:: The Wendy House ::

A couple of signs outside of the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Medical museum left me completely discombobulated for all of 10 minutes.  How do these signs work together,  if at all? 

Ambulances only

• as Medical Museum exhibits?
• as Medical museum visitors?
• Can park when delivering Medical Museum guests?
• Can park outside the medical museum but their occupants have more pressing engagements than exploring the undoubtedly fascinating preceding accoutrements of their current treatments.

The Royal Berkshire Hospital building facade is very impressive.  Provision of a museum to enlighten the locals is a very thoughtful addition.

Some snippits from recent cell-phone conversation with the fellow coordinating the builders (occassionally) working on The Wendy House kitchen roof replacement.

Wendy: not having a kitchen roof is very inconvenient.
Foreman: Not for me its not.

…

Wendy: so the slates will all be in place by end of day tomorrow?
Foreman: yes
Wendy: That’s Autumn!
Foreman: more like gruesome
…

Wendy: Cheerio
Foreman: Bye Darlin’

<long sentence warning, take a breath now>

Combat cleaning’s monthly stop-by to put their duster, vacuum, or wet-wipes in all those places that spiders congregate, to make sure that I don’t drown in the discarded natural insulation produced by the fluffballs, is a particularly pleasant luxury.   

<long sentence over, you can relax now>

Pleasant because they

• ask about the building work then giggle endearingly at the answer.  
• don’t complain when my tap (US = fawcett) handles fall-off (if twisted at the wrong angle) in their hands.
• take the drapes diving for the floor, because the super-glue holding the drape-hangers up just isn’t quite as super as the advertising would have me believe, in their stride.

The Observer,  also known as The Gaurdian, reports that:

Reading is ‘worse than Beirut’, claims Terry Waite

Former hostage Terry Waite stunned Women’s Institute members in Reading by telling them that dealing with their town’s traffic was worse than being held captive for almost five years, after being delayed on his way to speak to them.

Do I think Terry is exaggerating a bit at the detriment of our glorious town’s already overly maligned reputation? 

OH YES! 

The town traffic may indeed be a bit slower than the executive’s posh car, or Fiat Panda,  can travel.  It is, however, a reasonable, leisurely, pace for the good and even-tempered people of the town to go about their honest toil. 

Even the BBC doesn’t cite Reading’s roads as main UK traffic black spots.  No wonder those members of the Women’s Institute were stunned to hear such ill considered twaddle uttered from a professional public speaker and humanitarian. 

Outraged-Wendy-citizen-of-Reading

Throughout the summer Reading town centre is bustling with shoppers and exotic performers.  Native American flute music filled the air around Broad street one cloudy summers day.

Bouncer:  please take your hat off

Wendy:  Can I put it back on when I get inside?

Bouncer:  No,  it’s for the CCTV

Sulkily I took off my hat,  walked into the bar,  put my hat back on…  …several other people in our party wore my hat during the course of the evening,  its a very sociable hat…

According to the Gaurdian summer music festivals are popular events but there are too many festivals chasing too few ’star’ acts.  The Observer lists ‘Boutique festivals’ as small-is-beautiful with reportedly shorter queues, higher quality food,  and more child-friendly facilities than large such as Reading, Glastonbury and t in the park.

On the August Bank Holiday weekend over 80,000 people visited the town of Reading town for the festival.  I snuck out on the train heading west for the smaller Bristol Jazz festival.  Wandering towards the train station I passed many Reading festival attendees in the de rigeur style that involved:

• denim shorts.
• personaised wellies.
• a British variation on the grunge theme. 
• NO suntan
• sunglasses cunningly repurposed as hair-bands. 
• bum bags (US = fanny-packs)

first Man In Panama Hat (MIPH): that is the most striking womans hat at this wedding,  I didn’t recognise you earlier, is it new?

