The Forbury Gardens, originally part of Reading Abbey, were laid out between 1856 and 1864. The gardens are dominated by the Maiwand Lion, an 1886 memorial to the dead of the 66th Berkshire Regiment who fell during the battles of Maiwand and Kandahar at the end of the second Afghan War (1878-80). Designed by George Blackall-Simonds, it is one of the world’s largest bronze statues at 31 feet long. Nearby is Reading Prison to where Oscar Wilde was sentenced in 1895, writing The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898 after his release.
