Green Spaces
Forbury Gardens
Reading's Grade II listed Victorian gardens beside the Abbey Ruins, dominated by the enormous Maiwand Lion monument.
Forbury Gardens were laid out in 1855 on the site of the Outer Court of Reading Abbey, and restored to their 1861 pattern in 2005. They are the elegant green heart of the town centre — geometric flowerbeds, a Victorian bandstand, mature limes and planes, and one of the largest cast-iron statues in the world, the Maiwand Lion, commemorating 329 men of the Royal Berkshire Regiment killed in the disastrous 1880 battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan. The lion stands 31 feet long and weighs 16 tons; you cannot miss it, and locals meet 'by the lion' as shorthand.
The gardens work as a five-minute stroll or a full lazy hour on a bench with a coffee. Formal beds are planted twice a year and the summer bedding is spectacular. On summer Sunday afternoons the Reading Concert Band plays free open-air concerts on the bandstand. A small kiosk cafe near the north gate sells decent coffee and ice cream. In December the gardens host a small Christmas market and light installation. The abbey ruins wrap around the north and east sides — the two sites function as one visit.
Right in the town centre, six minutes' walk north of Reading Station via Blagrave Street. Free and open all daylight hours. Come at lunchtime on a weekday and you’ll share it with office workers with sandwiches; come Sunday morning and you’ll have it. Combine with the Abbey Ruins, Reading Museum and lunch on King Street for a compact and completely free half-day. Note that a tragic incident in 2020 is commemorated by a discreet memorial on the west path.
Getting here is almost embarrassingly simple. From Reading Station's south exit, walk down Blagrave Street past the Town Hall, cross Valpy Street, and the listed cast-iron gates on Forbury Road are straight ahead: about 500 metres, six flat minutes, signed for the Abbey Quarter. Fast Great Western trains from London Paddington take 22 to 27 minutes; the Elizabeth line takes a little over an hour into the same concourse and costs a few pounds less off-peak. Reading Buses services stop on Friar Street and Blagrave Street, three minutes away, with single fares capped low under the national scheme and an all-day network ticket around £5. Driving is the weak option — the one-way system around Forbury Road and Kings Road is unforgiving. If you must, use Queens Road multi-storey (five minutes' walk) or Garrard Street; better still, leave the car at the Mereoak park and ride by M4 junction 11 and ride in.
Nothing here costs anything. There is no ticket, no turnstile, no booking system and no charge for the summer bandstand concerts; the adjoining Abbey Ruins are free and open in daylight, and Reading Museum on Blagrave Street is free too, donations welcome. The only money you can spend inside the gates is at the kiosk near the north gate from March to October — reckon about £3 for a coffee and £2.50 for an ice cream, still cheaper than the chains on Friar Street. A town-centre multi-storey will take a few pounds an hour, which is the single largest avoidable cost of the visit. Occasional ticketed guided walks of the Abbey Quarter and the Abbey Gateway are run through Reading Museum for a small single-figure fee and are worth it if the timing lands; otherwise budget nothing at all and bring a sandwich from the station.
Timing matters more than you would expect for a small park. Gates open at 7:30 and close at dusk, which means roughly 16:15 in late December and past 21:00 in late June. The genuinely quiet window is 08:00 to 10:00 any day, when you get the lion and the bandstand to yourself; between 12:30 and 13:30 on weekdays the benches fill with staff from the Forbury Place offices and there is barely a seat. Horticulturally, April and May bring bulbs and wallflowers, and the summer bedding peaks from early July to early September. February and March are frankly grim — bare soil, bare trees, an early lock-up. Avoid the Reading Festival bank holiday weekend in late August unless you enjoy crowds and blocked pavements. The best single plan is a July Sunday: arrive at 10:00, stay for the 14:00 concert.
The gardens suit a short gap superbly — with the station six minutes away, a 45-minute wait becomes a proper walk rather than a platform vigil. Paths are level tarmac and compacted gravel with step-free entrances from Forbury Road and Abbot's Walk, so wheelchairs and pushchairs cope easily; only the raised mound at the north-west corner involves steps. Small children get open lawns, a modest play area and a lion that reliably impresses; teenagers will give it ten minutes and want The Oracle. Dogs are fine on leads. Two honest gaps: there is no public toilet in the gardens, so use Reading Station or The Oracle, and there is almost no shelter beyond the bandstand roof and the tree canopy. In heavy rain, skip it and spend the hour in Reading Museum instead — free, and open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 16:00.
