Banksy’s £10m pledge to buy Reading Gaol
BANKSY has pledged to raise £10m to buy Reading Gaol
– in which Oscar Wilde was imprisoned – so it can be turned into an arts centre rather than sold to developers to turn into flats.
He intends to sell the stencil for the artwork that appeared on the outside wall of the prison earlier this year, to raise funds for the Save the Reading Gaol campaign which wants to give the building back to the community.
The building is currently owned by the Ministry of Justice. In May, it rejected Reading Borough Council’s offer of £2.6m to buy the building, as ‘too low’.
In February Banksy confirmed that a painting, of an inmate escaping over a wall at the former Reading prison that once incarcerated playwright Oscar Wilde, was his work.
The artwork on the jail’s red brick wall in Forbury Road shows a man escaping using a rope of knotted paper coming from a typewriter. The work appeared overnight between Sunday, February 28, and Monday, March 1.
Oscar Wilde spent two punishing years in Reading Gaol from 1895-97, where he wrote De Profundis ,along and harrowing love letter to Lord Alfred Douglas on spirituality and faith. He was a broken man and after his release, he immortalised the prison in The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, his last work.
Reading Borough Council leader Jason Brock said: “We very much welcome the attention that Banksy’s interest in Reading Gaol has placed on both the MoJ’s sale of the vacant prison and on the council’s ambition to transform it into an hub of arts, heritage and culture of local and national significance. The council has had only informal approaches from representatives of Banksy to date, but no detailed discussions. “Our bid remains firmly on the table and has widespread support – both from within the community here in Reading and from the wider arts, heritage and cultural community – all of whom recognise the prison’s huge historical and cultural value. “The strength of feeling to transform the prison into something truly special for Reading and beyond is clear to see and we very much hope this is taken into account by the MoJ as it comes to a decision on the sale.” https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/ news/banksy-confirms-reading-gaolgraffiti-9194489/