On Monday, 1 March, word started to spread around Reading, UK, that a piece of graffiti by the anonymous street artist, “Banksy”, had appeared overnight. I found out that the artwork was located somewhere on the wall of the old Reading prison, but I still wasn’t sure exactly where. Luckily, a friend had seen it while out on their morning walk and created a Soundscape Marker for it!
They shared the Marker with me, I set an Audio Beacon and off I went in search of it! Soundscape announced that it was 1.8km away as the crow flies, so slightly more to walk.
Following the Audio Beacon, I walked through the Reading university campus—not the way I’d usually walk, but I knew I’d get there if I just kept following the Audio Beacon. The campus is on the site of an old manor house, so the grounds are quite impressive, with a large area of woodland and a lake. It was a nice place to walk, with birds tweeting and the morning spring sunshine creating long shadows.
Shortly after I’d left the campus, Soundscape announced “Huntley and Palmers building”. I looked to my right and there it was, this is the last remaining building from the old Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. In its heyday this was the largest biscuit factory in the world! I heard “Beacon, 280m”, I was getting closer!
As I got closer, I heard a callout for “Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk”. Oscar Wilde, an Irish Poet and playwright, was one of Reading prison’s most famous inmates—imprisoned there between 1895-97. I was only 110m away from the artwork now. I had made good time so I decided to take a detour along this footpath which runs between the wall of the prison and the canal. The gates at the start of the path were shaped to resemble the writer, the fences along the walk have a number of quotes of his, and the benches are all the same size as a prison bed from the 19th century. It’s a very interesting part of Reading that I hadn’t noticed much before!
In front of me I could see the taller buildings of central Reading—I pressed ‘Ahead of Me’ and learnt that the buildings standing prominently in front of me was “The Blade”, the tallest building in the town. Also known as Abbey Mill House, “The Blade” is 86 metres tall and visible from almost everywhere in the town. To my right, I could hear the Audio Beacon coming from the direction of the artwork, and so I continued on my merry way.
At the end of the “Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk”, I stumbled upon the ruins of an old Abbey which once stood in Reading. Built in the 12th century, Reading Abbey was once one of the largest in Europe until it was destroyed in the 16th century.
I walked around the ruins, reading some of the information plaques and learning more about its history. As I continued through the ruins, I found myself in Forbury Gardens, which was originally part of the Abbey grounds and is now a public park in the centre of Reading. One of the main features of the park is the Maiwand Lion. I’d always seen this statue when walking through the park, but I wasn’t aware of its name until Soundscape called it out to me. I’ve since found out that it’s a war memorial and dates back to 1884 after the Battle of Maiwand, during the campaign in the second Anglo-Afghan War in Afghanistan. Locally it is known as The Forbury Lion.
With the Audio Beacon now coming from my right, and Soundscape announcing I was walking north, I knew I’d walked half way round the prison at this point. I decided to keep going the rest of the way round rather than retracing my steps. I left Forbury Gardens and followed the road around the northern wall of the prison. I was getting closer, Soundscape announced that I was 330m away from the Marker for the “Banksy Artwork”.
As I got closer, I could see a queue stretching round the corner with people waiting to have their photos taken underneath the artwork. I queued up and waited my turn to get a proper look.
The artwork shows a prison inmate escaping over the tall brick walls of the prison; they’re using what appears to be a rope made of bedsheets, but these sheets flow seamlessly in to a sheet of paper coming from a typewriter, an ode to Oscar Wilde.
I took a photo and sent it to my mum along with the Soundscape Marker of its location.
In turn, she then sent this Marker to a few of her friends, and before we knew it, quite a group of people had used Soundscape to help them locate this new artwork!
All in all, who would have thought that by simply following my way to the Marker for the “Banksy” artwork that I would end up taking a tour of some of town’s many tourist landmarks and lesser-known paths and road. In the end I’d walked 3km to get there, but it didn’t feel like that much. Often, we take very little notice of what is around us, but today my eyes and ears were opened, thanks to Microsoft Soundscape.
Helpful tips
Creating a Marker on your current location
To create a Marker where you currently are, select ‘Current Location’ on the Soundscape home screen, then ‘Save as Marker’. You’ll be able to give the Marker a name and annotation, then select ‘done’. Now that Marker will be in your ‘Saved Markers’ list.
Setting an Audio Beacon on a Marker
Select “Saved Markers” from the Soundscape home screen. You’ll then get a list of all your Markers, in order of the distance to them. If you then select the Marker you’d like from the list. This will open the Marker Details page with an option to set a Beacon on your Marker
Sharing a Marker
To share a Marker, select ‘Saved Markers’ from the Soundscape home screen, then select the Marker than you would like to share. When you select the Marker, you will be taken to the Marker’s ‘Details’ page, where you can select the ‘Share’ button to share the Marker.