Wendy:  I have a tan.  The hat’s about 20yrs old, from Cornwall, it’s my favourite hat, though I rarely have a special-enough occassion to wear it (subdues jumping impulse based on the excitement of being in the company of 2 other people wearing hats).

first MIPH: it did SAY Cornwall to me (giggles). 

second MIPH: it is the ONLY woman’s hat at this wedding (giggles).

Headgearless guest:  Isn’t it good of the Bride and Groom to arrange a wedding so that we can all wear our favourite clothes (smiles).

On this fabulously sunny and very cheerful day the female wedding guests were not ruining their immaculate coiffures by squishing them under hats.  Instead a rash of fascinators were jiggling with the movement of their wearers.

The Great Western Hotel in Reading has been re-branded to a Malmaison Hotel. This style appears to be referred to as ‘chic boutique’.  Judging by the internal decor boutique chic means purple velvet furnishings,  lashings of pink,  large-swirly-print dark-wallpaper and an angular-geometric floor covering all held together with elevator music and a hint of stale cigarette smoke. 

According to the Malmaison-branded paper-wrappers on the Napkins:  Malmaison. Eats. Drinks. Sleeps. 

This sounded uninspiringly basic 

I tried the eggs benedict,  or rather egg benedict,  just the one egg and half a muffin.  The ‘eats’ were not impressing me,  the ‘drinks’ didn’t include any real ales.  Apart from myself the only other customers in the bar on this Saturday afternoon were a couple of Hotel guests from the romantic together while speaking in Dutch.  After trying the ’sleeps’ while waiting about 15 minutes for any member of the Bar staff to actually come into the bar I  gave-up on the ambition of eating a pudding and walked into the boutique reception area to ask if they could arrange to bring me my bill (US = check). 

It was unisnpiringly basic

However,  all of that said, I do have it on good authority that they have a fabulous suite with an en-suite train-set that is mumzie-impressingly-good.  I may have to get a second, mumzie, opinion on this.  Certainly I can see how a train-set is in keeping with the original,  pre-boutique, Great Western Railway (GWR) branding…

Luckily,  the chic boutique rebranding hasn’t yet spread to the external original architecture that conveys something of the original standing of the GWR.

Jacksons pay attention to branding detail. 

The store is branded with a dark green background to its main name sign above the mannequinned window displays and below the large lettering that eponymously announces ‘Jacksons corner’ .  The text on its custom plastic bags and the piece de resistance is the wonderful font used to announce Jacksons on the green marble entrance way. 

I swooned. 

 I am easily pleased

Not a popular Scottish music festival.  A testosterone fuelled five-aside football tournament in Palmers park.

Nestled in a quiet backstreet on the traffic island that is created downtown by the (A4) one-way system (London and Kings Roads) is this pleasant suprise.  The Eldon Arms. 

Midweek the inside the Eldon Arms was packed with the Ladies darts teams.  The garden also looked pretty busy judging by the glasses returned to the bar by the very polite Reading University Agricultural students who had graduated earlier that day.   I didn’t notice any music,  there was a quiz (gambling) machine near the bar but no-one using it.

I tried the Henry’s Original IPA (3.6 ABV).  Well kept, tasty and sufficiently weak for me to quoff 2 pints after work midweek.  Result!  Certainly an improvement on the more shop-purchasable ubiquitous, similar strength, Boddingtons. 

Upon hearing of my expedition to this hostelry a local celebrity wrote:

hear you are paying a visit to the Eldon Arms. Good choice! It’s a lovely little old-fashioned backstreet pub, traditional and with friendly staff. I’m told that Anne and Brian are Reading’s longest-serving landlady and landlord, although I’m sure Bernie and Jane at The Retreat (a short stroll from The Eldon) are also hot contenders for this title.

