In London you can find hundreds of blue plaques dotted around the capital’s buildings.

The nameplates link people of the past with buildings they lived or worked in during their lifetime.

In Reading, there are four blue plaques but there are also three other plaques of differing colours, plus other monuments and mementos of the town to visit.

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Here we take a look at them. They may give you some good ideas for walks around Reading during the tier 4 coronavirus lockdown.

The blue plaques

The four blue plaques are dedicated to Dominic Barbieri, Phoebe Cusden, Henry Addington and Thomas Huntley.

Mr Barbieri was an Italian theologian who was prominent in spreading Catholicism in England and died in Reading.

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His plaque is on a modern block of flats on Caversham Road before the railway bridge.

Ms Cusden was an educationalist, peace campaigner, socialist, feminist and Reading councillor, who was once mayor of Reading and founded the Reading Dusseldorf Association in 1947.

Her blue plaque can normally be found on Castle Street but is currently not on display.

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Reading Civic Society has removed the plaque temporarily to replace the “warped” wooden base with something more appropriate.

Mr Addington, the 1st Viscount Sidmouth, was Prime Minister of the UK from 1801 to 1804 and studied at Reading School.

His plaque is at Addington House, 73 London Street.

The fourth blue plaque is also on London Street and celebrates the Huntley and Palmers origin story.

The plaque is placed at the old ‘Huntley House’, 119 London Street, which is currently home to Berkshire Age UK and where Mr Huntley opened the original shop in 1826 which later became the famous Huntley and Palmers biscuit manufacturing company.

Two reds and a square silver

There are also two red plaques and a square silver one.

The two red plaques are at the University of Reading (UoR) and celebrate a former student and the other side of the Huntley and Palmer family.

A plaque for brothers Alfred and George William Palmer is on the building next to the entrance of the London Road campus, at the corner of London Road and Redlands Road.

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Alfred and George W, who both worked for the biscuit company, are celebrated for generously giving buildings, including the one the plaque rests on and land to the university.

Alfred Palmer held the position of High Sheriff of Berkshire and was deeply involved in the university.

He spent over fifty years working for the Huntley & Palmers biscuit company, chiefly as the head of the engineering department.

George W served as mayor of Reading and represented the town in parliament as well as working for the family business.

The other red plaque is dedicated to famous poet and solider Wilfred Owen, who studied at the university in 1912.

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This plaque is also at the London Road campus, on the wall next to the war memorial tower.

The silver plaque is dedicated to celebrated author Jane Austen – who is known for novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility – and is behind the Abbey Gateway.

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While the other plaques are circular, this one is square.

Other interesting places: memorials, mementos, statues and panels

As well as Reading’s plaques, a list of the dozens of public works of art in Reading can be viewed here.

Other interesting memorials and bites of history to investigate in the  town, recommended by the Reading Civic Society, include:

  • Simonds Brewery Information Board by The Oracle
  • William Marshall information board on Caversham Bridge
  • Henry 1 monument that Dr Hurry erected in Forbury gardens
  • Plaque in the Abbey near where Henry Beauclerc was buried and plaques on the Simeon Memorial in Market Place
  • A memorial to Lenny the Tramp under Cow Lane bridge
  • The memorial to Laurentius Braag on the North facing external wall of St Mary Minster, restored by Reading Civic Society
  • The Lady Somerset memorial / foundation stone on the O’Neills building in Blagrave Road
  • A memorial stone by the doorway to the left of the Harris Arcade, 15 Friar Street, to Professor Goldwin Smith, who was born in the house
  • Information Panels which support the Trooper Potts and Berkshire Yeomanry Memorials in The Forbury – opposite the Crown Court and the roll of honour which contains 426 names of the men who gave their lives in the wars of the 20th Century
  • The Forbury War Memorial, Maiwand Lion and Burma Star Memorial in Forbury Gardens