Willow Street Reading

12 addresses across 3 postcodes (RG1), about 60 m long, classed as a local road. USRN 31001495.

  • Energy: 8 homes have an energy certificate (C: 4, D: 4).
  • Flood: No address on its postcodes is in an area at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water.
  • Council tax: Most homes around it are in council tax band C; Band D in Reading costs £2,613 a year in 2026-27.
  • Broadband: Gigabit broadband is available to 100% of premises.
  • Transport: The nearest railway station is Reading, about 900 m (0.6 miles) away in a straight line.
  • Green space: The nearest park or garden, Holy Brook Nook, is about 90 m away.
  • Air: Background air pollution in 2024 was 11.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.4 of PM2.5, within UK legal limits.
  • Height: Its addresses are 40 to 41 m above sea level.
  • Noise: 12 of its 12 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic.
  • Doctors: The nearest GP surgery is Abbey Medical Centre, about 400 m (0.2 miles) away, with 8 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile).
  • People: About 450 people lived in the census areas around it in 2021; 29% of households owned their home and 57% of adults held a degree or other higher qualification.
  • Crime: 247 crimes were recorded within 250 m between September 2025 and August 2026, most often violence and sexual offences.

Sales on this street

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, sales registered up to 28 August 2026, loaded 28 October 2026. Sales reach the register two weeks to two months after completion, so the last two months are incomplete. Matched by postcode and street name.

No sales recorded on this street since January 1995 under this street name.

Energy performance certificates

Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (MHCLG), register as at 1 November 2026. Latest certificate per address; certificates last ten years, so the oldest here dates from November 2014 and some homes have none. Address data © Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, shown for understanding the energy efficiency of buildings only.

8 homes with a current certificate; median floor area 28 m². Most common: Flat (7); House, detached (1). Built: 2003-2006 (6); 1930-1949 (1); 1983-1990 (1). Tenure at assessment: rented (social) (7); rented (private) (1).

Each home's certificates and sales (2 addresses)

Council tax

What each band costs in Reading in 2026-27: Band D £2,613 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£1,742£2,032£2,322£2,613£3,193£3,774£4,355£5,226

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this street: most are in band C (42% of about 950 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10; some small counts withheld), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this street; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, council tax levels 2026-27. Bands are charged as fixed shares of Band D; the actual bill depends on the parish and on discounts such as the single-person discount. Check a home's own band with the official council tax band checker.

Planning and heritage

  • Conservation area: yes, St Mary's Butts and Castle Street (council page). Extensions, demolition, some windows and doors, and work on trees need consent.
  • Listed buildings on or by this street: none.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Tree preservation orders: none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Green belt: no.

Brownfield land registered for housing within 1 km (0.6 miles)

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), compiled from councils and, for listed buildings, Historic England's National Heritage List. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation areas and the green belt are checked at each postcode's centre. Listed buildings and protected trees are counted on or by this street. Councils publish Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders and brownfield registers to different standards, and some not yet. Planning applications are not here: there is no national open record of them yet.

Roadworks

No street works under way, planned or finished in the last three months on this street, in permits up to 30 September 2026.

Source: Department for Transport, Street Manager open data, permits and works up to 30 September 2026. It is published once a month, so works arranged or started since then are not shown, and dates are the ones planned unless the works have started or finished. Emergency works are often permitted after they begin.

Flood risk

No address in this street's postcodes is in an area at high, medium or low risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water. The rest are in areas at very low risk: less than a 0.1% (1 in 1,000) chance a year.

Rivers and the sea alone: no home is in an area at risk.

High: 3.3% (1 in 30) or more chance of flooding a year. Medium: 1% to 3.3%. Low: 0.1% to 1%. Very low: under 0.1%. The rivers and sea figures allow for flood defences. Counts cover whole postcodes, which can include other streets.

Flood zone for planning: no postcode centre on this street is in flood zone 2 or 3.

Sources: Environment Agency Flood risk: postcode search tool data (loaded 29 October 2026), Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: postcodes in areas at risk (loaded 29 October 2026) and Flood Map for Planning (loaded 28 October 2026). Flood zones are checked at each postcode's centre point. These are models of areas, which their publishers say are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk, and they do not cover flooding from sewers or drains. Check an address on the official long-term flood risk service.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Some features are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH); the postcode data is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, © Royal Mail Group Limited.

Height above sea level

The street's 12 addresses are between 40 m and 41 m above sea level (41 m on average).

