Swindon's Regeneration : The Mary Celeste, Faded Glories & The Last Day

The perfect day to be up on the roof.

Today's visit to the former Swindon College site at Regent Circus was what we'd been waiting for. After painstaking work by the asbestos team, the main building is now safe to access and there was only one place to go when arriving, to the roof!

A perfect day and a great location gave a view for miles around. Back inside, we methodically went through each floor, working our way down. Any former students will remember the floor and room numbering system at Swindon College, for example, I had Environmental Science in 4.16, which was on the 3rd floor, as the ground floor were numbered '1'. Each floor had it's own colour too!

Room 4.9's room timetable from week commencing 3rd July 2006. Anyone recognise the staff names? Who took Entry English on Wednesday evening?

A few rooms had their classroom timetables still in place behind perspex on the room outside. Did you have a class in room 4.9 in that last week of it's use in July 2006?

On the stairwell, at each half-landing was a large piece of student-produced artwork, which are all intact and still in-situ! I did retrieve a piece of artwork on an office wall that was also remarkably undamaged, more of that in a later post!

The view towards the half-landing between the 3rd Level (2nd floor)  and the 4th Level (3rd floor). Do you remember the mural of the countryside? 

The library is much smaller than I remember, but the red carpet is still there and apart from some missing ceiling tiles, debris and graffiti, the structure looks solid enough.

The silent study area of the library.

Does anyone remember the careers library? That small room on the right when entering the library, it now has a grand view of the workshops demolition happening right outside.

Anyone need careers advice?

The main building is the eeriest of all to walk through, most likely because of it's size. We also got a look in the hall and Vincents Restaurant (the refractory). More pictures of those soon-to-disappear spaces in the next few days.