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Island Road

lurks down by Smallmead, near the Football Club’s Frequently Misspelt Stadium, the Sewage Works and the Tip; you may detect the Whitley Whiff. A massive waste recycling plant known as the Compost Cathedral was going to be built here, but the scheme was, alas, aborted – another blow to Reading’s bid for city status. The road leads to a real – if artificial – island, between the old Kennet and its navigation cut. There are waterfalls at each end of it: one is part of the old Fobney Waterworks, the other a photogenic concrete weir near the Berks and Hants railway bridge. Further downstream, if there ever were Seven Bridges over different branches of the river (see Bridge Street) there must technically have been six islands on the Oracle site; the words ‘The Island’ appear on some old maps near the Yield Hall.