Reading Map

Reading is 36 miles (58 km) due west of central London, 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Oxford, 70 miles (110 km) east of Bristol, and 50 miles (80 km) north of the English south coast.

Reading’s municipal boundaries do not include all of the surrounding suburbs. However, the constricted boundaries also create more serious difficulties for the town, as it attempts to develop and grow. The diminishing amount of suitable land within the borough’s boundary can bring the council into conflict with its neighbours.

Since 1887, the Reading borough has included the former villages of Southcote and Whitley and small parts of Earley and Tilehurst.[53] By 1911, it also encompassed the Oxfordshire village of Caversham and still more of Tilehurst.[54] A small area of Mapledurham parish was added in 1977. An attempt to take over a small area of Eye and Dunsden parish in Oxfordshire was rejected because of strong local opposition in 1997.