The Eldon Arms is a Wadworth tied pub, so the selection of beers is mostly restricted to this brewery, but the choice is fine within this range and well kept. My favourite is Bishop’s Tipple, but at 5.5% ABV it’s not to be chugged too quickly! If you’re after something lighter and more summery, try the Horizon. Avoid Pint-Size Mild, if they have it, unless you like mild; personally, I don’t get on with it and this West Berks brew is a good reminder of why

I used to visit this pub frequently on a Wednesday night for their pub quiz, in the days when I worked at the Prudential and had the luxury of rolling in at 10 the next morning. Now I have to drive to south Oxfordshire for 8:30am I don’t go so often! Their quiz is quite a different experience from The Lyndhurst one as it is set and presented by the person who won it last week! It’s a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest in that respect. I’ve won it a couple of times and it’s quite fun to set it, as long as you have a fairly clear week and plenty of time to put it together! I’ve also deliberately pulled back to second place at least once to avoid having to set it when I knew I hadn’t the time! I really must go again soon

Well, that’s all I have. Feel free to ignore all of the above if you want to enjoy the experience of visiting with no preconceptions. However, if you’re reading this sentence then it’s probably too late

Happy pubbing

 I am a traveller when commuting,  most weekends, and for a couple of weeks in GREECE (Whoooooopieee!). 

The word traveller is now used in the UK to describe people that take their home (caravan) with them when they move.  It apears to include the older reference groups (Gypsies,  Romanies,  Tinkers) that I am more familiar with and may include newer groups that I am not familiar with. 

Recently,  in the spirit of travelling,  I rode bus #20 around Lower Earley.  For fun.  I as able to sit above the driver at the front of the bus and wave at other local Reading people that I knew.  I saw some camper-vans parked on the grass of Cintra park (formerly Sutton Seeds sports ground) with people picnicing outside.  Get Reading reports that these are travellers that regularly stay in the Park every year,  this year they arrived just before a fence as due to be errected with the specific intent of keeping them out.   I wonder if they come to take full advantage of Jackson’s summer sale?

There are two customer entrances to Jacksons.  One entrance goes into the main foyer and is lined by accessories.  The other entrance goes directly into the Mens department.  A girls entrance and a boys entrance.  This weekend I went in through the girls entrance and got no further than the handbags.

Senior Scottish Shop Assistant (3SA): I must ask you to come out from behind the counter,  it’s against shop policy

Wendy: Oh,  yes,  of course.  Could you show me the black bag on the 2nd shelf down,  2nd bag in from the right, left a bit,  next one along, yes,  that’s the one.

3SA: this is Navy Blue not black

Wendy:  its certainly very dark,  I’m looking for something to carry my passport , money and camera when I go on holiday.

The 3SA gets enthusiastic and starts pulling out all sorts of bags from the shelves,  talking knowledgeably about her stock and even suggests that I try looking in TJMaxx!  A car at the traffic lights outside loudly rev’s its engine.

3SA:  Oh dear,  we see all sorts here you know

Wendy: Oh?

3SA: All the criminals pass by here,  with two police cars before the van and 2 police cars after the van,  the Crown Court is just around the corner, recently one of the prisoners escaped you know.

Wendy:  Oh!

3SA:  yes, they all come past here you must check your insurance.

Wendy:  Insurance? 

3SA if you are taking your camera on holiday  check that your insurance covers your camera,  my friend didn’t and regretted it.  Make sure you check your medical insurance,  my friend broke her arm on holiday and her insurance only covered her for one hundred pounds,  she had to pay for a hospital stay over night and to fly home early.

Wendy: I’m going to Greece,  they have a National Health Service and as members of the European Community…..

3SA:  Spain is in Europe and my friend still had to pay,  check your medical insurance. 

 Wendy:  I’m covered for repatriation and the same level of service as Greek citizens…

3SA:  Read the small print,  always check the small print (continues delivering advice based on her accident-prone friends’ experiences)

About 20 minutes later I emerged from Jacksons.  Smiling.  Armed with lots of extremely useful holiday advice, and a ‘Navy Blue’ handbag that looks black to me, feeling as if 3SA is already my honourary Aunite.  She is certainly more than a familiar stranger.  I should pop in after the holiday to show her some pictures and confirm that I got through it without needing an insurance claim. 

