The Oracle Reading Canopy

The Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading is not just a collection of shops; it has also played a larger part of the city’s development over the years. First opening in 1999, it has had an important role in the social and economic regeneration of Reading city centre.

The centre contains 90 shops, including department stores from the Next plc and House of Fraser chains, as well as 22 restaurants, and a Vue cinema.

Having in the past supplied flat and curved glass for the second-floor internal balustrade, Kite Glass was, once more, the preferred supplier to provide glass for the shopping centre, this time an external canopy for its Broad Street entrance.

Consisting of 87 panels of 19.52mm, heat strengthened and toughened SentryGlas® low iron glass interlayer, and spanning across 236.97m², this was the largest canopy that Kite Glass has ever produced. The panels were screen-printed with a special leaf design, recreated to match the client’s colour specifications, as well as being heat-soaked, drilled and polished.

Due to the entrance’s key high street location, and to avoid any unnecessary contact risks, the glass panels were individually banded to go onto site.