After enduring a less than comfortable train journey, Steve Pratt enjoys a more rewarding railway experience in Reading

VIPs like Winston Churchill who stayed at Reading's Great Western Rail Hotel during its heyday almost certainly had a better time getting there than we did.

When the British rail system works, it's a joy. When it doesn't - and the trip from London Paddington to Reading falls into that category - it can be hell.

Our platform number wasn't called until five minutes before the scheduled departure time, prompting a tidal wave of travellers to surge across the crowded forecourt - to find the train doors firmly shut. Ten minutes later they finally opened, followed by a fresh surge of pushing and shoving to grab a seat on what was obviously going to be an overcrowded train.

The journey itself was uneventful, apart from the person attempting to manoeuvre the refreshment trolley through carriages and corridors jampacked with those who hadn't been quick enough to get a seat.

Reading Station itself is about as far removed from magnificent, majestic stations like the newly-refurbished St Pancras as you can get. A functional mix of notice boards, shops and cafes.

Our train journey may have been uncomfortable, but worst things have happened at Reading Station. T E Lawrence - or Lawrence of Arabia, as he's better known - lost the 250,000 word first draft of his book, Seven Pillars Of Wisdom, at the station in an instance of rail forgetfulness rivalling Miss Prism leaving a baby in a handbag at a London terminus.

That play, The Importance Of Being Earnest, has a Reading link too, as author Oscar Wilde became intimately acquainted with Reading Gaol after a brush with the law.

Lawrence's manuscript was in the briefcase he left behind while changing trains in1919. His horror at the loss was compounded by the fact that he'd destroyed his notes after completing the first draft.

He was only passing through Reading, we were staying. And not far from the station, just quick walk across the road.

After the London-Reading train trip - certainly not among my list of great railways journeys of the world - the interior of Malmaison comes as a welcome oasis of peace and calm.

Like other hotels in the chain, your eyes take time accustoming to the subdued, some might say dark, lighting. But there's no doubting this was a railway hotel. Stephanie Briggs, Malmaison's group director of design, and her team have gone loco in doing the place up.

Everywhere you look there are reminders of British railway heritage, from the names of suites such as The Flying Scotsman to the train-themed photographs that adorn every spare inch of wall in corridors and rooms.

You half expect to hear the sound of a whistle being blown and the slow acceleration as the hotel, sorry train, pulls out of the station. Across the bedhead in our room a steam train huffed and puffed across the landscape in a series of mounted pictures.

"The design is inspired by the railways but it's not for anoraks," says Briggs of restoring what's reputedly the oldest surviving railway hotel in the country.

The Brunel-designed Great Western Rail Hotel was built in 1844, four years after the opening of Reading station.

The journey from London taking more than four hours by stagecoach was reduced to just over an hour.

The station, like the hotel, has had a chequered history. Part of it, an 1860 building, is now a pub. There are big changes afoot since the Government approved funding for a £425m Reading station project in July, following a decade of lobbying by the local council.

THE scheme aims to resolve the problem of a major bottleneck on the national rail network, resulting in regular delays. The project has the potential to double the number of trains able to use the area, leaving Malmaison well placed to accommodate those visiting the city dubbed "the capital of the Thames Valley".

The hotel became a stopover in the age of steam, with the likes of Churchill availing themselves of its hospitality.

The building was gutted by a fire in the 1960s, then used as office space until 2005. It fitted nicely into Mal's penchant for creating hotels in what are historically rich buildings.

"The old girl is well and back to stay,"

is the slogan being used to mark the hotel's return to glory.

It boasts more than 70 restyled and refurbished bedrooms and suites. Smart, stylish and offering more than a hint of luxury with, in our case, a bathroom bigger than a station waiting room.

The suites are all named after famous locomotives. So you can stay in The Flying Scotsman or The Mallard (where the photographer has gone slightly off the rails, mixing trains and ducks in his pictures) without fear of wrong leaves on the line upsetting your journey.

You can dine in the excellent Brasserie, with the emphasis on locally sourced produce such as Berkshire venison or Oxford beef. There's also Cafe Mal with home-made desserts and tarts for the more snack-minded person.

Venture outside Malmaison into Reading itself and you'll find a busy city much like any other with its mix of architecture and shops. The guide books claim that "the star of Berkshire strikes the perfect balance between town and country". Reading is famous for the annual music festival, and now a comedy festival which last year welcomed the likes of Jimmy Carr, Ross Noble and Jenny Eclair.

Other claims to fame include Jane Austen going to school - briefly - at the Reading Ladies Boarding School at Abbey Gatehouse. The town used to be famous for biscuits, hence its nickname of Biscuit Town after the famous Huntley and Palmer's factory, which shut down in the 1970s.

Now the heart of the city is occupied by The Oracle, a vast shopping centre housing all the big High Street names among the 90 or so shops, cafes and restaurants. This is almost certainly the only shopping complex in the country named in honour of a workhouse - the Oracle was a 17th Century workhouse founded by John Kendrick.

Among buildings representing the old is Reading Town Hall, a Grade II-listed Victorian concert hall. Now restored, it boasts a film theatre, cafe and the Museum of Reading.

Reading's oldest theatre, the Progress, presents open-air Shakespeare performances in the summer in Forbury Gardens in the ruins of Henry I's abbey.

Reading's waterways offer the prospect of fishing, canoeing and narrowboat sailing. If the weather is good, a gentle stroll by the canal, with several pubs offering resting places, proved a pleasant way to pass an afternoon away from the shops before resuming our brief encounter with Malmaison.

■ For further details about Malmaison Reading, visit www.malmaison.com

9:05am Saturday 19th January 2008

Print   Email this