Over the years we've sometimes been asked questions along the lines of 'what's this bit of Caversham' or 'that village up the road from you' like to live in. So, herewith, some 'pen portraits' of the various areas that make up RG4 and, indeed, surround it.

These are intended to be helpful and impartial, but they are necessarily caricatures and they are only our views. We have no axes to grind or anything to win or lose by what we say ... this is just the way things strike us. You may well have a different opinion. Personal taste is, after all, personal.

These are early days and the following selection is only the start. We know we haven't covered everywhere yet!

» About In-Fill

You might also be interested in the 'Floodplain' article in the 'Local Issues' section of this web site.

In ...

» Bugs Bottom
» Caversham Heights
» Caversham Park (CPV)
» Central Caversham
» Emmer Green

... And Around

» Henley
» Sonning
» Other Nearby Villages

Latest Update: Henley added.

About In-Fill

It is easy to hate in-fill. Almost inevitably, new in-fill developments see higher density housing being built. Rarely are these developments genuine 'brown field' sites. Where once you had a large house with decent garden, now you have a small estate. A chunk of someone's garden can end up with a block of flats on it. And so on.

It's natural to assume that greater density of building means more people but, it must be acknowledged, that's not always the case. Part of the reason why there's so much pressure for more and more housing is that we have fewer people per building. More people live alone than ever before, and family sizes are often smaller too. But, that said, it's probably fair to say that overall, in-fill does increase the pressure on the local infrastructure - which is already creaking quite badly.

Caversham, like most of the rest of the south-east of England, has a lot of in-fill building going on. None of the areas we talk about below is immune. But, before we all rush to condemn it or fight shy of an area because of it, we would say it's perhaps worth considering the alternative ...

If the pressure for housing is there (and it seems to be), then, just possibly, in-fill might be better than taking greenfield sites. If you rolled-back all the in-fill development in Caversham since, say, 1970, and instead put the same number of new dwellings to the north, surely Kidmore End would have merged with Caversham in the same way Emmer Green has. Some of the contributors to this web site can remember before Bugs Bottom was built on and regret its passing, but without in-fill that development would probably be all the way along the valley and up the other side. Would that really be preferable?

In ...

Bugs Bottom

The newest major development in RG4, built after years of objections. And, well, it's all that you'd expect from a new development these days. The plots are small and the houses are small with lots of too-small-to-be-genuinely-useful rooms. It's all high density and, in reality, built on not that great a patch of land. Like most areas near older urban development, it wasn't built on years ago because it wasn't so suitable for building - it's as simple as that.

But, that all said, the houses are low-maintenance, there's somewhere to park and it's not criss-crossed with busy roads. You'll find yourself driving to most things because you're that bit too far out to walk comfortably and that's not so great in this era of ever-increasing fuel costs, but you do have very easy access to the countryside to the north if that's your thing. Given how painful getting across the bridges into Reading can be most days, you'll probably find it easier to go shopping in Wallingford than in the centre of town.

Caversham Heights

'Caversham Heights' is Estate Agent / Hyacinth Bucket-speak for the 'posh' part of Caversham that lies along and to the top of St Peter's Hill. It broadly takes in the roads leading off (or close to) the Woodcote Road, Kidmore Road and Albert Road - all up to the county boundary. The Warren, leading off St Peter's Hill, also falls within the 'Heights' bracket, although (ironically) its houses front the river.

The area is typified by larger properties (certainly in the roads mentioned) with sizeable gardens. It's undeniably the most expensive area of Caversham, and a fair proportion of the local population are well-to-do families with 'professional' occupations. If you live here, it's a reasonable assumption that you haven't done too badly.

On the down side, because it is 'sought after' (to lapse into Estate Agent-jargon again), the area has been heavily targeted by housing infill developers over the last decade or so - who are gradually replacing individual houses and gardens with blocks of flats or cul-de-sacs of 'Estate' housing. The Woodcote Road is also very busy indeed. Some would say it lacks any community feel because it has no centre, and unfortunately to go with its desirability there can be a problem with burglaries.

The location is certainly attractive - plenty of green space, and easy access both to the shops of Caversham and Reading and to the countryside of South Oxfordshire. In general, we'd argue that describing this part of Caversham as 'Caversham Heights' is faintly naff - unless you are an Estate Agent, of course.

Caversham Park Village (CPV)

In the main a 60s development and, in our view, probably the most under-valued housing area in Caversham. Houses range from small terraces to semi detached and detached of various sizes. Compared to more modern developments, all of the various design houses on CPV are bigger than their equivalents, and if there's one thing we all need it's space. The plots aren't huge and so gardens are managable.

CPV was blighted by poor build quality on the windows and doors front - but you'll be hard pushed to find a place that hasn't had replacements fitted now so that problem's been sorted for any current buyers. We can remember (we think) back to 1976 when there was a lot of fuss about subsidence in the Village but this was caused by the drought that year and, if truth be told, the same problems were felt in Caversham Heights too. (In the main, caused by clay seams drying and shrinking.)

