Reading has been featured a couple of times here but there have only been passing mentions of the source of the chav Nile in Reading: Whitley Wood (Wit-lee, or West Reading, if you are not a scumster and own a house in that area).
Reading would be a tolerable town were it not for the dirt that seeps out from Whitley like maggots from a decaying carcass. All the classics are there, s**tty council housing, s**tty council scum people, incest, teen pregnancies and more sportswear than even Trisha could handle. Whitley even has it’s own famous smell which doesn’t actually come from the skit who live there. It is a combination of the sewage works (insert your own gag) and the warm milk on Weetabix smell that comes from the brewery and is known locally as the ‘Whitley Whiff’.
I have been in a few of the houses in Whitley and I never used to think I was better than other people, but I have to face the fact that after being in houses with no carpets, mountains of manky clothes as well as manky people, the tackiest knick knacks that make horse brasses look like Faberge eggs and bags of rubbish and flies lying around and on and on I could go, that I AM better than some people, as are most people when it comes to these chav/skit/kev w**kers.
I don’t know where thay hang out in the Wood as I, like normal people, avoid the place like the plague, but if a town centre pub is favoured by them and has a name for being ‘full of Whitley’, then normal people steer well clear of it, unless they need to be entertained by the exhibits in there. The usual Macca D’s (four in the town centre)are crawling with them, as are the pound shops and TK Maxx and Primark s**tholes that normal people either are too embarrased or too sober to shop in.
Affluent South East? Effluent stained streets.
Couple of inaccuracies in the initial post. Whitley Wood is the Southern most portion of the South Reading Area. It borders the M4 to the South, Lower Earley to the East, Basingstoke Road to the West, and Whitley to the North. The northern boundary is not exact, but is generally accepted to be Hartland road, which runs from the Shinfield Road to Basingstoke Road.
The original poster appears to have confused Whitley Wood for the whole of the South Reading area, generally titled ‘Whitley’.
The smell is no longer apparent as the Brewery has subsequently closed, but the ‘Whitley Whiff’ was actually an amalgamation of the Thames Water sewerage treatment works located to the west of the A33 relief road and the Brewery.
As someone who has spent a significant time living and working in Reading I think I’m in a good position to ‘judge’ the veracity of the article. Whilst there are portions of ‘Whitley’ that are less than salubrious a large proportion of the previous council housing stock is now privately owned. This has improved the overall feel to the area and, much like most of Reading, has some nice and poor pockets.
Simply put; it is a micro representation of much larger conurbations.
I think this website is a load of crap how dare you judge people by where they live it’s wrong but then your just stuck up assholes who don’t care about anyone but themselves. I Wear a hoodie it doesn’t make me a chav I watch oaps and some wear them too we talk like we do but you used to talk s**t too you are no different from any of us, I work for a very well known company and am very respected just like everyone else…
Everyone is different, yet at some point in our lives we were all the same
like any other place Whitley has some awful and lovely areas. I myself live in Whitley and have a lovely home, lovely neighbourhood and often have friends talking about how nice the area is.
The areas of whitley surrounding Northumberland Avenue are the worst, the Basingstoke Road area is pretty decent.
Interesting comments by all
yes, Whitley and Whitley Wood can be a bit rough (under statement!). Growing up in Whitley Wood was’nt all bad, it does have a bad reputation though. Which often caused conflict when people from other areas found out you were from Whitley Wood. I came from a regular family. My parents worked all their life and I have since left Reading to go to University. Since graduating I have lived in many places. Currently Essex (and that’s a whole different story)
The key thing to take into account is Whitley and Whitley Wood are two very, very different places. I am both proud and ashamed that I grew up in Whitley Wood. But my pride outweighs my shame.
and I agree with many people on the comments, if you don’t like where you live or grew up, get out!……I did
Whitley whoooo
To be honest! since ive just read what people actually think about whitley it disgusts me. who do they think they are! trying to come rude because they think thre better than everyone else i dont think so. just because of a small minority of people. im not going to deny it, yes there is gangs and killing, murders and all sorts but you get this everywere… people should think before they go talking mouthing off. maybe if they saw the better side and put aside all the things whitley is assumed of being they could see that there are people who grow up to be amazing qualified people from whitley and all dont stay here for the rest of there lives.
why is it people feel the need to slag whitley off ?? i mean we all know its a s**thole and all that but to have a go at the folks living there?? dont make sense to be honest? i mean yeah theres a lot of s**t and non decent folk but you (the guy who wrote the first comment) i suppose live in a perfect house in a perfect street in a perect world!! and your head is probably buried up your perfect arse!! everywhere is just as bad as the rest, i feel u dont have a clue and should just keep your silly opinion to yourself!!!!!!
TWAT
I worked in Whitley for a few years and , while there are some real little b*******s that need a good slap to make up for the lack of discipline in the home, there are some of the most sincere and genuine people I have met in my life.
I have lived in some of the most affluent areas in the country and met complete scum!
