Media centre

Thursday 1 May 2025

New piano hits the right notes with passengers at Reading station

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Western

A new public piano has been installed on the main concourse at Reading station to brighten passengers journeys, thanks to a donation from the Rotary Club of Reading.

The new addition, which was unveiled last week, is already proving a hit with passengers at the station, which is celebrating 185 years since it first opened its doors as a terminal for Brunel’s Great Western Railway in 1840.

The piano was donated to the Reading Library of Things by Highwood School in Woodley, but as the library don’t take musical instruments it was offered to The Rotary Club of Reading who agreed to take it. Their intention was to renovate it and repurpose it to be used as a ‘public piano’, offering a free and accessible way to play for the people of the town.  

The piano was then fully restored and given a fresh design named ‘The Musical Forest’ by Commando Jugendstil, a Solarpunk collective who also designed the mural for the Reading Hydro turbine house close to the station.

Bernadette Sachse, Network Rail station manager for Reading, said:

“We’d like to give a huge thanks to The Rotary Club of Reading for the donation of this beautiful piano, which we are delighted to have on the concourse at Reading station.

“We’ve seen from our former piano how appreciated they are by passengers and staff alike, and we hope this will help brighten people’s journeys at Reading for years to come.”

Tony Cowling from The Rotary Club of Reading said:

“We are delighted that the piano now resides in Reading station and that it has been such an instant success”

ENDS