How to find it
The Riverside Walk entrance to Queens Road Car Park, to the left of the entrance, just after you step off the bridge over the Kennet and Avon Canal.
More information
The Queens Road Car Park was opened by Cllr Maureen Lockey on 30 January 1990 during her Mayoralty.
The plaque which marks this is most unusual in that it is a large piece of slate. To protect it from vandalism it is covered with a strong sheet of plastic. As the plastic had been vandalised it was replaced at Reading Civic Society’s request in 2022 with the support of Cllr Tony Page.
Maureen Lockey, who lived in Newtown, East Reading, was a councillor for Church Ward for 17 Years. She chaired the council’s Access and Disabilities Working group for 17 years. She campaigned for the Oracle’s Shop Mobility Centre, which offered free loan transport for the disabled, and ensured the provision there of 120 disabled user parking spaces. She was also Deputy Lead councillor for Arts and Leisure and Chairman of the Arts Forum. She sat on 7 other committees.
When elected as Mayor she was described as a “self-confessed feminist” with red hair, red politics and red-hot interest in women’s issues. She declared her term as the year for promoting the council’s interest in women’s issues, such as the Women’s Information Centre, the Women’s Education Project and the Well Woman’s Centre, which she helped to set up.
During her year she also unveiled the International Brigade Memorial, by Eric Stanford, originally erected outside the Civic Centre but later relocated to Forbury Gardens.
She died of Cancer in April 1990 at the age of 52, just before completing her year as Mayor.
Credit: The Mayoralty Office