 | |
  Location within Reading | |
| Location | Reading,Berkshire, UK |
|---|---|
| Address | Green Park Reading RG2 6GP |
| Coordinates | 51°25′28″N0°59′29″W / 51.424354°N 0.991361°W /51.424354; -0.991361 |
| Owner | Mapletree Investments |
| No. of workers | 7,000 |
| Size | 195acres |
| Website | greenpark |
Green Park is abusiness park near junction 11 of theM4 motorway on the outskirts of the Englishtown of Reading. The park opened in 1999, and is currently owned byMapletree. It covers 195 acres (79 ha) and comprises 19 office buildings arranged around theLongwater, a central lake and wildlife habitat. The buildings provide 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m2) of office space, and in excess of 6,500 people work on site.[1][2][3]
The site is part of Reading'sGreen Park suburb, along with the residentialGreen Park Village andReading Green Park railway station. It is bounded by the M4 motorway to the south, theMadejski Stadium and theA33 road to the east, Green Park Village to the north, and theReading to Basingstoke railway line to the west. From a local government perspective it is largely located within theBorough of Reading, but partly in the civil parish ofShinfield within theBorough of Wokingham.[4][5]
Green Park business park was developed byPrudential andPRUPIM on what was once an area of low lying and poor quality agricultural land. The fact that the land was prone to flooding necessitated the construction of flood alleviation features, including the centralLongwater lake and the realignedFoudry Brook.[6]
The park was opened in February 1999. InitiallyCisco Systems committed to taking 607,000 square feet (56,400 m2) of office space, with options on a further 617,000 square feet (57,300 m2). However the bursting of thedot-com bubble in 2001 led to a severe scaling back of Cisco's requirements, and resulted in five of their buildings remaining empty for many years.[1][3][7]
The park was purchased byOxford Properties in November 2011, and in the following year they came to an agreement with Cisco whereby the latter company paid a premium in order to surrender its leases on 517,000 square feet (48,000 m2) of space, retaining only a much smaller amount of space.
In 2014, the park was awarded aCivic Trust Award in the public realm class for its landscape design, architecture and community involvement.[8][9]
Green Park was sold toMapletree in May 2016 for £560m.[2][9][10][11]
Green Park business park is accessed from two junctions off theA33 road, respectively 0.7 miles (1.1 km) and 0.9 miles (1.4 km) north of junction 11 of theM4 motorway, and 2.4 miles (3.9 km) and 2.6 miles (4.2 km) south ofReading town centre. Bus route Greenwave 50, operated byReading Buses, connects Green Park to Reading town centre andReading railway station. Bus route 600, also operated by Reading Buses, is a short walk from Green Park and serves apark and ride site at Mereoak south of the M4. Between Reading and Green Park frequencies vary from 4 buses per hour during weekday peak periods to every 45 minutes on Saturdays.[12]
Reading Green Park railway station opened on 27 May 2023[13][14] andGreat Western Railway operates half-hourly services toReading andBasingstoke on weekdays and Saturdays with hourly trains on Sundays.[15]
Route 23 of theNational Cycle Network follows a traffic-free routing through the centre of Green Park, on its way from Reading toBasingstoke.[16]
.jpg)
The most visible feature of Green Park business park is anEnercon E-70[17]wind turbine, adjacent to the M4 motorway, and billed asthe UK's most visible turbine. The blades are 33 m (108 ft) long, with a tower height of 85 m (279 ft). At a wind speed of 14 m/s (31 mph) the machine generates 2.05 MW of electricity (less for lower wind speeds), which is enough to power around 1,500 homes. It is owned and operated byEcotricity and was completed in November 2005.[18]
Most of the facilities for Green Park business park are located on Lime Square, alongside the southern access road to the park and opposite the wind turbine. This offers a day nursery,Childbase, for pre-school children, as well as a play area for children up to 10 years,The Mad House Play & Party World. There is also aNuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centre, a waterside brasserie calledZest at Lime Square, anAsda Click & Collect, and aWH Smith store.[19][20][21]
At the opposite end of the park, 100 Longwater Avenue contains theByte Café and is home to theGreen Park Conference Centre, which hosts meeting rooms and amenities for various sized meetings and conferences.[22]
The business park is adjacent to theMadejski Stadium, home ofReading Football Club and theLondon Irish rugby club. The UK's third largest annual running event, theReading Half Marathon starts from within the business park, which provides the space needed for pre-race marshalling of the large numbers of competitors, and finishes in the stadium.[23] The business park is also home to the annual Green Park Triathlon which encourages participants to 'Commit to get Fit' and raise money forComic Relief.[24]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Media related toGreen Park Business Park at Wikimedia Commons| Power stations |
|  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organisations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||