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.

This Isn't Just Any Shopfront... This Is An M&S Shopfront

One of the most decorative shopfronts on Swindon's Regent Street.

The Lost Streets of Swindon

When Ed Howell and I photographed the demolition of Swindon College at Regent Circus, we didn't expect to find an entire street hidden on the site.

As we walked on a soaking wet day around the front of the site, passed the flat roof library, at the back of Byron Street, the mud had been churned up by the bulldozers. 

They'd scraped away the top layer of soil and just a few inches under the surface was the brickwork of the houses of the now (nearly entirely) lost Byron Street. 

The flat-roofed library building, which the original line of Byron street went through from left to right.

The double-brickwork of houses from the 1960s-demolished Byron Street.

Byron Street now exists as a small stub at Regent Circus, but the original street went north to south through the former Swindon College site.

How Byron Street use to look in 1957. This is looking south towards Old Town.

For more details on the photograph above, visit the Swindon Local Flickr account here.

The Hidden Tunnels Just Beneath Our Feet In Swindon

We've got the well-known Old Town Tunnels, we've got the slightly less known GWR Tunnels underneath the former rail works site and we've also got our 1960s subterranean additions beneath Theatre Square.

Icon

The Renault Building in Swindon was today given a Grade II* Listing by English Heritage.

Swindon's modern architectural icon.

Terracotta at Kimmerfields

The blue skies really brings out the terracotta colour at Swindon's Kimmerfields (Union Square) Phase One.

Racing to a Finish

The latest progress on the Kimmerfields (Union Square) Phase 1 development :

Last Day at the (Registry) Office

Today I got the opportunity to look around Aspen House in Swindon's Temple Street. Empty since 2009 and scheduled for demolition soon, it was also the home for Swindon's Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

That means Aspen House has been one of the most important buildings in Swindon, registering every birth, marriage and death within the Borough during it's time.

One chair left, but no desk.

Still on the wall in the registry office.

The room where thousands of Swindon people got married.

The heavy door used to secure the strongroom containing the GRO Records (Swindon's Birth, Marriages and Deaths records).

The Civil Partnerships noticeboard.

The 2009 lists of the 100 most popular boys and girls names in England & Wales.

Details of the move to the Civic Offices.

From the roof, the Town Hall, Central Library and M.E.C.A.

From the roof, looking East/South-East.

From the roof looking North-East.

From the roof looking North.

From the roof down onto the registry office building and Temple Street.

From the roof looking North/North-West.

From the roof looking North-West.

From the roof looking North-West, showing the former WHSmith Bridge House, St Marks, the Outlet Centre, Renault Building, Westmead and Shaw Forest Park.

From the roof down to Granville Street Car Park and Havelock Street.

From the roof looking West.

From the roof looking South.

From the roof looking down to Commercial Road.

From the roof looking South-East towards the former Swindon College site. 

On the ground floor, the canteen.

Looking onto Regent Street from the Registrar's Office.