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Terrain 50, July 2026: the height of the ground on a 50 m grid, read at each address, in metres above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level at Newlyn). It is the lie of the land, not floor or threshold levels, and is accurate to a few metres. Being low-lying is not in itself a flood risk; the flood section above says what the flood maps show.

Broadband

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026. Percentages are of premises in each postcode that can get the service, not take-up or speed achieved.

Availability by postcode (% of premises)
PostcodeSuperfast (30 Mbit/s+)Ultrafast (300 Mbit/s+)GigabitBelow 10 Mbit/s
RG1 6AB100%100%100%0%
RG1 6JW100%100%100%0%
RG1 6QQ100%100%100%0%

Getting around

Sources: Department for Transport, NaPTAN (every public transport stop), as at 31 October 2026; Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage 2024–25 (which stations are on the National Rail network, and their journeys: entries and exits in the year to March); OurAirports (public domain, kept by volunteers); car parks and charging points from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others: not an official register, so some will be missing, private or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street, not routes, and say nothing about how often anything runs. Stations opened since the end of ORR's year appear when ORR publishes the next one, each December; heritage railways are left out.

NearestDistance
Railway stationsReading 14 million journeys in 2024–25900 m (0.6 miles)
Reading West 482,000 journeys in 2024–251.1 km (0.7 miles)
Reading Green Park 221,000 journeys in 2024–253.2 km (2 miles)
Bus stops8 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 76 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Castle Street Reading Town Centre140 m
Bus or coach stationReading Rail Station - buses830 m (0.5 miles)
Car parks6 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Car Park on 122 Castle Street, RG1200 m
EV charging points2 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Apcoa Charging Station1.1 km (0.7 miles)
Airport with scheduled flightsLondon Heathrow Airport LHR35.9 km (22 miles)

Local services

Sources: NHS Organisation Data Service, as at 31 October 2026: GP practices, community pharmacies and dental practices with an NHS contract, open now, each placed at the centre of its postcode; hospitals are NHS trust and Welsh health board sites named as hospitals, and may not have an emergency department. Police stations and cash machines from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings: not an official register, so some will be missing or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries8 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Abbey Medical Centre400 m (0.2 miles)
Pharmacies9 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Boots480 m (0.3 miles)
NHS dentists11 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Zenith House490 m (0.3 miles)
HospitalDunedin Hospital660 m (0.4 miles)
Police stationReading Police Station170 m
Cash machines9 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Rontec - Thatcham, Woolhampton480 m (0.3 miles)

Parks and green space

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Greenspace, April 2026: public parks and gardens, play spaces, playing fields and allotments, with their entrances. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to a site's nearest entrance (or its edge where none is recorded), not walking routes; sizes are the area OS maps for each site. Some sites, such as school playing fields, may not be open to the public.

NearestDistance
Park or garden1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Holy Brook Nook 6,650 m²90 m
Play area6 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 600 m²260 m
Playing field1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Coley Recreation Ground 4.9 ha510 m (0.3 miles)
AllotmentsGeorge Street Allotments 2,430 m²1 km (0.6 miles)

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 1 park or garden, 0.7 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Holybrook House, a listed building (Grade II*), 110 m north. 270 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles), 5 of them Grade I and 14 of them Grade II*.

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Holybrook HouseListed building, Grade II*110 m north
19 Castle Street and associated front railingsListed building, Grade II*250 m north-east
Culvert on Holy Brook Running South Westwards From Su71441/73234 to 71327/73133Listed building, Grade II*260 m north-east
17 Castle Street, front railings and mounting blockListed building, Grade II*260 m north-east
High BridgeScheduled monument630 m (0.4 miles) north-east
The Forbury GardenRegistered park or garden, Grade II910 m (0.6 miles) north-east
Reading Abbey: a Cluniac and Benedictine monastery and Civil War earthwork.Scheduled monument1 km (0.6 miles) north-east
Caversham CourtRegistered park or garden, Grade II1.9 km (1.2 miles) north
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Holy BrookLake or reservoir610 m (0.4 miles) north-east
Fry's IslandIsland1.4 km (0.9 miles) north
View IslandIsland1.5 km (0.9 miles) north-east
Piper's IslandIsland1.6 km (1 mile) north
The RookeryWood2.4 km (1.5 miles) west
Gravel HillHill3.6 km (2.2 miles) north-west

Sources: Historic England's registers through planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG), and Cadw through DataMapWales (Welsh Government): World Heritage Sites within 10 km (6.2 miles), battlefields within 5 km (3.1 miles), registered parks and gardens within 3 km (1.9 miles), scheduled monuments within 2 km (1.2 miles), and Grade I and II* listed buildings within 1 km (0.6 miles). Ordnance Survey, OS Open Names, October 2026: named hills, valleys, lakes, woods, wetlands and coast (it has no rivers). Distances are in a straight line to the middle of each site, and being on a register does not mean there is public access.

