Heritage groups have renewed efforts to block the redevelopment of Reading Gaol, after ministers confirmed it would be sold “later this autumn”.
Prisons minister Damian Hinds confirmed on Tuesday that the sale of the Grade II listed building to an unknown bidder would go ahead.
But the Victorian Society wants public access guaranteed to the former cell of its most famous inmate, Oscar Wilde, who immortalised Reading Gaol in his poem of the same name.
It was closed as a working prison in 2013 and was put up for sale in 2019.
The Save Reading Gaol campaign, which is calling for the prison to be turned into a cultural hub, fears that the site will be sold to a developer with Wilde’s cell made into a room in a luxury apartment.
The Ministry of Justice, which owns the site, previously refused Reading Borough Council’s £2.6m offer for the historic building. It also rejected a bid by artist Banksy for £10m.
