The Changing Face of Reading

An Interactive Presentation in six parts designed to show the enormous changes which have taken place in Reading in the last forty years.


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During the mid 1960's, the face of Reading was changed for ever with the building of a new road designed to take traffic out of the town centre - the Inner Distribution Road.

Construction of this road meant the demolition of many shops, houses, businesses - even roads.  The project took around 20 years from beginning to final completion.

Doug Noyes, a local photographer, set out to record the Changing Face of Reading by capturing on slide film many views of the old and the new Reading showing the dramatic affect all this construction work was having and he created a series of presentations showing different aspects of Reading recalling the shops and businesses which were forced to close as a result.

A n i c e V i c t o r i a n p i l l a r b o x o p p o s i t e T h e O p e r a H o u s e .   S i m i l a r b o x e s a r e f a i r l y c o m m o n i n c l u d i n g o n e a t H a r t i n g t o n .



The Shows The Chilterns The Cotswolds Sussex Peak District The Unexpected In Town Tonight London 16 Days in NZ NZ - N to S Reading Picture Show About Me Contact Me


Doug's shows, using recorded commentary, were very popular with local groups and societies whose members could relate to the changes which were made in their home town with many members having distant fond memories rekindled by Doug's soft words.

Doug Noyes died in 2002 and there was a real possibility that all his hard work and slide photographs would be either lost for ever or archived never again to see the light of day.

By kind permission of his widow, Rita Noyes, I am now pleased and honoured to present the shows as Doug intended them to be shown using his original commentary with additional remarks and photographs taken by myself showing, once again, the ever-Changing Face of Reading.