What really happened in Reading in September 2026
Looking for the best Reading news and stories from September 2026? Here are the biggest investigations, interviews and features published by The Reading Reporter during the month.
Blink and you’d have missed it.
But The Reading Reporter didn’t.
An extraordinary website appeared – and then subsequently vanished – that appeared to show the billionaire owner of Reading Gaol advertising for funding to complete the building's restoration.
It laid out a full, jaw-dropping vision for the Goal's future: an Oscar Wilde Centre for Freedom, Literature and Human Dignity; a rehabilitation programme for “people with lived experience of the criminal justice system”; guided tours of a restored historic and cultural centre of international significance.
Spectacular CGI images showed luxury features such as a rooftop bar, a spa set within the vaults, and open-aired courtyard dining.
Yet the website also contained appeals for donors, to enable the capital works without which the site cannot open”. It estimated the total cost of restoration to be “£30million-plus”.
Everyone else had stopped looking – but not The Reading Reporter.
But the website I found was removed when I contacted the owners to ask about it.
A spokesperson for Channing Bi, the owner, told The Reading Reporter that the website was produced by an external design company, contained unapproved material, and was never intended for publication.
Reading is still waiting to see Mr Bi's full approved plans.
The mystery around the Gaol's future deepens.
But that was just the start of September.
The Reading Reporter later revealed the contents of Reading's City of Culture bid document – one that was rejected by the competition's judges.
Reading's bid was framed around a celebration of its existing culture, and improving access to it for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
It contained little about improving cultural infrastructure or regeneration – and it gave less weight to using the City of Culture to advance and increase cultural programming.
It did not even commit to the full bidding process.
The Reading Reporter obtained the document via a freedom of information request, and its scope was limited to Reading borough, so it did not include suburbs such as Earley, Woodley and much of Tilehurst.
Reading Borough Council confirmed to The Reading Reporter that “the decision to proceed was taken late on in the process”.
There is no bigger cultural symbol of Reading than what we all call The Festival.
Its image was tarnished this year by the shocking pictures of waste left behind by festivalgoers: piles and piles of abandoned tents and rubbish.
One veteran of the clean-up said that this year was the worst he had ever seen.
Yet, for all its faults, the Festival remains a vital part of Reading’s identity.
You can measure waste in tons, but it’s impossible to quantify the feeling it gives to local people – or the inspiration.
The Reading Reporter delved deep inside both sides of the argument, and discovered a complicated story.
Some of those tents are given to homeless charities, to distribute to rough sleepers.
The Reading Reporter also learned that substantial new government funding has recently been allocated to some of these local charities.
Andy Burnham’s plan to end rough sleeping – his first pledge as Prime Minister – is starting to filter down to Reading.
Whether he succeeds or not is another matter. The reality on the streets is complex, and it's messy.
After breaking all that exclusive news, The Reading Reporter needed a bit of time to reconnect with the good things in this town, to be honest.
Reading obliged.
I never expected to be told, while sipping a cool pint of Rebellion IPA, that I was in conversation with Reading’s latest, and apparently rather successful, vendor of high-end sex toys.
That was just one moment of discovering a walking community that showed me Reading in a very different light.
Nobody would have expected what happened down Trafford Road either.
The Reading Reporter connected one of Reading’s coolest residents with one of its most special music projects.
And it turns out that when you introduce a world-famous DJ to a unique local studio containing the vintage machines that built dance music, cool things will happen.
Like a pounding acid house jam on a midweek afternoon.
Something unusual is happening over the bridge in Caversham too. The high street appears to be changing – and it's because of a group of local businesswomen.
Men greatly outnumber women among the leadership of British businesses. Yet in Caversham so many of the prominent shops are run by women.
The Reading Reporter sat down with some of them to discuss why, and how they were bucking the national trend.
There were cheers, confessions, cheeky jokes and emotional support – and men didn’t get an easy time.
But it was inspirational. Reading can do that, you know.
If you enjoyed these stories, and you want to know what’s really happening in Reading, you'll find many more like them on Substack.
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Find out what happened in October – as it happens!
See you there,
Chris (The Reading Reporter)