Reading Town Hall

Reading Town Hall is a Grade II* listed group of four 18th and 19th century buildings on Blagrave Street in the centre of Reading, with Alfred Waterhouse’s 1870s clock tower and council chamber at the front. It shares the building with Reading Museum and takes conferences, meetings, lectures, concerts, dinners, parties and weddings, from a 12-seat boardroom up to a Concert Hall the venue says holds up to 700 theatre style including the balcony.

Event spaces and capacities

The venue publishes six hireable spaces, one of them a pair of small meeting rooms, plus its museum galleries. The largest is the 1882 Concert Hall at 351 m², with a 15.1 m ceiling, a cantilevered balcony and the Father Willis organ behind a thrust stage 9 m wide and 6 m deep. The Concert Hall, Victoria Hall and Waterhouse Chamber are the three spaces listed for exhibitions, but no exhibition floor area or stand count is published. The venue does not publish standing reception or banquet figures for any room.

Space	Area (m²)	Theatre	Reception	Banquet	Classroom	Cabaret
Concert Hall	351	up to 700 (with balcony, depends on stage size)	not published	not published	200	250
Victoria Hall	220	160 (120 with catering in the room)	not published	not published	not published	80
The Waterhouse Chamber	80	50	not published	not published	not published	32
Soane Space	not published	40	not published	not published	not published	25
Oscar Wilde Room and Jane Austen Room	20	not published	not published	not published	not published	not published
Museum Galleries	not published	not published	not published	not published	not published	not published

Boardroom layouts are 80 in the Victoria Hall, 24 in the Waterhouse Chamber, 24 in the Soane Space and 12 in each of the Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen rooms. Museum gallery capacity and set-up depend on the exhibitions installed at the time. Capacities as published by the venue on its spaces page, checked 31 October 2026.

The Victoria Hall is the oldest part of the building, opened in 1786 as the original town hall, and has an 8.5 m ceiling. The Waterhouse Chamber has a Gothic fireplace, stained glass and its own bar, and concert hirers get the use of that bar for their audience. The ground-floor Soane Space opens through glass doors onto Town Hall Square, which the venue suggests for market research and small conferences. The two small rooms have wi-fi and smartboards and suit syndicate sessions or interviews.

Getting there and parking

The venue says it is under two minutes’ walk from Reading station: leave by the Heathrow Airbus exit and cross to Blagrave Street. It quotes direct trains from London Paddington at least every 15 minutes taking about 25 minutes, Oxford in about 30 minutes and Newbury in 20 to 30 minutes. By road, leave the M4 at junction 11 and follow the A33 towards the station. There is no on-site parking for delegates; the venue points you to The Oracle, Queen’s Road and Reading Station car parks, and asks organisers to call about parking because it is limited. Coaches can set down on Valpy Street, opposite the building, with passengers crossing the road to the front entrance. For staging and kit, a piano lift takes equipment from street level straight to the Concert Hall stage.

Catering, AV and accommodation

Catering and bars are in-house. The venue says its chef and team prepare food on site, buy from local suppliers where they can, and use free-range eggs and fair-trade tea and coffee, with fixed-price menus or a bespoke menu. PA and AV are available in-house. Spaces can be hired on a room-hire basis or a day delegate rate by agreement, and rates are given on request rather than published. Concert Hall hire for concerts includes performers’ dressing rooms, use of the Waterhouse Chamber bar, and box office ticketing for commission and a booking fee. There are no bedrooms on site. Access is step free through the main entrance, with a passenger lift to the upper floor and accessible toilets on every floor.

What to ask before you book

• How many of the Concert Hall’s 700 theatre seats are on the balcony, and how many you lose with the stage size you need.
• Seated dinner and standing reception numbers for the Concert Hall and Victoria Hall, since neither is published.
• Usable exhibition floor space, power, and whether the Concert Hall’s published 3 m by 1.6 m access opening fits your largest items, if you plan stands or large displays.
• Whether the Victoria Hall can be set at 160 theatre style while lunch is served in another room.
• Which museum installations will be in place on your dates if you want the galleries for a reception.
• Your day delegate rate, what it includes, and pre-booked parking at the station or Oracle car parks for speakers and crew.

Related on Events Review

• Historic event venues
• Oxford Town Hall, a civic venue 30 minutes away by train
• Conference venues in Oxford
• Conference venues in London
• Conference venues in Farnborough
• Manchester Town Hall
• Liverpool City Halls
• De Montfort Hall, another concert hall that takes conferences
• Turn venue accessibility claims into a usable event plan
• Choose the venue around the event, not the headline capacity

Sources: venue hire, our spaces, conferences and meetings, Concert Hall technical specifications, about and how to get here and catering details on readingtownhall.co.uk, checked 31 October 2026.