Air quality

Source: Defra, modelled background air pollution, annual means for 2024, for the 1 km square that holds the middle of the street. These are background levels, away from the kerb: beside a busy road nitrogen dioxide in particular can be several times higher. UK limits are the legal annual limits for England and Wales; the World Health Organization's 2021 guidelines are much stricter, and most towns and cities are above them.

Annual means in µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air)
PollutantHereUK limitWHO guideline
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)11.84010
Fine particles (PM2.5)7.4205
Particles (PM10)12.04015

All three are within the UK legal limits; nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 are above the WHO guideline, as in most towns and cities.

Road and rail noise

Source: Defra, strategic noise mapping Round 4 (England), modelled for 2021 and published in December 2023, and its airport maps of the same round for the fifteen largest English airports, published in April 2026: Lden, the average sound level over a whole day with extra weight for the evening and night, on a 10 m grid, read at each address. These are models of traffic, not measurements; they leave out smaller airports and airfields, industry and neighbours, and a room at the back of a house is often much quieter than the front. The World Health Organization's guidelines are 53 dB for road traffic, 54 dB for railways and 45 dB for aircraft (below the lowest level shown here).

Addresses by modelled noise level (Lden, dB)
LevelRoad trafficRailways
70 to 7410
65 to 69110
Under 55012

12 of the street's 12 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, above the WHO guidelines.

Climate, daylight and earthquakes

Monthly temperatures and rainfall, sunrise and sunset through the year, and earthquakes recorded nearby since 1970 are much the same across the area, so they are worked out once for Reading: see them on the Reading page.

Nearest schools

Source: Get Information About Schools (Department for Education), 3 November 2026; Ofsted monthly management information as at September 2026. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to the school; catchments and admissions are not shown. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives report-card grades by area, not one overall grade; older grades stand until a school is re-inspected.

SchoolPhaseAgesDistanceInspection
Coley Primary SchoolPrimary3–11180 m No published inspection
Katesgrove Primary SchoolPrimary3–11350 m No published inspection
Civitas AcademyPrimary4–11770 m (0.5 miles) No published inspection
Kendrick SchoolSecondary11–18840 m (0.5 miles) Outstanding (Nov 2022, overall grade under the previous framework)
All Saints Church of England Aided Infant SchoolPrimary5–7840 m (0.5 miles) Report card (May 2026): Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard; Achievement: Strong standard; Attendance and behaviour: Strong standard; Personal development and wellbeing: Strong standard; Inclusion: Strong standard; Leadership and governance: Strong standard; Early years: Strong standard; Safeguarding standards: Met
All Saints Junior SchoolPrimary7–11840 m (0.5 miles) No overall grade (Oct 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Outstanding; Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Outstanding
Oxford Road Community SchoolPrimary3–11890 m (0.6 miles) No published inspection
New Christ Church Church of England Primary SchoolPrimary4–111 km (0.6 miles) Good (Sep 2022, overall grade under the previous framework)
St Mary & All Saints Church of England Primary SchoolPrimary3–111 km (0.6 miles) No overall grade (Jun 2025, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Good
E P Collier Primary SchoolPrimary3–111.2 km (0.8 miles) Good (Feb 2023, overall grade under the previous framework)
The Palmer Primary AcademyPrimary3–111.4 km (0.9 miles) Good (Nov 2022, overall grade under the previous framework)
Battle Primary AcademyPrimary3–111.5 km (1 mile) No overall grade (Nov 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Outstanding; Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Outstanding

Food hygiene ratings nearby

Source: Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, extract of 3 November 2026. Each rating is shown with the date it was given; a business may have been re-inspected since the extract. Within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the middle of the street.

