READING COLLEGE celebrates its 60th anniversary next week, and to celebrate the Chronicle is sharing some stunning pictures of the Queen Mother's visit to open the gleaming, modern new college back in 1955. In fact, the college began life many years before that as part of Reading University’s ‘Extension College’ in 1892.
By the 1920s, the aforementioned establishment was developing a number of evening classes for adolescent students in various buildings spread widely across the town.
Merging all these disparate units together on to one site became essential, and on October 26, 1955, the Queen Mother was invited to open Reading Technical College in Victoria Square, King’s Road, Reading.
The royal procession drove from a previous visit to the Town Hall and the crowds lined the pavements up to three deep all the way to the college forecourt.
At 2.45pm she arrived to be greeted by the Mayor of Reading, Cllr A E Smith, and local dignitaries, while the Reading Youth Orchestra played the national anthem.
Part of the celebrations included a tour of the new facilities and cutting a huge cake made by Huntley & Palmers, which was modelled on the college in minute detail.
The Queen Mother’s speech included comments on her previous wartime visits to the town and she concluded by saying: “It is your joint endeavour which will make this college great. I pray that success and happiness will crown your efforts.”
In the early 1960s, further changes to the campus concluded with a new workshop block which housed the Department of Building and Printing.
Various minor changes to the facade took place in the following decades and more recently in 2001 the familiar foyer area was established. The salon and kitchen were opened adjacent to this in 2011.
The college is now part of the Activate Learning group and has more than 8,000 students and 900 courses available.
Traditionally, every large educational establishment has a Latin motto, and Reading College’s was ‘Ancora Imparu’ which translates as ‘Still I Learn’. This has recently been updated to a more modern saying, ‘Our Learners go Further’.