READING Gaol is currently in limbo, after the latest bid by Reading Borough Council to turn the site into an arts centre was rejected in May 2021.
The site was put back up for sale by the Ministry of Justice shortly after in June 2021, with proposals, including RBC’s £2.6 million bid, still being considered.
The site holds potential as an arts hub largely due to its association with Oscar Wilde, who was famously imprisoned there between 1895 and 1897, where he authored the Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Reading Today spoke to Gyles Brandreth, honorary president of the Oscar Wilde Society, who said: “Whatever the future holds for the building, it’d be wonderful if it could encompass some involvement with with the arts, with heritage, and with the university.”
“Reading Gaol is part of the story of Reading, and buildings with a dark history to them can be as fascinating as buildings that are more celebratory.”
In February 2021, graffiti art, apparently in reference to Oscar Wilde and the arts more generally, appeared on the wall of the prison overnight.
This was later confirmed to have been created by Banksy, who has joined a number of celebrities to publicly back proposals for the site to become an arts hub.
Stephen Fry, Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, and Dame Judi Dench have all spoken publicly of their support for the proposals.
Gyles says: “A prison can tell a story as vividly as a palace can, and of course, we associate Reading Gaol with Oscar Wilde because of his poetry.
“The last, his last major work, perhaps the only major work he produced after leaving prison, was the Ballad of Reading Gaol.
“It’s an account of the fate of one of the prisoners, and a wonderfully powerful poem.”
In May 2022, the Save Reading Gaol campaign uploaded a video performance of the ballad, featuring readings from actor Liam Neeson and poet Luke Wright, among others.
“Reading is also associated with biscuits, through Huntley and Palmers, and the friends of Oscar Wilde and his wife included some of the Palmers.
“Indeed among the official visitors to the prison was a member of the Palmer family, so the story of Reading is wrapped up in the Gaol.
“The challenge for the Ministry of Justice is that they need money to pay for the modern prison system, and they’ve got to get a return for the prison.”
A number of campaigns to save the prison have been put forward, including around 1,000 people joining hands around the prison in a ‘hug’ in 2019.
This was also the year that the Save Reading Gaol campaign was founded, and Kirstin Sinclair published designs as part of the Open Skies Centre of Arts Reading, or OSCAR, proposal.
The plans saw space for two theatres, a music school, art studios and galleries, a museum, and even a radio station, as well as a number of communal, social spaces.
Gyles said: “Wilde also found at the prison one of the chaplains, and one of the prison governors, who he felt offered him friendship– it’s very interesting, complex, human and literary and social story.
“It’s exciting to have Banksy-style murals, and the potential for doing interesting things with it is very, very great.”
Gyles has also published a number of books which follow a fictionalised Wilde as he solves mysteries, also set in Reading Gaol.
“I spent a lot of time in Reading, researching, and I remember visiting the prison when it was still a prison and going to the cell in which Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for much of the two years.
“They’ve put a little plaque outside the cell saying Oscar Wilde was here giving his prison number, and I got into the cell.
“The prisoner there had no idea who Oscar Wilde was, although,” Gyles jokes, “because he’d seen Countdown, he’d heard of me, which made me smile at the time.”
He says he remains “hopeful that something can happen that will enable the prison to to continue in some way.”
In March, Professor Peter Stonely at the University of Reading published a short history of the Gaol.
Professor Stoneley has also voiced his support for the site to become an arts hub.
The Ministry of Justice is currently still considering a number of proposals for the site, but met with Matt Rodda MP to begin discussions regarding the gaol’s future.