Everything worth folding in is within a quarter of an hour on foot. The Abbey Ruins adjoin the gardens (free, allow 20 minutes), the Abbey Gateway where Jane Austen went to school is two minutes on, and St James's Church next to it stands near the burial place of Henry I. Reading Museum is four minutes back down Blagrave Street and holds the full-size Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. Five minutes east along Forbury Road is Reading Gaol, exterior only, with the Banksy stencil of a prisoner escaping on rope on the outer wall. The Kennetside towpath from Chestnut Walk reaches Blake's Lock in 15 minutes, and Christchurch Meadows is 12 minutes over Reading Bridge. For lunch, Workhouse Coffee on King Street is five minutes and Sweeney & Todd's pie shop on Castle Street about ten.
Two things get oversold. The first is the story that the lion's sculptor, Reading-born George Blackall Simonds, killed himself over an error in the animal's gait — a persistent local myth, and untrue: he lived until 1929 and studied real lions before casting. The second is the scale. This is roughly seven acres of formal Victorian garden, not a country park; visitors arriving expecting a day out are done in 25 minutes and should walk on to Prospect Park or Christchurch Meadows for anything longer. The ruins next door are fenced fragments of flint core, not standing cloisters, and the Gateway interior is only open for occasional tours. Off season the kiosk shuts, the beds are bare and the gates lock at dusk with little warning. On concert Sundays the benches go early — regulars bring folding chairs, and so should you.
Hours & entry
Always free
Daily 7:30-dusk · Bandstand concerts summer Sundays 14:00 · Cafe kiosk Mar-Oct 10:00-16:00
What to see
{'what': "The Maiwand Lion, one of the world's largest cast-iron statues", 'where': 'Central lawn, unmissable'}
{'what': 'The restored Victorian bandstand', 'where': 'Southeast lawn, near the Abbey Ruins entrance'}
{'what': 'The formal parterre beds in July', 'where': "North end, near the King's Road gate"}
Tips from the ground
Sunday afternoon summer bandstand concerts (14:00-16:00) are free and lovely.
The kiosk cafe by the north gate is cheaper than anywhere on Friar Street.
Enter from Chatham Street Car Park side for direct access to the Abbey Ruins path.
Questions, answered
Entry cost?
Free at all times. There is no ticket office, no donation box at the gate and no charge for the Sunday bandstand concerts or the December light installation. The adjoining Abbey Ruins and Reading Museum on Blagrave Street are also free, so a three-hour visit to the whole Abbey Quarter can cost you nothing. The only spending inside the gardens is the seasonal kiosk near the north gate — about £3 for a coffee, £2.50 for an ice cream. Parking in a town-centre multi-storey is the one real expense.
Free windows?
Always — public park. There is no peak pricing, no members-only morning and no ticketed evening event that shuts the public out, though the December Christmas market and occasional charity events can make the central lawns busy. Free does not mean unmanaged: the gates are locked at dusk by the council, the lawns are roped off after heavy rain to protect the turf, and the formal beds are replanted twice a year, in spring and again in June, when a section may be fenced for a fortnight while it establishes.
How long to visit?
20-45 minutes for a walk-through; longer if you sit for a concert or coffee. A brisk perimeter lap taking in the Maiwand Lion, the bandstand and the parterre beds runs to about 20 minutes. Add the Abbey Ruins next door and you are at an hour. Stay for a summer Sunday concert, which runs 14:00 to 16:00, and it becomes an easy half-afternoon. Pairing the gardens with Reading Museum, four minutes away, fills three hours comfortably and still costs nothing.
Closed days?
Open every day; gates close at dusk. That means roughly 16:15 in late December and after 21:00 around midsummer, with opening at 7:30 year-round. There is no weekly closing day, no Christmas shutdown of the park itself and no maintenance week. The kiosk cafe is the seasonal element, trading March to October, 10:00 to 16:00. Very occasionally paths near the abbey wall are closed for conservation work or after storm damage to the mature limes and planes, but the lion and the bandstand stay accessible.
Booking?
No booking, walk in from any of four gates. The Forbury Road entrance is the closest to the station, the Abbot's Walk gate gives the most direct line to the Abbey Ruins, and both are step-free. Nothing inside is ticketed, including the bandstand concerts, where seating is first-come — regulars bring folding chairs because the benches go by about 13:30 on a warm Sunday. The only bookable things in the quarter are the occasional Abbey Gateway tours run through Reading Museum, which sell out and cost a few pounds.
Nearest station?
Reading, 6 min walk via Blagrave Street. Leave by the south exit, pass the Town Hall and museum, cross Valpy Street and the cast-iron gates are ahead — about 500 metres and entirely flat. Fast Great Western services from London Paddington take 22 to 27 minutes; the Elizabeth line takes a little over an hour and costs less off-peak. Local buses stop on Friar Street and Blagrave Street, three minutes away, with an all-day network ticket around £5. Driving means the Queens Road or Garrard Street multi-storeys, five minutes on foot.
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