A plan has been submitted to give a fresh new look to a shopping arcade in Reading town centre.
The Harris Arcade is an indoor shopping mall providing a passage between Friar Street and Station Road.
Businesses inside include a tobacconist, a tattoo artist, a smoothie company, antique and comic book collectors, beauticians and hairstylists, and a kebab takeaway.
Paint and refurbishment works involve protection for wooden shop fronts and features, and painting the shop fronts in a turquoise colour.
The arcade owning company AEW had to submit a planning application for the works as the building is Grade II listed owing to its unique features.
The official list entry on the Historic England website states: “The Harris Arcade is a shopping arcade dating from 1929-1931, built for John Harris and incorporating an earlier street frontage of a motor showroom which dates from before 1922, facing onto Station Road, all executed in a loosely Greek-Revival style.”
You can view the application by typing reference PL/25/1179 into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.
AEW acquired the Harris Arcade and adjoining properties for £9 million in January 2022.
Since then, the Pitcher & Piano bar was renamed The Signal Box in July 2024, and Revolution was turned into Boom Battle Bar, which opened in June.
AEW also bought the Broad Street Mall from its previous owners Moorgarth in June 2022.
