The Bristol & West Arcade on Friar Street in Reading closed all the way back in 2007 and the ground floor units remain boarded up, despite occupying pride of place along one side of Town Hall Square.

Jenny, 61, a lifelong Reading resident, and her friend Dianne Wallace, 72, spoke to the Chronicle while the pair were visiting the square earlier this month.

The women called the row of boarded up units an “eyesore” and suggested the premises should be converted into “quirky” or “niche” shops, perhaps a florist or an expansion of the pop-up market around the corner in Market Place – anything except more vape shops.

The old Bristol & West Arcade on Friar Street (before BID added the window vinyl) (Image: Suzanne Antelme)

Joanna, 54, who runs a nearby furniture shop with her husband, said the old boarded up arcade is “sad” and thought the owners should at least cover it with some kind of mural.

Andy, 50, who works as a primary school teacher, told the Chronicle the ground floor buildings have been boarded up for “so long” that people are used to it.

Like Jenny and Dianne, he thought it would be nice to see the space used by independent businesses, perhaps a cafe or bar with outside seating to make use of the open square, “definitely not more chain stores”.

In the meantime, he suggested getting a local artist to paint a mural over the boards.

The old arcade at 173-175 Friar Street has been subject to various grand plans through the years.

Developers Sonic Star Properties won planning permission in 2018 to convert the arcade into a combination of offices, flats, and shops.

The plan included the development of the connected Grade-II listed buildings at 27-32 Market Place into flats and ground floor retail space, with permission to restore the old Coopers Arms pub which had closed in 2010.

Scaffolding on Market Place (Image: Suzanne Antelme)

But Sonic abandoned these plans “due to the lack of demand for new office and retail space in the town centre”.

The arcade was then briefly slated to become a huge, 182-bed, eight-storey hotel after Sonic received council support for the new proposal in 2021, subject to a final legal agreement.

However, the legal agreement was never signed (according to Reading Borough Council) and Sonic Star Properties announced the old arcade and the Market Place properties would be going up for auction in December 2021 with the guide price of £3.85 million.

According to Fiona Brownfoot, director of retail and leisure at Hicks Baker, the property was sold pre-auction for under £3 million, marking a significant loss on the £8 million she says Sonic originally paid for the property in 2016.

Fiona now works as an agent for the property on behalf of new owners Watercrown Bracknell Ltd.

On the appearance of the boarded up ground floor units, she told the Chronicle special Reading-themed window vinyl has actually been funded by money from the town’s Business Improvement District (BID).

Over the weekend (December 20-21), the boarding was removed from one of the units and the vinyl installed, although it has not shown up quite as well as planned due to the colouring of the glass.

The window vinyl has not shown up as well as hoped due to the colour of the glass, and new external vinyl will reportedly be installed in the near year (Image: Fiona Brownfoot)

Fiona said new, externally applied vinyl will go up in the new year.

Regarding the old arcade itself, she said two units (one on Market Place and one on Friar Street) are now ready to be used as retail space, and they are hopeful the units will be occupied by independent shops, while upstairs the Friar Street properties have been converted into residential units.

The window vinyl has not shown up as well as hoped due to the colour of the glass, and new external vinyl will reportedly be installed in the near year (Image: Fiona Brownfoot)

For the rest of the site, Fiona said plans are being considered that would see the whole space – including the remaining Market Place units – turned into a giant food hall in the style of Market Halls in London.

In Fiona’s opinion, and based on her analysis of lettings in Reading in the past year that showed 60 per cent were for food and beverage, this would be the most sensible and commercially viable option.

She doesn’t think that a pure return to the arcade model of small independent units would work anymore, and in fact argues the demise of the old Bristol & West Arcade can be traced all the way back to 1999, when planning permission was given for the Sainsbury’s that now sits off Broad Street.

At the time, the arcade stretched all the way between Friar Street and Broad Street, and the construction of the new Sainsbury’s meant the loss of a significant number of arcade shops and the end of the arcade’s heyday as a useful walkway between the two busy streets.

Various abandoned plans to repurpose the premises after the arcade closed have left the vacant open-air space hidden behind the Friar Street frontage in a curious state, with several half-built structures including the skeleton of a suspended swimming pool (Fiona said the particular plan this corresponded to was nixed by the 2008 financial crisis).

Old boarded up arcade in town centre is an ‘eyesore’, but could be getting a makeover (Image: Suzanne Antelme)

Watercrown Bracknell Ltd has not yet decided whether it wants to commit to the latest food hall plan and does not have planning permission yet, Fiona said, but she suggested the developers would reach a decision in the new year.

“We are trying to create something that will be unique and be of benefit to as many people as possible in the town,” she said.

“Watch this space.”