Jacksons really is quite the friendliest of stores as long as you stay the right side of the counters and know your bag-colours.

Why I love England #1.  First in an infinite series

Healthy ladies in slightly ridiculous hats & waistecoats made of flapping strands of material oddments jumping around with large sticks and bells tied to their staunchly sensible shoes within the ruins of a 12th century Abby adjacent to a Victorian prison on a rather damp June day.  How could you possibly not love this?  and it happened in Reading!

Despite my deep affection for the Berkshire county town of Reading, formerly known for its ‘Beer, Biscuits and Bulbs’,  living in Reading does come with some inherent risks under the guise of a 4th ‘B’ 

Bricks   

The production of high quality bricks involves mining for materials,  including chalk which produces a yellow coloured brick.  The chalk mines of Reading are not all well documented.  People who built homes in Reading didnt know and didn’t ask the wise elderly locals for the location of the mines.  Homes were built above the mines.  Tourist and residents alike should take extra care lest they fall into an undocumented mine when exploring the extremely interesting streets of Reading.

Unfortunately, the normally plucky Reading Borough Council has not-yet maximised on the tourist potential of this interesting and valuable historical feature of the town.  There are no guided tours of the mines,  you cannot visit the Reading underground shop because it doesn’t exist.  In not-existing the Reading underground shop never fails to sell kitsch miniature bricks in red, yellow, and grey as paperwieghts.  The not-existing visitor centre doesn’t provide hands-on experiences for school children to make their own bricks during educational tours. The not-existing shop goes on to fail to provide an unwritten Two Rivers press book covering the history of brick making in the Thames Valley featuring Reading and Tilehurst.  The not-exisitng visitor centre tourguide doesn’t point out that the town Aldbrickham (Old brick town)  in Thomas Hardy’s  ‘Jude the obscure’ was inspired by Reading.  Without the visitor centre tour guide to tell them,  even former brickies no longer know that yellow bricks are produced by using chalk in the clay.  There are no ladders to climb down,  no safety helmets to wear,  and no dank holes to crawl through during the not-existant live and dangerous underground tour.

As you can imagine I was really rather upset at not being able to wander through the caverns of undeground Reading accompanied by an informative and enthusiastic pot-holing-expert,  probably from South Africa,  tour guide.  

Hankys were poised.

There are times when Reading quite simply isn’t up to par.

I’m sorry sir, 

we have just run out of subtlety, 

will a double dose of concise frankness do?

It’s 70% off.

 As you approach the Reading Cattle Market on Great Knollys Street you pass this wonderful mural of British Friesians.  The covered cattle market is built of large red-bricks.  Approximately 4 times the size of normal bricks.  I’ve never seen such large bricks.  The walls of the market are covered with advertisements for farming related artefacts,  breeds of cattle and British cattle farmer values.    Next to Great Knollys Street is Abattoirs Road.  Adam Sowan’s history of Reading street names is named after Abbatoirs Road and calls out that Road as designation became popular in Victorian times,  implying that Great Knollys Street predates Abbatoirs Road. Abbatoirs Road runs along the main Railway line that links London with Cardiff.  The space under the arches of the grey-brick rail bridge are used by retailers.  At the begining of Abbatoirs Road is a Jazz club in a railway arch.

After the Abbatoir the cattle move on to the Butchers shop then on to someone’s kitchen.  All within less than a square mile. 