BusinessTypeDistanceRatingRated
Aramark Salvation Army RG1 6ABRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen20 m5 Very good18 Sep 2025
The Castle Tap Public House RG1 7RJPub/bar/nightclub200 m5 Very good18 Sep 2025
The Count Me In Collective RG1 7RJPub/bar/nightclub200 mAwaiting inspection
The Salvation Army Church Lunch Club RG1 7JRRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen200 m4 Good5 Jun 2025
Mac's Coffee RG1 7SBRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen210 m3 Generally satisfactory27 Jul 2026
The Carey Centre RG1 7JRRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen240 m5 Very good11 Feb 2026
The Coffee Van - Civic Offices RG1 2LUMobile caterer260 m5 Very good25 Jun 2024
Zeus Greek Gyros RG1 2LURestaurant/Cafe/Canteen260 m5 Very good10 Jul 2026
The Rising Sun RG1 7RDPub/bar/nightclub280 m5 Very good24 Aug 2026
Sweeney & Todd RG1 7RDRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen310 m5 Very good19 Nov 2024
Caterlink at Kennet Day Nursery at Reading Borough Council RG1 2LUHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises320 m5 Very good18 Mar 2026
The Oasis RG1 7XTRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen330 m5 Very good4 Jul 2025
Sushi Mania RG1 7QFRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen350 m4 Good13 May 2026
CultureMix Arts & Music Centre RG1 7QFPub/bar/nightclub350 m5 Very good21 Aug 2025
Be At One RG1 2JRRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen350 m5 Very good14 Jul 2026

Crime within 250 m

Source: data.police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026. Police forces move every crime to the nearest of about 760,000 anonymised map points before publishing, so these are crimes near this street, not on it, and a busy point can collect crimes from a wider area. Counts are of records, not convictions.

247 recorded crimes by category
CategoryCrimes
Violence and sexual offences96
Anti-social behaviour28
Other theft26
Public order22
Vehicle crime20
Drugs17
Criminal damage and arson13
Other crime7
Burglary6
Bicycle theft5
Robbery3
Theft from the person2
Possession of weapons2

Most of these are attached to: On or near Police Station (76); On or near Talbot Court (25); On or near Parthia Close (22); On or near Lower Brook Street (21); On or near Simmonds Street (21).

People and work

Source: ONS Census 2021, taken on 21 March 2021, for the 2 Output Areas (small census areas of about 125 households each) that this street's postcodes are in: 448 residents in 234 households. The census was taken during a lockdown, so working from home is high and travel to work low compared with now. ONS swaps a few records between neighbouring areas and adds small amounts of noise to counts to protect privacy, so small differences mean little. Industry is not published for areas this small.

Who lives here

Around this streetEngland
Median age3640
Children under 1514%17%
Aged 65 and over13%18%

Homes

Around this streetEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)29%61%
Owned outright16%33%
Shared ownership0%1%
Social rented15%17%
Private rented56%21%

Work and commuting

Around this streetEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work63%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)7%6%
Retired (of adults)16%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)3%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)57%32%
Travel to work by car or van17%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram3%4%
By any public transport, including bus10%8%
On foot or by bicycle16%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)67%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away7%8%

Education and languages

Around this streetEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)57%34%
No qualifications16%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification3%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)61%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all7%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this street is in decile 5 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods and 10 the least.

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), by LSOA (about 1,500 people), through the ONS Postcode Directory. The index combines income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and living environment; it ranks areas against each other and does not describe any one household. Ranks in England and Wales are worked out separately and cannot be compared.

What has changed

  • Food hygiene ratings Lakhe (retailers - other, RG1 2LG) now 3 Generally satisfactory, was Awaiting inspection (rated 28 September 2026) found 3 November 2026

Everything that has changed on and near this street

Postcodes on this street

Source: ONS Postcode Directory August 2026, ONS UPRN Directory September 2026, OS Open Linked Identifiers September 2026. A postcode can cover more than one street; the share shows how many of its addresses are on this one.

  • RG1 6JW: 8 addresses
  • RG1 6AB: 3 addresses of 4 in the postcode
  • RG1 6QQ: 1 address of 55 in the postcode

Nearby streets

Mallard Row · Talbot Court · Wolseley Street · New Bright Street · Waterside Gardens · Rose Walk · Brook Street West · Swan Place · Coley Place · Maltings Place · Lower Brook Street · Garnet Street

All the streets in RG1 and across Reading.

What this page cannot tell you

  • Whether a particular house is at risk of flooding, subsiding or anything else: the flood map is a model of areas and there is no property-level data here.
  • What a home is worth now: sales are historic prices for the homes that happened to sell.
  • How safe the street is: crime points are moved to anonymised locations and many crimes are never reported.
  • Whether you would get a place at a school: distances are straight lines, not catchments.
  • Who lives on the street now: census figures describe the small areas around it in March 2021, during a lockdown.
  • How long a journey takes or how often anything runs: transport distances are straight lines to the nearest stops.
  • Whether a GP practice is taking new patients, or a dentist new NHS patients.
  • How loud a home is inside, or noise from industry, neighbours or smaller airfields: noise figures are models of road, rail and air traffic outside.

How each figure on this page is matched to the street and worked out: methodology.