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.

Swindon's Regeneration : A Sign of the Times

Have you seen the time?

 For the first time in over 50 years, the residents of Edmund Street will be able to tell the time from the Town Hall clock.

Swindon's Regeneration : You Are Starting Here

Demolition of the former Swindon College Regent Street site from Edmund Street.

For a world that's increasingly experienced online, with events seen through a glass-look screen, regeneration is refreshingly different.

The Swindon College sign clings to the wall for a short time longer.

You can produce shiny websites and exciting, eye-catching artist's impressions of grand plans, but you've still got to physically build the project.

For those residents of Edmund Street coming back from work tonight, their view and street has quickly changed.

Until that physical activity happens, all those expectations and plans mean little.

Bite-sized chunks taken out of the roof, with the town hall clock tower in the background.

The demolition of the former Swindon College began last week and the residents of Edmund Street are currently getting a grandstand view. The view of the workshop buildings will just be a memory in a few days, as they're the first structures on the site to come down with the demolition.

Our regeneration starts here, in unassuming Edmund Street.

The Long & The Tall of It

Here's a portrait of fellow photographer Jordy Day taken during yesterday's visit to the forecourt of Swindon Railway Station. Fellow photographer Ed Howell and I are keen to take more portraits as the project goes on, of the Britannia workers, passengers, and station staff.

The strange contrast of this picture is that it was taken 12 vertigo-inducing storeys up on the roof of the Signal Point building, Jordy is shorter than me, but is as high as I am on a ladder. Perspective, sight lines and expectations are all being skewed!

The question is, can you spot which camera she's using to get the great view down onto Swindon on that sunny afternoon?

Curves, Vertigo & Wind Chill (And Wembley)

The shape of the paving, starting to resemble the drawings in the site office, as seen from 12-storeys up (click on the images for a closer look).

Looking over a wall isn't normally encouraged, especially so when the wall has a 12-storey drop over the other side of it!

Today saw a second visit to the roof of Swindon Railway Station's Signal Point building, continuing the Swindon Rail Station project.

Graham and Dan from Britannia (the contractor for the work) also came up for a look. Just before, in the site office, they showed the highly-detailed plan for the paving on the forecourt. Areas of different paving are separated by intersecting, curved lines (inspired by the gradual curved map lines of the Great Western Railway).

At ground level, the paving, curves and yet-to-be-filled plots of ground looks like a headache-inducing jigsaw puzzle, but through a handheld device (it was yellow and looked like one of those electronic signing devices when a parcel's delivered), the exact places are plotted and followed to the designer's letter.

Zooming in, the smooth curves and shapes of the design can be seen and understood, giving a flavour of what the finished forecourt will look like (click on the image for a closer look).

From the roof, seeing the initial area of paving being worked on gave a great sense of what the finished work will look like and the style of the whole works.

We're planning to do weekly roof-top visits to give a better step-by-step sense of the work from this great bird's eye view.

And finally...

The County Ground, recovering after last night's pitch invasion and win, next stop Wembley, now, wouldn't that be something to photograph...! (Click on the image for a closer look)