Thimbleby and Shoreland, founded in 1901, maintain an auction house on the impressively named Great Knollys Street in downtown Reading.  Thimbleby and Shoreland declare themselves:

the leading international specialist in the sale and valuation of horse-drawn carriages and related items, hosting the world famous Reading Carriage Sales

Recently they auctioned ‘THE DAVE SCARROTT COLLECTION OF TRAPS, LURES and SCARERS’  As you’ve wisely deduced,  I couldn’t resist taking a peak at such a curious collection.  The Auction brochure reports:

THE TRAP MAN

A motor mechanic by profession, Dave Scarrott started this unique collection quite by chance some twenty years ago when he was offered a couple of traps by a friend. From those small beginnings his passion grew to the extent of the present collection with interesting and rare traps and other artefacts having been sourced from all over the world.

The family have lived in the South Oxfordshire area from time immemorial and Dave will be the first to admit that his unusual hobby ‘is in the blood’ and he makes no secret of the fact that his great uncle, Jack Scarrott, was a notorious local poacher. It was a way of life in those early days with a large family to support and no social security! So notorious was he that the Kirtlington Estate saw fit to appoint him as their head game keeper and use his skills to their advantage, thereby killing two birds with one stone!

Dave and his collection have been a familiar sight at most local shows and it is undoubtedly one of the finest single collections in the country. The decision to sell has not been an easy one but has been forced on him due to illness. Unfortunately therefore, his days of travelling around the local shows are over, but rather than just ‘shut up shop’ Dave has reluctantly decided it is time to call it a day and move on

Ever since the stranger in Reading pointed out that the locals are prone to using double negatives to indicate a single negative,  rather than a positive,  I’ve been noticing this phenomenon.  Examples

I don’t know nothing about it (Guv)

I didn’t eat none of it

There wasn’t nothing there

He didn’t have nothing to say

I probably didn’t notice this local language because I may not be prone to never using it myself.

The Stranger in Reading is a 2005 Two Rivers Press edition of an original 1810 book.  It contains 7 letters written, supposedly anonymously, by Reading long-time resident John Man.  The book documents Man writing as if a stranger in Reading to a friend in London and includes a modern preface and editorial provided by Adam Sowan.  Despite painting a not-quite desirable-place-to-live view of Reading Borough two centruies hence, the book is a thoroughly enjoyable read that has lead to the Wendy House strapline being updated.

The orginal book is prefaced by Sowans description of John Man and then by light, within-letter, explanatory annotations.  The main text maintains the original creative punctuation and spelling.  Sowan cites one example sentence as containing:

 three colons, five semi colons and no fewer than thirty-two commas; yet it is surprisingly readable.

A theme throughout the book is the poor state of the contemporary paving,  depite the Reading paving act providing the following penalities:

ten shillings, by every person leaving any carriage in the street,  except whilst loading or unloading;  driving a wheelbarrow on the footways; throwing dust, dirt, or rubbish in the streets.  Five shillings, by all persons neglecting to sweep the foot-paths before their houses every morning (Sundays excepted) before 10 O’clock. pxxx

An enjoyable glimpse into history that has value beyond people who may be interested in Reading’s history alone.  I discovered how MP’s were renumerated and elected to parliaiment and how ‘the corporation’ helped run Reading Borough.

This is what the nice gentleman in the menswear department shared with me. 

Jacksons store was purpose built in 1897 for the family business.  Jackson’s gentlemans outfitters started earlier,  on this site in 1875.   Over 100 years later it is still owned by the Jackson family and operating in the orginal premisis.  It has many different departments spread throughout the building on different levels.  None of the departments have a till.  The stores takings are not stored in each department.

When a customer purchases an item the money and purchase details are put into a tubular container and sent up a pipe to the office on the top floor where they calculate the change and return it down the pipe in a tubular container.  Awesome.  It made me want to purchase something just to see the system working.  I’m now contemplating making full use of the reputedly quirky shoe department during my next weekly visit.  

In the office on the top floor you can see where all the pipes arrive from each department.  The office person, behind these safe bars, can safely recieve the cash and return the change.  It reminded me of the banking system with video-tellers in a US bank that I used to use.

 The Jackson’s store website calls this a ‘Lamson pneumatic tube system’ and dates it in the 1960s.

