Friar Street is a

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highway ...

in the English town of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. It runs parallel to Broad Street, connected by Union Street, Queen Victoria Street and Cross Street. At the western end is the Greyfriars Church and at the eastern end are the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

and

St Laurence's Church St. Laurence's Church, Saint Lawrence's Church, or ''variations'' on those names or spellings, may refer to: Australia * Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney Austria * Basilica of St. Lawrence, Enns Czech Republic * Church of St. Lawrence, Roman ...

History

Excavations carried out on Friar Street in 1997 at the location of a proposed extension

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

store by the

Oxford Archaeological Unit Oxford Archaeology (OA, trading name of Oxford Archaeology Limited) is one of the largest and longest-established independent archaeology and heritage practices in Europe, operating from three permanent offices in Oxford, Lancaster and Cambridge, ...

revealed successive layers of old buildings, some of which date back to the 13th century. The

Frank Matcham Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...

-designed Royal County Theatre, built in 1895, was located on the south side of Friar Street. It burned down in 1937. The opening of a

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

supermarket in 1963 led to the closure of many smaller shops.

Friars Walk

Friars Walk shopping centre, located at the western end of Friar Street, opened in 1973–4. From around 2009 to 2019 it was derelict. For six years (up until 2018), Friars Walk was known as "The Mall" and used as a venue for

airsoft Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tag (game), tagging them out of play with airsoft pellets, spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air gun, air weapons(usually powered by an electronic motor) call ...

and immersive zombie survival games. Zed Events have since moved the Zombie Mall experience to a new site to allow for demolition of Friars Walk as part of the Reading Station Hill development. On 1 August 2019, a scaffolding collapse occurred at the demolition site.

References

{{Commons category Tourist attractions in Reading, Berkshire Shopping streets in Reading, Berkshire