Don’t judge everyone in Whitley by a small minority.
Let it be known the Whitley maybe a s**thole, but alot of talent has come from this s**thole with Ricky Gervais just as an example. I lived in Easterhouse in Glsgow before i moved to Reading at the age of 8, If u want to know the reall definition of chavtown then look up this place, Whitley is a paradise compared there. It dosent matter who you are or where you live there are always scumbags around, thing about us whitley people is we are not ashamed of where we come from and dont think we are better than anyone else, when it comes down to it, we are a community and if u dont like iot here the dont bloody come!!!!
i find this a bit unfair, whilst whitley leaves alot to be desired it is not the worse place in reading, dee road esate, southcote, coley all just as bad. uve lived here all my life, im a nurse as is my husband. we work hard and have never claimed a penny from the state. i work with alot of the youth here, i work as a community out reach nurse, and they are not what you think, the amount of vollunteer work they do etc is amazing. they come from broken homes and poor education systems, buit the majority are not bad ppl just lost. its very sad really. ive seen many come from iunimaginable hardship and go to university, i know 2 that have been to oxford. its very unfair to label these people. they are poor, they need help not ridicule, its posts like this that make my job so much harder, makes the young people feel isolated and untrusting.
I do not like your attitude.
If you do not like somewhere, and you believe that you are better than those that live there, then you should maybe do something about it. Maybe they can benefit from your “better” way of life.
I know Whitley and Whitley Wood very well. I went to primary school there and I also go to the church on Dawlish road.
The people of Whitley used to live in the town centre on Friar street before the Whitley was built. They were always seen as “outsiders” by the other Reading residents. This is a stigma that has held many (not all) of the people back. Poor attitudes like the person who wrote this article are the very reason why some people from Whiltey do not believe in themselves.
I have known and do know many people that have grown up in Whitley and may be down to the 3rd or 4th generation. These people are top class citizens of whom I have had the pleasure to know. Although their lives may not be full of material wealth like many other residents of Reading they do have a massive wealth in other areas such as; community, humour, friendship, loyalty, respect and the list goes on. I have been in many houses without wallpaper, masses of washing, broken homes, no carpets – but you can guarantee that these people are worth every second that I get the chance to spend with them.
The future holds a lot of promise for Whitley. Before the estate was build it was a rich pasture land with pure water coming out of the ground in the form of springs (hence Whit-ley : Fields-Springs). The springs used to feed the Abbey in Reading town centre as well as other areas of Reading in Victorian times. In fact you could say that Reading would not have existed in it’s current form if Whitley did not exist.
Whitley will one day be a place where the people of Reading will realise the real Gem that is in the people of this materially deprived area.
Look beyond that which your eyes see chum!
I think you have made sum sort off mistake i live on whitley wood road and its lovely and orderly hardly no ‘chavs’ drunks or ne of the council places you seem to be talking about i think the middle of whitley ‘northie’ may have sum truth to what you are saying
But it is no way as bad as you are making out
Whitley Isnt That Bad, Jus Theres No Where To Go These Days
May Have Been In The Papers Alot , But Not All Of Us Are Like That , Jus Becuase Some People Do Stupid Stuff.
whitley is a s**thole and people from whitley are scum. it should be quarantined. if i had £1 everytime whitley was in the paper for some reason or another i would have enough to buy the craphole, section it off and blow it to f**king pieces. well actually it probably would cost that much tho. s**thole…
I love the reply from Mij spoken like a true chav – ha ha ha
Tbf,
Ive lived here all my life and it ent as bad as that. I dont live in a council house, i dont claim benefits and i most def am not a chav.
Honestly i think you should get your facts straight before you tar us all with the same brush
1- THE WIFF DOSNT COME FROM WHITLEY WOOD IT COMES FROM THE MIDDLE OF WHITLEY.
2- JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE LIVE THERE DONT MEEN THERE SCUMPSTERS. JUST BECAUSE WE OWN A HOUSE IN WHITLEY WOOD DOSNT MEEN IT IS ALL MESSY AND SMELLY. DONT JUDGE BEFORE YOU KNOW
YOU SOUND LIKE A RIGHT STRESS HEAD. GET A LIFE AND STOP POSTING s**t ON THE WEB. SPECIALLY ABOUT MY AREA. FUKIN RETARD.
FROM
AMEERAH
13
FEMALE
WHITLEY.
HAHA GOT BOYED
Too true. I lived in Whitley for about 11 months when I was about 7. Luckily for me it was short term otherwise I was in grave danger of becoming a whitley wood chav! Notice how posh people like to pronounce it white lee, it sounds a lot more pleasant that way!
a multitude of chavs hang outside the KFC/alldays on shinfield rd. Those who look old enough to drink hang around the maidens, or the earley retreat to murder someone. These scum have infiltrated neighbouring areas such as lower earley to finance their effluent lifestyle be it hanging out byAsda or by breaking into someones house to fund the next must have s**te accessory for their piss poor cars.