Great Knollys street is cited on several websites as being named after a family, with no information on the family beyond the name.  Snooping the net leads me to suspect it is the family that included Sir Robert Knollys,  born 1547 in Reading,  progeny of the Lord Mayor of London in 1409-1410.  Sir Robert Knollys was variously an MP for Reading,  and keeper of Twickenham based Syon House for an order fo Brigittine nuns (and monks - mixed orders).  Wikipedia ingenouosly describes him as ‘one of Henry VIII henchmen.  There is a quaint story stemming from Sir Robert Knollys’ time as lord Mayor of London that I stumbled across here:

The Knollys Rose Ceremony commemorates an ancient City custom dating from 1381. Sir Robert Knollys owned a house on the West Side of Seething Lane. During one of his absences abroad his wife is reputed to have purchased a property on the east side of Seething Lane and built a footbridge over the lane to the other side, without the equivalent of planning permission and resulted in the City Corporation of the day imposing a rent of one red rose, payable each year on the Feast of St John the Baptist.

There are some red roses blooming in the Wendy House garden. In Reading.

Robert Knollys’ son Francis Knollys is also a likely source for the street name.  Francis was a puritan protestant who was ‘granted the manor of Caversham’ .  The Wikipedia description is slightly less partisan than its description of his father.  Francis was a friend of Henry VIII.  Francis was also a close confident of Elizabeth I throughout her life.  He is cited on web site as being given the title ”Treasurer of the Royal Bedchamber“ .  He was also long-time warden of Mary Queen of Scotts during her detention.   Francis frequently resided in the disolved Reading Abbey where he would entertain Queen Elizabeth I. 

My emerging picture of Reading’s character is growing to be pro-Royalty,  pro-protestantism with lashings of pre-christianity,  and welcoming of female roles extending beyond those stereotyped as wives and potential wives.

 I like Reading.

Edited after Mrs. P.s comment to systematically add an s to the end of evey use of the word Knolly,  and move around a few apostrophes just for fun.

Lampost, traffic bollard and paltry gewgar thing topped by a stone carving of a pineapple and decorated with the fasces symbol (ax and bound birch sticks) of strength through authority.

a local landmark

Originally commissioned in 1804 by Edward Simeon, director of the Bank of England, to provide light for the Reading Market and act as an oversized traffic bollard for wayward wagons.  Also described as a pawltry gewgaw thing contrived to gain votes for Edward Simeon’s brother in Reading MP elections. 

Locally it is more commonly referred to as the ‘Soane Monument’ after the locally residing, now dead, architect, Sir John Soane, who designed both it and the Bank of England.   The monument is currently all clean and pretty because it was restored in 2007.

Obey the person running the pub quiz,  no matter how enbriated they are,  how imprecise their questions are,  how innacurate their answers are.  By all means heckle and lobby them,  but remember its just a pub quiz not a defining statement on your intellect. 

This BBC article describes the cultural experience of pub quizzes in a slightly mythicalised manner,  it quotes a quiz attendee as saying:

 I took two American friends to a quiz once and they thought it was some sort of registered insanity, they just didn’t get it at all

employee:  do you have permission to take photographs?

Wendy: um, no,  do I need permission?

employee: no,  but it would be polite to ask

Wendy: yes,  you are absolutely right,  sorry,  is it alright if I take photographs of this wonderful store, not staff or customers?

employee:  yes

more about what menswear department (Jacksons) employee showed me… …next week…

Readers Digest,  asked 1,162 of its readers, who are also parents, and enjoy completing surveys to rate 12 features of a ‘good place to bring up a family’ on a 10 point scale.  It’s not clear how they picked these 12 features.  Average Readers Digest Survey-completing parents ratings were:

