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Picture source: Sue McArdle

The Brewery Tap was situated at 27 Castle Street. This pub opened and closed several times in the 2000s and has now been converted to apartments.

From Historic England:

The crossroads formed by the north-south route of St Mary’s Butts/Bridge Street and the east-west route of Gun Street/Castle Street is believed to be the centre of the original Saxon settlement at Reading, established sometime before the ninth century, with the lowest crossing point of the River Kennet lying a short distance away to the south. Reading was well-established by the time of the Norman Conquest, and the Domesday Book (1086) records six mills and a large estate in the town. St Mary’s Church, which lies on the north-east corner of the crossroads and was mostly rebuilt in 1551-55, was the town’s primary church until the establishment of Reading Abbey in the C12 and became so again following the Dissolution in the late 1530s. Running west from the crossroads, Castle Street forms part of the ancient route through the town between London and the West Country, and the street historically contained many inns and guesthouses. As Reading expanded beyond its medieval limits during the C18 and C19, development spread further along Castle Street. Earlier buildings were gradually replaced with substantial townhouses and public buildings in brick or Bath stone, although some timber-framed buildings of the C16 and C17 survive. 27 Castle Street was constructed in the late C18, probably replacing an earlier building on the site. It was likely built as a large single dwelling house and the 1851 census records it being in the ownership of Samuel Collier, brick maker. From 1879 it is recorded as having a long, rear range and a carriage entrance to the east side of the Castle Street elevation. By the 1960s the building had been converted into a social club and around this time, the part of the rear range immediately adjoining the rear of the house was rebuilt and the carriage entrance was infilled. It is thought that there was also a shop front on the Castle Street frontage, which was removed sometime after 1978. It operated as a pub during the late 1990s and early 2000s, before conversion to apartments around 2015.

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