Our shared communityKatesgrove is an area of Reading (a Council Ward) immediately to the south of the Town Centre. It is bounded on the north by the IDR, on the east by Sidmouth Street, London Road, Kendrick Road and Northumberland Avenue, on the south by Long Barn Lane and Rose Kiln Lane and on the West by the River Kennet.
Historically there were a number of brick kilns in the area, and the variety of brickwork is one of the distinguishing features of the area. The south-western quarter of Katesgrove is commercial and light industrial, but the rest is mainly residential. Whitley Street is the main shopping centre with smaller rows of shops on Basingstoke Road opposite the junction with Elgar Road. A few individual shops serve different neighbourhoods. The ward is served by Christ Church on Christchurch Road, St. Giles’s Church at the bottom of Southampton Street and the Hindu Temple at the Whitley Pump roundabout and by Kendrick, Katesgrove, George Palmer and the Avenue schools. Other halls available are the Christchurch Centre on Milman Road and the Rising Sun centre on Silver Street. The MAPP Centre on Mount Pleasant is also now running. The South Street Arts Centre is on the corner of East Street and South Street. |