I usually buy my craft supplies from Hobbycraft, FabricLand, John Lewis and sometimes The Works. Hobbycraft [Forbury Retail Park, Kenavon Drive] has a brilliant all-round range for nearly all crafts (and it’s right next to a McDonald’s, so that adds bonus points!). They also have an especially good selection of ribbons. Fabric Land [7 Cheapside] is probably the place I visit most often because it’s cheap and cheerful, and the wide range of fabrics and dress patterns that they sell is great for practising how to make garments or for if you just want to browse for paper patterns. John Lewis [Broad Street] haberdashery department is the place I like to go to as well because the layout is lovely and they have a very wide range of materials and accessories (sometimes if I’m buying bag fabric I go to the Upholstery and Curtain material section because it’s cheaper and more robust).
McDonald's [128/129 Friar Street]! I go there nearly as much as I go to FabricLand (which is nearly every time I go into town) :/ COSMO [35-38 Friar St] is also an awesome place to go because they have an unlimited selection of food and dessert....and of course Greggs [18 West Street, City Centre] is the standard place to go for lunch for me.
There is a place called Harris Arcade which is a group of shops inside a big, hidden corridor of shops, it’s near the train station. There are several creative businesses that run inside Harris Arcade – like a hat shop, a tattoo parlour and a business called Creative Crafts. This business is owned by a group of people who each have their own business in making crafts, and they sell their things in the shop all together.
I usually craft at home, I don’t think I’ve ever done any craft in town, but I would imagine that if you want to knit or crochet etc then sitting in Forbury Gardens on one of the benches would be nice because it’s a really lovely park to sit in (and it’s usually quiet too).
There is a place called Harris Arcade which is a group of shops inside a big, hidden corridor of shops, it’s near the train station. There are several creative businesses that run inside Harris Arcade – like a hat shop, a tattoo parlour and a business called Creative Crafts & Workshops [Station Road 1ND, Harris Arcade]. This business is owned by a group of people who each have their own business in making crafts, and they sell their things in the shop all together.
The town centre is nice because there are a few parks near it – the most well-known one is Forbury Gardens [Forbury Rd] which is near the Reading Abbey. It also has the Maiwand Lion which is a war memorial for the soldiers who died between 1878 and 1880 in Afghanistan.
The thing that most tourists get a photo with is the Forbury Lion – it would be a good one to put in your scrapbook! Also in Forbury Gardens there are ruins of reading Abbey which are hopefully going to be opened up to the public soon.