Cresting the County – Reading (Unitary Authority)

Park Lane

103 Metres

338 Feet

26th October 2025

The heights of art-deco

The highest point in the Reading Unitary Authority area is just past the Water Tower Pub and a row of shops on Park Lane, to the west of Reading and near Tilehurst.

Shame about the ale…

You really can’t miss it.

I stopped the car just down the road from the tower, having visited Liddington Hillfort, the highest point in Swindon, and was on my way to Marlow to spend the night to break a long drive back home. There you are – that’s it. Although of course the tower is not the physical land top of the county, just a manifestation erected on the highest spot. Opened in 1932, with an art-deco feel that also hints, perhaps in my head, at a Mughal architectural style, it’s an impressive thing.

Anyway – that’s it. I’ve only ever been to Reading once before, and I think it was in 1972 when I caught a train from Paddington and then spent some hours on the platform jotting down train numbers in an Ian Allan trainspotter yearbook (look… we didn’t have mobile phones to keep us entertained). Here’s the evidence.

Still impressed by the quality of these photos, over fifty years on. A Wokingham local (I think) on the left, and a Brush Type 4 diesel electric in classic BR green pulling a Paddington train on the right. Many of these locos are still in service.

A mighty Western class 52 diesel hydraulic in standard BR (Monastral) blue on its way to Paddington. Magnificent but withdrawn from service just five years later ☹

An Hymek class 37 diesel hydraulic heading West (all withdrawn within the next three years) and watched enthusiastically by a group of youths looking the wrong way, and who are about to be heading to hospital.