Reading Roars!

I’m not into the “celebrity thing”.  The lives of famous people don’t interest me (unless they happen to be footballers, politicians or business people).  Nevertheless, I was interested to read about Pete Doherty sightings in west Reading (”Rocker Pete was just so charming“), of all places.

The scruffy singer who, much like Amy Winehouse, always seems to be in the papers these days, was seen drinking in Oxford Road pubs, because he is allegedly seeing a girl from the area.

The Pete Doherty Effect will do wonders for west Reading pubs, I’m sure, if only temporarily.  Greg Costello, owner of the formidable Workhouse Coffee, even said to the Evening Post (”Pete Doherty’s pub crawl“):

It seems Reading is the new Soho

I don’t think that Reading will ever replace Soho (although Workhouse Coffee is better than any cafe I’ve ever been to in that part of London), but I do think that west Reading has a very promising future.  There’s a more confident air about the place, as demonstrated by the arrival of the new Tesco store, the Chatham Place project, and bright initiatives such as the Polish pub and Workhouse Coffee.