 1  Good state schools   8.4
 2  Low crime rate   8.4
 3  Good local hospitals   7.7
 4  Affordable family housing   7.7
 5  High employment   7.2
 6  Low risk of flooding   6.8
 7  Lots of families live there   6.4
 8  Local universities/colleges  6.0
 9  Under an hour to a major city   5.7
 10  Warm, dry weather   5.1
 11  Under an hour to the coast   4.9
 12  Under an hour to a National Park  4.8

It looks like these average ratings were subsequently used by Readers Digest employees as ‘weightings’ for statistics provided by other national sources (e.g. home office crime figures) to create rankings of 408 UK ‘authorities’ as family-friendly or not.  Reading Borough mysteriously came 408th. 

I still can’t escape from the fact that the people who made the rankings probably both read the Readers digest and complete it’s surveys….  

A narrow boat called ‘Chavori’ on the River Kennet.  A google search for the word Chavori produces very few search results (3 pages) and perplexingly questions whether I wanted to search for ‘behavior’,  the results include texts on the ‘Romany’, ‘Gypsy’ languages.  One article, ‘A memoire of the language of the gypsies as now used in the Turkish Empire’ describes Chavori as ”a young female child.‘  Evidently, many English Romany words have become common usage within the English language e.g. lolly, cosh, cushy and most recently chav.

One recent Sunday afternoon the neighbours, local Reading celebrities,  and a gal from West Sussex dropped by to warm the wendy house over lashings of tea and cake.  A jolly civilised affiar with a little bit of dribbling.  During the goings-on I discovered many useful facts including:

-  a local granny can climb the walls to escape from a locked cemetry after dusk.

-  the Wendy House was converted from a garage in 1968 partly explaining the dangerous staircase.

-  my nieghbours have lived all over the world - Kenya, Italy, India, Edinburgh before settling in Reading.  Excellent company.

-  the Readibus preferred gift to welcome a newcomer is a bottle of wine.

- the bath works best for a person under 5ft 2 (as do the stairs).

- house numbers evolve.  One person’s home had evolved from without number to  number 4 then number 2… 

I suspect I missed some real news treats while in the Kitchen warming the pots,  I wonder what other goodies these people are going to share with us in the upcoming years….

Given that taking photographs of children would indicate that I am actually a latent criminal I decided to take advantage of the fabulous resources provided by the shop that is humbly known as Jacksons by photographing childrens outer-layers in their absence.  Below are pictures of no children in neatly ordered school uniform Jackets, games blouses, and jumpers:

A friend cited a blog post on Jacksons that I hadn’t yet written.  I suspect this is because my conversation and blog posts become indistinguishable over time as they ferment.  I’m fermenting a whole series of posts on the outstanding store that is Jacksons, that rightfully has a whole corner in Reading named after it.

We’ll start outside with the outstanding window displays.  These are reminiscent of the 1960’s.  The paper backdrop of large flowers could have been made, lovingly, by my mother,  or yours.  Thoughtful,  personal, tailored rather than mass produced,  I find the displays enticing.

Even the Mannequin’s look like they’ve escaped from the 1960’s.  With humour.  The Ladies nightware is cleverly marketted as ‘Slenderella’ and ‘Damella.  But the names don’t quite make up for non-topical goods.  You have to prize non-topical good to buy this nightware. 

The store cares,  next to the sign indicating that they have the ubiquitous CCTV is one pointing out that their floors MAY be slippery when wet.  another sign lets you know that for our own safety we should not lean against their windows.  Is there an ominous side to this?  Are they teasing us?  Which floors are wet and which are dry?  What will happen if we lean against their windows?

This slightly sinnister side is compounded by some of the mannequins.  A child mannequin in a tutu appears to watch you with evil eyes… …she scared me…  …intrigued me…

Other Mannequins display a slightly non-sober jaunty angle with their wigs and hats.  Explore my flickr photographs of Jacksons for the full effect.

Rarely can I resisit going into Jacksons.  The inside of the store is another set of stories altogether.  Worth waiting for.