Oracle

Some will know that Reading's Oracle shopping centre is built on the site of the former workhouse of the same name. You can read more about the Oracle workhouse here. Famously pioneer of photography William Henry Fox Talbot (who had a shop in Baker Street, Reading) captured an image of the Gunn Street-Minster Street gateway in around 1845.

I found the below version recently online, showing the workhouse imposed (by Mark Porridge) on the modern street scene and new Oracle. The white building to the right is I believe one of the few surviving remenants of the original Oracle.

I also found a lovely picture of the gates themselves, when they were reused at 48 Tilehurst Road. This picture appeared on a postcard by Walton Adams in around 1910. Those gates have since been relocated to the town museum where they remain on display.