We created The Oxford Road Reading website in order to bring together the local community, professionals and businesses in the Oxford Road area. Led, empowered and directed by local people, the aim is to create a better environment by taking pride in the area and making it a go to location for new customers, businesses and investors.

The Oxford Road area has a wealth of shops and services that form the main central route West, straight out of Reading Town Centre. It is dense with buildings and residents along its corridor, with bargain services and culturally traditional items that many people simply cannot source anywhere else in the town for the same price and quality.

The Oxford Road's cultural diversity is a common fact that is shared by smaller multicultural communities in the towns and cities surrounding it. There is a saying that has developed within the Oxford Road, "You can buy anything along the Oxford Road and if you can't get it there, it don't exist."

Addressing key issues

Oxford Road Reading is a constituted group whose aim is to support local businesses. All the money generated through Oxford Road fundraising, sponsorship and online adverts covers the cost of website maintenance, advertising and marketing.

Oxford Road, Reading History

A World in One Place

In July 2012 Oxford Road residents and community leaders gathered at Battle Library to agree upon a future vision for the neighbourhood. Under the banner ‘A World in One Place’ those present recognised that the Oxford Road is amongst the most densely populated and cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in the UK. It is home to families and individuals who can trace their ethnic roots to all corners of the globe. Oxford Road’s tradition for accommodating diversity might be traced back to the 1950s. A time when Reading’s stable economy provided employment opportunities for Irish, Eastern European and Caribbean men and women who found affordable homes in the area. By the early 1970s the children of this generation were growing up side-by-side with a multi-cultural perspective, now reflected in the notion of the Oxford Road being ‘A World in One Place’.