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The Purple Turtle, Reading

9 Gun Street
Reading
RG1 2JR

Phone: 01189597196

Correct details

Served areas

Reading Central

Tweets by The Purple Turtle

Purple Turtle Another Tuesday night in the dungeon with @WOBZevents !!! 12:21 PM May 30th 2023 from Twitter Web App

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Reviews of The Purple Turtle (Average Rating: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Mild Drinker left this review about The Purple Turtle

Visited on a Wednesday evening, this usually loud and vibrant pub in the centre of Reading was pretty quiet. Music was on but at a decent level. Once inside it is long and narrow with a stage down the far end. No ale here just a decent selection of lagers. I had a Kronenbourg at a fiver. I didn't mind it too much here and would probably visit when they have music on.

On 12^th March 2025 - rating: 6
[User has posted 103 recommendations about 103 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about The Purple Turtle

This is a decent sized town centre pub and live music venue with a good sized main bar and performance space and some smaller, discreet sweating areas off to the side. I came here specifically to watch a band playing, so perhaps I didn’t get to see the place exactly how I might’ve done were there not large areas cleared for people to stand and watch the show. You enter into quite a pleasant looking front seating area where a few comfortable bits of furniture offer you a relatively bright spot in front of the shop style windows. As you move towards the rear, the room narrows slightly due to the positioning of the servery down the right-hand wall, leaving just enough space for some drinking ledges down the opposite side, with more towards the rear, in the space that acts as the dancefloor thanks to the stage being positioned along the back wall. There weren’t too many punters in when I visited, so I had a good view of the band, but the stage is very low, so this could pose a real problem on a particularly busy evening. As you might expect, the walls are covered in what appeared to be copies of old gig flyers and various music-themed posters and the whole place had a bit of a student-pub feel to it. A door next to the servery leads through into a couple of small seating areas to the side of this main space, which look decent enough, if a bit disconnected from the rest of the venue, whilst out the back there’s a decent split level decked garden with loads of additional seating and a good amount of shelter.
Sadly, there was no cask ale on at the bar, but they had managed to get a few craft keg options on, albeit of the fairly mainstream variety such as Brooklyn Lager. There were plenty of people manning the bar, so queues were kept to a minimum and service was polite and friendly.
This is a decent enough place to go and watch some local bands play - it seems quite well set-up, with slick organisation and some nice spaces to escape the noise if required. Assessing it solely as a pub though, it falls down on the beer selection, most notably the lack of cask ale, which is a common problem at such music venues. Not the worst place you could end up in, but no need to add this to a town centre crawl.

On 11^th January 2022 - rating: 5
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Graham Coombs left this review about The Purple Turtle

Long narrow and trendy music bar with a stage at the far end and a terrace garden at the rear. Alongside the predictable range of craft and other keg had 3 handpumps serving New Wharf Brewing beers at time of visit: very tasty and nicely-kept too. Pleasant enough early evening but not sure what it might be like when busy.

On 23^rd June 2018 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3641 recommendations about 3576 pubs]

View more reviews of The Purple Turtle (7)

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Reading 2014 by Quinno _

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