5/23/2023 0 Comments The reading gaol![]() ![]() ![]() However, the Save Reading Gaol campaign vowed: “We will continue to campaign to persuade the, as yet, unnamed successful bidders to apportion part of the precious heritage site for the community.” ![]() However, the council’s bid to acquire the site in order to open an arts centre and LGBT+ museum has been rejected by the Ministry of Justice.Īccording to The Daily Telegraph, the MoJ has already earmarked a commercial bidder for the site - though the department has refused to disclose any “commercially sensitive” discussions.Ĭampaigners fear that the site falling into private hands could kill off any hope of the Grade II listed building having a future as a public arts venue. Stephen Fry, who famously portrayed the pioneering playwright in the film Wilde, was among high-profile figures backing a Reading Borough Council bid to rescue the site, which has been out of use since 2014 and us currently earmarked for sale by the Ministry of Justice. Wilde served two years behind bars in Reading Gaol, where he penned the letter De Profundis and was inspired to write his final work The Ballad of Reading Gaol.Ĭampaigners had hoped to open Oscar Wilde arts centre at Reading Gaol. The playwright and poet, who had a string of male lovers, was famously arrested and sent to Reading Gaol in 1895 for for gross indecency with men under the UK’s historic anti-gay laws. ![]()
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