LAST week, the Ministry of Justice announced that a Chinese education organisation had bought the Reading Gaol site.
The Ziran Education Foundation will take on the historic venue on the edge of Reading town centre. It was launched by Chinese businessman Channing Bi and his partners in 2018, and is ‘dedicated to promoting a compassionate, peaceful, and sustainable world through education’.
Current projects include a social, emotional and ethical (SEE) Learning programme, and supporting the recruitment of English language teachers as the ‘lingua franca’ of the world.
The Foundation works with the Center on Chinese Education at Columbia University in New York and the Serkong Public School at the Tabo Monastery in India, near the nation’s border with Tibet.
On Companies House, the direction of the organisation is listed as Cheng Bi. He lives in Ireland and is a citizen of South Pacific island Vanuatu, east of Australia and Papa New Guinea, and has a correspondence address on the Isle of Dogs in East London.
The Ziran Education Foundation’s mailing address is the Grange Way Business Park in Colchester, Essex.
The ministry said the foundation’s plan for the prison involves providing an educational centre, a museum outlining the history of the prison and an exhibition space accessible to the public.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has asked the Foundation for more details of its plans, but has not had a response at the time of going to press.
Reading East MP Matt Rodda also wanted to know more about the future of the site.
“I am interested in the proposals from the new owner of Reading Gaol and I would like to meet them to discuss their plans for the historic building,” he said.
“I am cautiously optimistic about the future of the gaol and I would also encourage the new owner to meet Reading Borough Council to discuss their plans as the council is the local planning authority.”
The redevelopment of the Prison would require planning consent from the council before any work could start.
The amount the Ziran Education Foundation has purchased the building for has not been disclosed.
The MoJ has raised £105 million through the sale of former prison sites since 2014.
