The Shire Hall is a former municipal building at Shinfield Park just south of

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. It was the headquarters of Berkshire County Council from 1981 to 1998.

History

For much of the 20th century the administration of Berkshire County Council had been carried out in the old Shire Hall in The Forbury while meetings of the full council had taken place in the

assize court The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

s next door. Following implementation of the Local Government Act 1972, which increased the responsibilities of the county council, county leaders chose to procure a new purpose-built county headquarters: the site they initially selected was at Abbey Wharf off King's Road, but after considerable debate, they opted for a site which would be easier to develop on open land on the southern part of the Shinfield Park estate. The new Shire Hall, which was designed in the Brutalist style and built at a cost of £27.5 million, was completed in 1981. The design involved seven low-rise octagonal shaped buildings which all featured continuous bands of glazing with concrete panels above and below; an emergency control centre was established in the basement in case of a nuclear attack. The complex was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 2 April 1982. However following a review by the Local Government Commission the Government decided to transfer the responsibilities of the County Council to

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

and the building became surplus to requirements in 1998. It became the local offices of Foster Wheeler in March 2000 and then, in October 2017, of

Wood Group John Wood Group plc, commonly known as Wood, is a British multinational engineering and consulting business with headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as being a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

Notes

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Reading, Berkshire R Government buildings completed in 1981