A report on Oxford, Oxfordshire and Reading, Berkshire

Brasenose Lane in Oxford city centre, a street onto which three colleges back.

The University of Oxford's Chemistry Research Laboratory.

19th-century view of the High Street in Oxford.

The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, a ‘textbook’ example of the English medieval manor house.

The earliest map of Reading, published in 1611 by John Speed

View of Reading from Caversham by Joseph Farington in 1793

Wellington Square, the name of which has become synonymous with the university's central administration

Current boundaries of the Borough of Reading

The Divinity School at the Bodleian Library

River Kennet during the 2007 floods at the riverside level of The Oracle

Borough of Reading population growth rate from 1801 to 2011

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Reading International Business Park. This crescent of offices beside the A33 are home to Verizon, a telecommunications company. They were formerly the European headquarters of WorldCom before its demise

Galleries at the Museum of Natural History

The central lake makes a virtue of the necessity of flood alleviation measures

Green Park wind turbine viewed from Lime Square

The Abbey Gateway, where Jane Austen went to school

Carfax Tower at Carfax, the junction of the High Street, Queen Street, Cornmarket and St Aldate's streets at what is considered by many to be the centre of the city

The Royal Berkshire Hospital original frontage, built in 1839 with bath stone

Night view of High Street with Christmas lights – one of Oxford's main streets

Floral display in Oxford city centre in 2001

The River Thames from Caversham Bridge looking eastwards

Aerial view of Reading station in August 2014

The air traffic control tower at Oxford Airport

A Great Western Railway with a service to London

Oxford Bus Company hybrid bus on a park & ride service

Reading station platforms showing new footbridge

Oxford Bus Company flywheel energy storage bus on a BrookesBus service

Part of the University of Reading's main Whiteknights Campus

Oxford railway station, in the city centre

Oxford Parkway Station, on the outskirts near Kidlington

The rear garden, with the original East Thorpe House in the centre

St Mary's Church tower, chequered with flint and ashlar

The interior of the ruined chapter house

Somerville College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford

The Madejski Stadium, home of Reading Football Club

Keble College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford

The Madejski Stadium as viewed from the stadium's north stand.

All Souls' College looking east up the High Street from St Mary's Church

The Voco Reading Hotel, pictured when still known as the Millennium Madejski

The Bridge of Sighs links sections of Hertford College: as seen from New College Lane with the Sheldonian Theatre in the background

The Reading Half Marathon 2004 climbing Russell Street in West Reading

University Church of St Mary the Virgin as seen from Radcliffe Square

Broad Street, showing the main entrances to Trinity and Balliol Colleges, and obliquely, the frontage of Exeter College from the Sheldonian Theatre

Merton College Chapel and Corpus Christi College as viewed from the Oriel Square entrance to Merton Street

High Street as viewed from St Mary's, looking east, with Magdalen College in the distant background

The Manor Ground off London Road in Headington.

Rowing at Summer Eights, an annual intercollegiate bumps race

Men's 1st VIII Summer Eights 2007 coxed by Acer Nethercott

Choir and organ of Christ Church Cathedral

It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire.

- Oxford

Reading is 40 mi east of Swindon, 28 mi south of Oxford, 40 mi west of London, 15 mi north of Basingstoke, 13 mi southwest of Maidenhead and 15 mi east of Newbury.

- Reading, Berkshire

As well as the city of Oxford, other centres of population are Banbury, Bicester, Kidlington and Chipping Norton to the north of Oxford; Carterton and Witney to the west; Thame and Chinnor to the east; and Abingdon-on-Thames, Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Henley-on-Thames to the south.

- Oxfordshire

Oxford is 24 mi north-west of Reading, 26 mi north-east of Swindon, 36 mi east of Cheltenham, 43 mi east of Gloucester, 29 mi south-west of Milton Keynes, 38 mi south-east of Evesham, 43 mi south of Rugby and 51 mi west-north-west of London.

