From One Express to Another

Progress at Swindon Designer Outlet.

Rail, Retail & Rubble

The former Clares site at North Star use to be a carriage works building before turning to making retail equipment. Although the buildings were demolished, the ground still yields lots of recent history.

The Metroland Effect on Swindon's Housing?

How much extra monetary value would you put on making your commute shorter?

If your journey to and from work could be reduced by 5 or 10 minutes, how much value would you put on that?

That's an extra 10 minutes eating breakfast, or an extra 10 minutes talking face-to-face to your family, or an extra 10 minutes asleep!

The value placed on the time saved through the reduced journey times between London and Bristol with the Great Western Main Line upgrade is expected to be millions added to the collective value of houses in the city.

A cut of 20 minutes on the journey time will save commuters more time and increase the attractiveness of Bristol and in the same upgrade, Swindon should come down to the 45 minute journey time mark (this is a modest estimation based on the speed and length of the route, under 45 minutes would be possible with a recasting of the timetable).

You could leave a workplace in London, travel to Swindon and be in your home within the hour, what an opportunity!

Notes : Metroland was the name given to the areas of the expanded Metropolitan Railway north west of London which was heavily tied and influenced by housebuilding and essentially created the modern definition of commuting.

Swindon's Regeneration : Frozen In Time

You know a place is special when it gives off an atmosphere, a feeling that you can't quite put your finger on. These combine to convey the importance, effectiveness and the weight of a place.

With the crane still and the clock frozen at 11 minutes past 5.

 I had that feeling the instant I stepped into the Long Shop, the last remaining building on the old rail works site in Swindon without a use. The air had a thick smell of engine oil, no doubt the smell has seeped into the structure since it's opening in 1847. The thick walls and floor gave the place that cathedral-like peacefulness, there was no sound of traffic, or of passersby. A couple of times a train ran past and the calm was briefly interrupted.

The sunlight was streaming through the south-facing windows, giving a regular pattern on the dust-covered floor. The Long Shop originally closed for business in 1986 and is frozen in time. Stopped clocks are complimented by the locker-rooms which still have rail workers names on them.

26 years since Davies and Jones used these lockers in the former British Rail Long Shop

The owners of the Long Shop and the majority of the former Works site are Henderson Global Investors (who own the management company for the Outlet, McArthurGlen) and at the end of the month their plans for a £35 million extension of the centre into the Long Shop will be decided.

After so long, this place that hangs heavy with the memories of the past, will be visited by millions of people into the future.

Swindon's Regeneration : Swindon, Works

Swindon's newest artwork gives a salute to the past and a glimpse to the future.

Today's unveiling of the newly refurbished Great Western Underpass gives a real hint of how Swindon has finally begun to embrace it's heritage as a key selling-point.

Along one wall is a set of portraits of rail workers through the ages, right up to the present day. Finished in Great Western green, the images are backlit, creating a dramatic installation piece as you walk between Churchward and Bristol Street. On the opposite wall, in big chunky steel lettering are the words 'Swindon Works'.

The quote from artist Bruce Williams sums it up nicely, "On the opposite wall in gleaming letters read the words SWINDON WORKS, which is the name of the site but could also read as a hopeful slogan for the future."