The Reformed Corporation
By 1835 Reading had changed from being a town of plaster and thatch to being a town of brick and tile.
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But the old Corporation remained a body concerned more with managing assets and trade than providing
services to the general population. What additional local services there were since 1638 - paving, lighting, the
watch, water and gas - had been provided either by special bodies set up by Parliament or by private companies.
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Photograph of the original 1786 Town Hall building circa 1860
(reproduced by permission of Reading Library Service)
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The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 reformed England’s ‘rotten boroughs’ and gave the power of electing a new
Council to a significant number of Reading’s 17,000 inhabitants. Although the only direct new power given to the
Corporation was to establish a Borough Police Force, during the next 50 years it also became the Local Board of
Health with powers over sewerage and drainage (1850); set up a fire brigade (1862); and opened a library and
museum (1882). After the Education Act 1870 the Borough also established the Reading School Board to manage
elementary school provision across the Borough.
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Photograph of Alfred Waterhouse’s extension to the Town Hall circa 1880
(reproduced by permission of Reading Library Service)
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previous: The First Council - next: A County Borough
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