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Stephen Fry backs Reading Prison arts centre campaign

BBC Jeff OversBBC
Stephen Fry has previously spoken of how he became "obsessed" with the work of Oscar Wilde

Stephen Fry has thrown his weight behind a campaign to turn Reading Prison into an arts centre.

The jail - which famously housed Oscar Wilde between 1895 and 1897 - has been derelict since 2013 and was put up for sale by the government last year.

Fry portrayed the Irish playwright in the 1997 film Wilde.

He said that "if living art can rise up from the place where Oscar and so many others suffered, then how perfect that will be, for Reading, for Britain".

Wilde was held at the prison, now a Grade II-listed building, after he was convicted of gross indecency. He wrote about his experience in the poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Campaigners fear the Ministry of Justice-owned prison will be turned into flats, and are set to march over the issue later this month.

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The support of Fry for the arts centre plans was revealed by Reading East MP Matt Rodda.

The Booker Prize-winning novelist Julian Barnes, who is also backing the scheme, said: "Turning a prison into an arts centre is the equivalent of beating swords into ploughshares.

"I fully support this ambitious and enterprising project."

Getty Images/Morley von Sternberg Oscar Wilde (1881) and his cell at Reading PrisonGetty Images/Morley von Sternberg
The prison was immortalised by Wilde's poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Mr Rodda said: "I am absolutely delighted that the campaign to turn Reading Gaol into an arts and heritage site has been recognised by Stephen Fry and Julian Barnes.

"Their support comes at a crucial time for the future of the site."

Reading Borough Council has previously said it is considering bidding to buy the prison and turning it into a theatre.