The shops at the top of the Village don't do badly at all and the Village Association (with its related buildings in the middle, off Northbrook Rd) has been around since the Village was first started - and continues to serve as a useful and important social hub. The small precinct at the bottom (Farnham Drive) has never done so well - it is simply in the wrong place - but in recent years there have been some new businesses moving in there, including some less dependent on passing trade, that are making a go of it.

Central Caversham

Oxford St, Chester St, Short St, South St, Priory Avenue, Church St and around there; that end of Hemdean Road. The Willows and nearby also qualifies. Some very old and interesting properties, plenty of in-fill and some genuine brownfield development, some so-called 'starter' homes and plenty of classic 'first time buyer' terraced houses too. There was a fair bit of industry around and about once and there still are some businesses away from the St Martin's precinct area, but they aren't obtrusive and it seems they're all gradually being replaced by residential building.

Central Cavesham is busy and parking for many residents is a nightmare. But you are living somewhere central, it's bustling, it has life. The Caversham shopping area is on the up and, it seems to us, gaining a bit more of a community feel. It's also perfect for walking into town - whether for the evening, for work or to catch a train. You could quite easily live here and not own a car, which can't be a bad thing.

Emmer Green

This is a hard area to define - whatever any official boundaries might be, there isn't an obvious distinction that says this is Caversham, this is Emmer Green. The heart has to be around its shopping area - the row of shops at the top of Caversham Park Village and, over the road, the Black and White Horse pubs and neighbouring shops/businesses. The main road running through it is busy but elsewhere it's quite quiet. There are some smaller properties but in the main the houses here are on the larger side, of various eras. However, they aren't so many of the same sized plot as Caversham Heights, and so it's probably a bit less prone to in-fill development. Years ago the newer build off Kiln Rd did get a lot of publicity about having problems with chalk mines underneath them - another classic example of an area not having been built on in the past for good reason - but that seems to have gone away as an issue.

... And Around

Henley

As we mention in our 'Things To Do' section, we have enjoyed the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. Sadly, that's about it. Perhaps it all makes sense and we as outsiders just can't see it, but to us as visitors, Henley appears to be a disaster zone. We don't know how they've achieved it but the traffic management lurches from bad to worse with every passing year. You don't comment about the queues in Henley, you only remark if you don't get caught in one.

As for parking, well, one of the two main car parks also happens to be on a main route in and out of town ... which doesn't exactly help. They do seem to have spent a fortune and caused endless disruption for the sake of nice pavements but, as the large number of empty shops testifies, nice pavements aren't that great a draw if you can't drive and park easily. It's not as if there's an option like an out of town park-and-ride. From a cyclist's point of view it's horrible, with understandably frustrated vehicle drivers and congested roads, frequently artificially narrowed to make it even more dangerous. The terrible road surfaces and pot holes don't exactly help either.

The retail life in the town was dying before the recession, and it's not getting any better. The Regal Cinema is a cut about the average multiplex experience and the parking / traffic situation is a bit better in the evenings so that can be worth the trip. There are a few reasonable enough places to eat too, though we've never found any that we'd actually single out. If the Kenton Theatre has something on that tickles your fancy that's a nicely quirky, amateur-ish (in the nicest sense of the word) kind of venue.

Coming from Reading, if you take the first right after the Tesco roundabout, that takes you down to the lock and the walk from there in to town and back can be OK, but it's often hideously crowded as it is about the only place to walk in the town. We haven't mentioned the regatta or the Henley Festival because they are of a type. If they're your type of thing then fine, but they're not exactly easy-access local attractions.

All in all, it's not somewhere we leap with joy at the thought of visiting. Oh, and bizarrely, it also has its own micro-climate. If it's a showery kind of day, more often than not you can bank on it raining in the area from Shiplake Cross through to along a bit on the Marlow Road, Remenham Hill to up on the Fair Mile. Strange but true. (And, given that the town's camping and caravan site is along the Marlow Road, that makes it a great place to avoid!)

Sonning

Well, if you like the idea of living in Sonning will depend on if you fancy life in a car park. Sonning is a traffic jam every morning, every evening, most of most Saturdays and, often, a fair chunk of Sunday. And that's when the rest of the region's roads are running well. Being the site of one of the few bridges across the Thames, if there is any hold-up anywhere else, the situation in Sonning gets even worse. Frankly, it seems to us that you'd be mad to live there and that people actually pay a lot of money to do so, well, beggars belief really. And we haven't mentioned the flooding both in the village and to the north, the rubbish-strewn roadside ditches, the gravel pits, the impossibility of parking ...

Visit it on a quiet Sunday for a walk. Maybe once or twice a year. And that's enough.

Other Nearby Villages

Kidmore End, Eye and Dunsden, Binfield Heath, Tokers Green and all the other nearby places of similar size can all be summed up as 'nice', expensive, deserted during the day, lived-in by commuters and pretty well what you'd expect from that kind of place. You're hard pushed to find a shop. You're hard pushed to find much life. Most of them don't even have a pub any more. As with anywhere that's outside of an urban sprawl, all these places have been more-or-less deserted by government in terms of services and support. You more-or-less have to be well-off and mobile to make a go of living in this kind of area.