- Oxford

Conversely, the Caversham area of Reading, now administratively in Berkshire, was historically part of Oxfordshire, as was the parish of Stokenchurch, now administratively in Buckinghamshire.

- Oxfordshire

The town continued to expand in the 20th century, annexing Caversham across the River Thames in Oxfordshire in 1911.

- Reading, Berkshire

2 related topics with Alpha

River Thames

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River that flows through southern England including London.

A statue of Old Father Thames by Raffaelle Monti at St John's Lock, Lechlade

Sculpture of Tamesis. Downstream keystone of the central arch of Henley Bridge

The marker stone at the official source of the River Thames named Thames Head near Kemble

The Thames Barrier provides protection against floods

The Thames passes by some of the sights of London, including the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye

The Thames passing through the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

London Stone at Staines, built in 1285 marked the customs limit of the Thames and the City of London's jurisdiction

Waterstand of Thames at low tide (left) and high tide (right) in comparison at Blackfriars Bridge in London

London City Airport is on the site of a dock

European LGM refuges, 20,000 years ago. The Thames was a minor river that joined the Rhine, in the southern North Sea basin at this time.

A geological map of the London Basin; the London Clay is marked in dark brown

The confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent. The narrowboat is heading up the River Brent. From this point as far as Hanwell the Brent has been canalised and shares its course with the main line of the Grand Union Canal. From Hanwell the Brent can be traced to various sources in the Barnet area.

The Tower of London begun in the 11th century, with Tower Bridge, built 800 years later

A 1616 engraving by Claes Van Visscher showing the Old London Bridge, with St Mary's Overie (over-the-river), now Southwark Cathedral in the foreground

Michael Faraday giving his card to Father Thames, caricature commenting on a letter of Faraday's on the state of the river in The Times in July 1855

Satirical cartoon by William Heath, showing a woman observing monsters in a drop of London water (at the time of the Commission on the London Water Supply report, 1828)

The Thames as it flows through east London, with the Isle of Dogs in the centre

Houseboats on the River Thames, in the St Margaret's, Twickenham district

The London Cable Car, over the River Thames

Pool of London looking west, from the high-level walkway on Tower Bridge. Click on the picture for a longer description

A container ship unloading at Northfleet Hope terminal, Tilbury

A ship heading downstream past Coryton Refinery

Rubbish traps are used on the Thames to filter debris as it flows through central London

The Millennium Footbridge with St Paul's Cathedral in the background

Cambridge cross the finish line ahead of Oxford in the 2007 Boat Race, viewed from Chiswick Bridge

A seal in the river at St Saviour's Dock, London

The flooded Canvey Island sea front, amusements and residential areas in 1953

Houses of Parliament Sunlight Effect (Le Parlement effet de soleil) – Claude Monet

The first Westminster Bridge as painted by Canaletto in 1746.

The River Thames from Richmond House by Canaletto, 1747

Maidenhead Railway Bridge as Turner saw it in 1844

Monet's Trouée de soleil dans le brouillard, Houses of Parliament, London, Sun Breaking Through the Fog, 1904

Whistler's Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge (c. 1872–1875)

Foggy Morning on the Thames – James Hamilton (between 1872 and 1878)

Boating on the Thames - John Lavery, circa 1890

From the west it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor.

Sculptures titled Tamesis and Isis by Anne Seymour Damer can be found on the bridge at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (the original terracotta and plaster models were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1785.

Long Alley Almshouses next to St Helen's parish church

Abingdon-on-Thames

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Abingdon Bridge spans the River Thames. It was built in 1416 and much altered in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

St Helen's parish church from across the Thames

A sign in Abingdon-on-Thames’ town centre showing directions to nearby locations

Abingdon-on-Thames, commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames.

The name seems to mean 'Hill of a man named Æbba, or a woman named Æbbe', possibly the saint to whom St Ebbe's Church in Oxford was dedicated (Æbbe of Coldingham or a different Æbbe of Oxford).

Assize courts were held in Abingdon from 1570, but in the 17th century it was vying with Reading for county town status.