Reading
Reading is a unique town and an excellent setting for our range of dating events. Reading's historic importance as the county town of Royal Berkshire, is often overshadowed by the fact most people know Reading as a major transport interchange, well-connected and as a major commercial centre, capital of the Thames Valley economic region.
Reading is a large town, unitary authority area (the Borough of Reading) and urban area in Berkshire, England. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway. The name Reading is pronounced to rhyme with bedding.
Reading was an important national centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections, but suffered economic damage during the 17th century from which it took a long time to recover. Today it is again an important commercial centre, with strong links to information technology and insurance.
Reading is located 66 km (41 miles) due west of central London, 48 km (30 miles) southeast of Oxford and 64 km (40 miles) east of Swindon. The centre of Reading is on a low ridge between the Rivers Thames and Kennet close to their confluence, reflecting the town's history as a river port. Just before the confluence, the Kennet cuts through a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. The absence of a floodplain on the Kennet in this defile enabled the development of wharves.
As Reading has grown, its suburbs have spread in three directions:
• to the west between the two rivers into the foothills of the Berkshire Downs,
• to the south and south-east on the south side of the Kennet, and
• to the north of the Thames into the Chiltern Hills.
However outside the central area, the floors of the valley containing the two rivers remain largely unimproved floodplain, subject to occasional flooding. Apart from one road across the Kennet floodplain, and the M4 looping to the south, the only routes between the three built-up areas are in the central area, creating road congestion there.
Reading has its own subregional catchment area, incorporating the towns of Wokingham, Bracknell and Twyford, plus large villages such as Pangbourne, Theale, Winnersh, Burghfield and Shiplake.
Suburbs
Reading has many suburbs, both within the borough itself and in the surrounding urban area. The names and location of these suburbs are in general usage but, except where some of the outer suburbs correspond to civil parishes, there are no formally defined boundaries. The suburbs include:
• Beansheaf Farm
• Calcot, Caversham, Caversham Heights, Caversham Park Village, Coley, Coley Park
• Earley, Emmer Green
• Fords Farm
• Horncastle
• Katesgrove
• Little Heath, Lower Caversham, Lower Earley
• Maiden Erlegh
• Newtown
• Purley-On-Thames
• Southcote
• Tilehurst
• Whitley, Whitley Wood, Woodley
Reading is an important commercial centre in Southern England and is often referred to as the capital of the Thames Valley, with the headquarters of major British companies and the UK offices of major foreign multinationals, especially in the IT industry, including ING Direct, Microsoft, Oracle, Sage, Xansa, Cisco, Symbol Technologies and Yell.com. Several of these are located at the Thames Valley Business Park.
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