Reading has a (partially) underground river. If you know where to look, you can follow it across the town centre as it surfaces and dips underground again.

Start by Berkeley Avenue at the junction with Rose Kiln Lane (marked location). Walk downstream, until the Holy Brook dips under the ring road. You can cross the road using the footbridge in Cheriton Court. Pick up the Brook as it surfaces, through the old brewery site (now housing), before dipping underground again.

Then, walk up Bridge Street and turn into Gun Street. You can see the next open stretch of the stream from the entrance to the Oracle shopping centre. The stream then goes under the telephone exchange.

In theory, the next time it’s visible is through the glass roundel in the floor of the King’s Arcade on King Street, but that area is now occupied by a shop, and the lights that lit up the stream are no longer working.

The next time it’s visible is for a couple of metres, directly in front of the entrance to the Reading Central Library, before running under the library, coming up again for a longer stretch behind the library. This is where the old abbey had its mill wheel, and part of the structure is still visible.

Finally, it dips under the Abbey House office block, before rejoining the Kennet at the back of the former Reading Gaol.