READING PRISON EXCLUSIVE – PART 3
Banksy never gave money to Reading prison bid and ignored the Council’s pleas for help – despite artist’s public pledge
Banksy failed to put real money behind his public offer to help Reading Borough Council buy Reading prison – and ignored all attempts to contact him about the bid, claims the former long-serving councillor who led it.
Banksy said in 2021 that “converting the place that destroyed (Oscar Wilde) into a refuge for art feels so perfect we have to do it”, and pledged to raise millions of pounds to buy it.
But the prison was sold by the Government to Chinese billionaire Channing Bi in 2024 for £7million – £3m less than the £10m asking price that Banksy said he was prepared to help meet.
No redevelopment of the historic but mothballed site has yet taken place.
Tony Page, the former Mayor of Reading and deputy leader of the Council, claimed that Banksy never followed through on his public offer, repeatedly failed to respond to the Council’s attempts to contact him, and provided no financial support for its bid to buy the prison, as he had promised.
Banksy is closely associated with the prison after painting his “Create Escape” mural on the outer wall in March 2021, in tribute to Wilde, who was incarcerated there from 1895-97. It depicts a prisoner escaping over the walls using sheets of paper from a typewriter tied together into a rope. His public offer was made in December that year.
But Page also accused Banksy of being a “great self-promoter” who ultimately left the Council high and dry.
Page was a local councillor for 51 years until retiring from politics in 2024. He has subsequently worked for Bi on the prison project, advising on local stakeholder management until a few months ago.
Page has given The Reading Reporter exclusive insight into the project, and the bidding process that concluded with Bi purchasing the prison.
On Banksy’s intervention into the bid he led, Page said: “Banksy was full of supposed support and commitment that never materialised.
“His office wouldn’t engage when I was leading on this for the Council. After the mural had gone up, we asked: ‘What sort of support are you talking about? Is there additional support for the Council bid?’ But we never got any clarity, either in terms of money or anything else. It was radio silence.
“I think Banksy is a great self promoter, 100% marks on that front. But in terms of engaging with Reading Council or anybody else about the specifics of possible additional support for our bid there was nothing. We sent emails to Pest Control, his organisation, and there was never anything forthcoming.
“So whilst he may be a good street artist and a very entertaining businessman, when it came to delivering any support, there was nothing.”
The Council confirmed that no formal contact was ever made with Banksy, and that they had “only informal approaches from representatives of Banksy” and “no detailed discussions”.
Page claimed that Pest Control did once contact him to say that some of their representatives had attended one of the public briefings he organised in December 2024, at which Bi and his consultants presented outline plans to turn the prison into The ReCentre.
But Page claimed that there was no evidence of this, because no one from Pest Control signed the register of attendance or engaged with anyone at that meeting. Page claimed that when he tried to follow up on that email he again received no reply.
The Reading Reporter contacted Banksy and Pest Control for comment but received no response.
The Reading Reporter understands that Banksy’s representatives were in contact with Save Reading Gaol, the volunteer group that campaigned to convert the prison into an arts and heritage centre, and attracted celebrity support from the likes of Sir Stephen Fry and Dame Judy Dench.
Reading MP Matt Rodda also said in 2021 that he had spoken with Banksy’s team “for some months” and called on the Government to reappraise the Council’s bid in light of the artist’s intervention.
A spokesperson for Banksy told the BBC in December 2021 that he would sell the stencil used for Create Escape to match the jail’s then £10m asking price.
But the spokesperson added that the pledge was dependent on the Ministry of Justice selling the prison to Reading Council and turning it into an arts centre. That aim was in alignment with the Council’s own wishes for the site.
Reading Council first bid £1 for the prison in 2018. Its next offer of £2.6m was rejected by the MoJ as too low in May 2021, but the Council kept that bid on the table. The MoJ then sold the prison to Bi, the highest bidder, for £7m in January 2024.
