scubish.com: Scuba diving Reading, Berkshire - United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland

Reading is a town, unitary authority (the Borough of Reading) and urban area in the English county of Berkshire. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway. The name Reading is pronounced to rhyme with bedding (in IPA ).

Reading was an important centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections, but suffered serious economic damage during the 17th century from which it took a long time to recover. Today it is again an important commercial centre, with strong links to information technology and insurance. It is also a university town, with two universities and a large student population.

Geography

Location
Reading is located some 66 km (41 miles) due west of central London, 48 km (30 miles) southeast of Oxford and 64 km (40 miles) east of Swindon. The centre of Reading is on a low ridge between the Rivers Thames and Kennet close to their confluence, reflecting the town's history as a river port. Just before the confluence, the Kennet cuts through a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. The absence of a floodplain on the Kennet in this defile enabled the development of wharves.

As Reading has grown, its suburbs have spread in three directions:

to the west between the two rivers into the foothills of the Berkshire Downs,

to the south and south-east on the south side of the Kennet, and

to the north of the Thames into the Chiltern Hills.

However outside the central area, the floors of the valley containing the two rivers remain largely unimproved floodplain, subject to occasional flooding. Apart from one road across the Kennet floodplain, and the M4 looping to the south, the only routes between the three built-up areas are in the central area, creating road congestion there.

Reading has its own subregional catchment area, incorporating the towns of Wokingham, Bracknell and Twyford, plus large villages such as Pangbourne, Theale, Winnersh, Burghfield and Shiplake.

Definition
It should be noted that, depending on the definition adopted, neither the town nor the urban area are necessarily co-terminous with the borough.

Thus, the borough has a population of 144,000 in an area of 40.40 km², whilst the Office for National Statistics' definition of the urban area of Reading is significantly larger at 232,662 people in an area of 55.35 km². This latter area – sometimes referred to as Greater Reading – incorporates the town's eastern and western suburbs outside the borough, in the civil parishes of Earley, Woodley, Purley-on-Thames and Tilehurst (see below for further details). This urban area is itself a component of the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area. Reading is the 17th largest settlement in England, based on the population of the urban area.

Historically, the town of Reading was smaller than the current borough, and has had several definitions over the years. Such definitions include the old ecclesiastical parishes of Reading St Mary, St Laurence and St Giles, or the even smaller pre-19th century borough.

Suburbs
Reading has a...