READING PRISON EXCLUSIVE
Gaol redevelopment is back ON after owner presents new “vision”
The long-delayed redevelopment of Reading prison is back on after its owner returned with new plans for the historic site, The Reading Reporter can exclusively reveal.
The details in the updated proposals are for now a closely guarded secret – but they have been described by a source as “ambitious” and a fresh “vision” for the site, which was made famous by Oscar Wilde’s work The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
The new proposals have received a positive reaction among leaders at Reading Borough Council after a lengthy and worrying silence from the prison’s owner, Channing Bi.
The Chinese businessman is, however, still searching for a replacement architect to draw up a full set of detailed plans to take into the planning stage, after he parted ways with the Italian firm Novembre Studio.
That means entering formal pre-planning application discussions with the Council is still not yet possible – so there will be no spades in the ground any time soon.
It is also understood that there will now be a phased approach to the redevelopment – and that there is still no plan for any new residential buildings on site.
Bi recently met with the Council’s leader, Liz Terry, deputy leader, Micky Leng, and key council officers to update them on his plans for the prison.
“We were heartened to hear of Mr Bi’s ongoing commitment to breathing life back into a key part of Reading’s history,” Cllr Leng exclusively told The Reading Reporter.
“Mr Bi’s team is currently in the process of appointing architects to bring their plans to life, and we look forward to engaging with them further through a pre-application so the Council can help inform their plans and ensure the most is made of the incredible opportunity the Gaol represents for the culture of Reading.”
The plans are “realistic and achievable”, added Leng.
He also said that Bi’s latest presentation represented a “genuine commitment to arts and culture”.
Bi, who bought the prison from the Government for £7million in 2024, did not submit a planning application by the end of last year despite publicly committing to that timeframe.
The Reading Reporter can also reveal that Bi cancelled a series of pre-planning application meetings with the Council between April and June last year, which were seen as a crucial stepping stone for a successful application to redevelop the highly complex site.
It sits on top of the medieval ruins of Reading Abbey – a Scheduled Ancient Monument subject to strict protections. The unlocated remains of King Henry I, the son of William the Conqueror, are buried somewhere under the prison site or the adjacent Abbey ruins.
The prison building is most closely associated with Wilde, who was incarcerated there from 1895-97. A Banksy mural painted on the prison’s outer wall pays tribute to the celebrated Irish writer.
All these historic associations are likely to impact both the planning process and reconstruction stage.
The cancelled meetings and the long silence that followed from Bi and Ziran Education Foundation, the non-profit organisation through which he bought the prison, led to many local stakeholders expressing grave concerns in private over the future of the redevelopment.
Multiple sources told The Reading Reporter that Bi and his architect had parted ways, but there was no public explanation from Bi for the delay – and even some people close to the project claim they were kept in the dark.
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Tony Page, the former deputy leader of the Council who until recently had worked for Bi on the prison project, told The Reading Reporter that he was among those concerned about the unexplained delay that began over a year ago.
“A pause was introduced, supposedly only for a few months,” said Page. “But we’re now halfway through 2026 and still very few people are aware of the extent to which any of their plans have been reworked.
“Throughout last year I said to Mr Bi: the more delays there are, the more you need to explain what is going on, because people will be concerned. They have been given encouraging briefing by you, and assurances about submitting a planning application in 2025.”
The Reading Reporter has contacted Bi, and Novembre Studio, for comment.
No pre-application meetings with planning officers are yet in the diary but the Council now considers it likely that these will be scheduled in the near future.
Bi has retained DP9 as his specialist planning consultant.
It is “impossible to say” when redevelopment work might start on the site, said Page, who was advising Bi on local stakeholder management until a few months ago, but had no input into the planning process.
A realistic timeframe for the completion of the project is even harder to predict with accuracy, but it is likely to be years.
“Even if all the appropriate permissions were given tomorrow, it would take probably at least a couple of years’ work to finish that site – and that’s with the best will in the world,” said Page.
The site has sat derelict since the Ministry of Justice closed it in 2013 due to a programme of upgrading the national prison estate and saving costs.
Bi outbid the Council and all other bidders when the Ministry of Justice sold the prison. The redevelopment plans he presented in 2024 impressed the majority of local stakeholders – Bi said at the time that his plans were to transform the site into a hotel, museum and art gallery. He also said that there would be no flats built on the site.
Bi said the work could be completed in two years, if the Council granted planning permission.
Wilde is the prison’s most famous former inmate. He wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol after his incarceration there, and De Profundis, a letter to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas, while imprisoned for “gross indecency”.
Banksy’s “Create Escape” mural on the outer wall pays homage to Wilde. It depicts a prisoner escaping over the walls using sheets of paper from a typewriter, mimicking tied bedsheets.
The mural appeared overnight in 2021, while the prison was up for sale. Banksy later made a public pledge to sell the stencil used for the mural in order to provide millions of pounds’ worth of support for the Council’s bid to buy the prison.
The Ministry of Justice said that Banksy’s offer had come after the deadline for submitting bids, and later sold the prison to Bi rather than the Council.
MORE ON THE FUTURE OF READING GAOL
The Reading Reporter will be publishing more exclusive stories about the future of Reading Gaol in the coming days.
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