This is St Mary’s Butts & Castle Street
We took to the streets to really understand how people use St Mary’s Butts & Castle Street. We wanted to understand how people use this historic area of town, their feelings about the market and thoughts about how the area could be improved. We have listened to people's views, mapped what we have been told and will use what we have learned to improve the area.
This drawing represents the main ideas for St Mary’s Butts & Caste Street as gathered through the various street consultation exercises to date
Listen up.
Hear some of the chats we had with people around St Mary’s Butts.
“Today there is only one stall. I do come here for the market but today there is one stall, it’s a bit pointless. “
More from the interviews
“We used to be busy, but the pandemic. After the pandemic everyone has gone away. The shops are empty, nobody has any money. Nobody comes to town now. It is really hard to survive”
“Reading is a market town… and this is the market!”
“ We need to pay less rent. There should be more stalls and better advertising, to bring the market back.”
“They did well to open Blue Collar. That is doing well. It’s popular”
“They should bring people here to have music, mix cultures, chill out. This is the very best Idea”
“Today there is only one stall. I do come here for the market but today there is one stall, it’s a bit pointless. “
“Anything would improve it here. It needs a bit of love- it’s a trampy area”
“ Maybe there could be something for families”
“Knock it down. Start again!”
“There are some beautiful building here. But it is hard to see them because of the road and the buses.”
“ We want a market back in the centre”
“There is another market that is just food, maybe they should be joined together”
“Somewhere like Spark in London, that works really well”
“There should be different stalls on different days- there should be one day when you can buy hand made things and bric a brac. People love bric a brac. “
Have your say about St Mary’s Butts & Castle Street
Please submit your comments by 5pm on Friday 15th July