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The Oracle is a large indoor shopping and leisure mall, located on the banks of the River Kennet on the site of a 17th-century workhouse of the same name in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It was developed by, and is owned by, a joint venture of Hammerson and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Hammerson )〕 ==History== The Oracle takes its name from the 17th century Oracle workhouse built by funds from a local man John Kendrick. This once occupied a small part of the site now occupied by the shopping centre. In March 1997 Hammerson acquired a 22 acre site of largely derelict and undeveloped land immediately to the south of the town centre. Most of this site was previously occupied by Simond's Brewery (latterly owned by the Courage brewing company) and by the Reading Transport bus depot (formerly the Reading Corporation tram depot). The brewery had earlier relocated to a new site adjoining the M4 motorway, whilst the bus depot was relocated to a location just west of the town centre as one of the first phases of the redevelopment. Hammerson's strategy was to create a combination of big-name retailers at the new centre, including a number of international retail banners fairly new to Britain. The merchandise mix has strong emphasis on fashion and is slightly higher-end than the average for Reading's main street shops. Peter Cole, the development director for Hammerson said "We were looking to bring in a retail mix that would enhance what was already there – we wanted to get the right caliber retailers to suit the slightly higher-end shopping demographic of the area." The main shopping malls comprising phase I of The Oracle were opened in September 1999, followed in November by the Riverside restaurants, pubs and cinema that made up phase II. Once phase I was complete, the way was open to relocate the Debenhams department store from its previous location on Broad Street into the centre. This in turn allowed for the redevelopment of the old Debenhams site as phase III of The Oracle, linked to phase I by a bridge over Minster Street. Phase III provided The Oracle with its all-important direct link to Broad Street, and was opened in May 2000 by The Princess Royal.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://www.theoracle.com/Website/ContentInstance.aspx?ParentSectionId=f6a520a3-ce0e-45b3-94c5-1c1131e2edd4&CurrentSectionId=26f9fc37-d212-4dfc-a9a1-e699c5ee4bd4&ContentInstanceID=e5401d15-8044-4def-93ca-a76730be54ac )〕 Although now well-respected and appreciated by local residents, the Oracle caused local controversy when first opened. However, many of the stores within the Oracle did not previously exist in Reading and have substantially improved its status as a shopping destination. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Oracle, Reading」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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