purchased by the Corporation of Reading for municipal gardens in Victorian times. It is now a fine example of garden design of that period and excellently maintained.

The market, too, continued beside St Laurence's Church which also carried on its function serving the parishioners living around it, although the almshouses were demolished. The Guild of Merchants was replaced by the Borough Corporation which, free now to elect their own Mayor, eventually settled on the Hospitium to build their Town Hall in 1786, pulling down the remaining Abbey buildings fronting Blagrave Street. It was only in 1974 that the administrative and trading focus of Reading moved back from St Laurence's and the Abbey to St Mary's with the opening of the new Civic Offices and the holding of the market again where the Saxons erected their stalls.

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