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 :

Would You Get The Lights?

Swindon's skyline, with Union Square's Phase 1, photographed from the roof of the Jurys Inn at Whalebridge tonight.

Swindon's Union Square by Blue Skies

Blue skies! Quick as you can!

The Union Square car park is rapidly catching up in height to it's neighbouring structure, the residential block.

Union Square Sets It's Shape In The Skyline

Taken just before Christmas, these photographs by Ed Howell and I, show the shape the first phase of Union Square is having on the Swindon skyline.

Swindon's Regeneration : Cluttered By Space

An Artist's impression of Fleming Way after the Union Square development. With a vast increase in the amount of usable public space, The Parade underpass has gone with a wide 'shared space' crossing in it's place.

Urban regeneration is not just about what you build, but the space you create. In many ways, the space a building gives outside it's walls is more important than the space it has for use within.

The majority of Swindon's streets and it's retail core is strictly stuck in the 1970s pedestrianisation era in regard to it's use of space. Regent Street, Bridge Street and Canal Walk were made into spaces for people to walk safely in whilst shopping than dodging cars, vans and buses. The majority of UK towns and cities have main shopping centres based on this principle, but a policy of gradual improvement stopped for Swindon in the mid nineties and has only recently restarted.

Pedestrianisation is the simple principle of allowing people walking to take priority over all other transport methods. But like motor vehicles, routes need to be correctly paved, uncluttered, of the correct capacity and with street furniture and building design that allows a degree of wayfinding.

If you take a simple journey from The Parade to the bus station you can witness the historic stagnation of our public realm. The wide space of The Parade outside Debenhams allows people to spread out, but then you are funnelled into the subway beneath Fleming Way, whilst dodging people coming down the slopes from above and the shops either side of the subway entrance. From being in a space that was 40 feet wide, to a low subway, with barely 10 feet of width within just a few steps. Reaching the other side of the subway, the steep approach ramp is not wide enough, the funnelling effect in evidence, with pedestrians dodging those coming the opposite way and from the two slopes and steps from Fleming Way. The wayfinding is not in evidence for the bus station, there's little to intuitively give the feel a bus station is behind one of the Zurich TriCentre buildings. Taking the most direct route, at the back of Carfax Close, the path is narrow and obstructing the view are the pillars of the TriCentre, the route is then squeezed between the TriCentre and the bus station, until the walkway opens out into the narrow space of the bus station which has no waiting space for passengers. No visual warning is given that the bus station is immediately around the corner, the build quality, with no glass, windows or breaks in the dark coloured brick structure gives any cue. As a result of all these pedestrianisation issues, this short journey is aggressive, uncomfortable and unforgiving for the pedestrian.

The basic part of this journey, across Fleming Way, will be radically altered with the regrading of the road, putting the entire street on the same level, with pedestrians walking across the road in a far wider space. With the Union Square development, the improvement in the quality of the spaces around new and existing buildings is a main part of the design.

Good design can make the pedestrian experience in Swindon so much better.

Swindon's Regeneration : Welcome to Union Square

The Phase 1 area of Union Square on the former Police Station site between Princes Street,  Gordon Road and Fleming Way. An 850 space multi-storey car park, 45 sheltered housing units, space for the new NHS walk-in centre and offices are currently being built.

Sometimes a regeneration is so big, there's only one way to see it from, above. So, yes, you've guessed it, another rooftop!

This time, the roof of the Jurys Inn on the corner of Fleming Way and Princes Street gives a perfect spot to watch the changing face of Swindon with the Union Square project. 

The first phase of works on Union Square is completed, the new Whalebridge junction.

On the vast empty plots of land around Princes Street, Fleming Way, Corporation Street and Manchester Road the project will provide 650,000 square feet of office space, room for a new NHS Walk-In Centre, a 100-bed hotel, 150,000 square feet of retail, cafe and restaurant space, 450 residential units, an 850 space multi-storey car park, a new bus station, lowering of Fleming Way, a new public square, new road junctions at Whalebridge and Gordon Road, and new public spaces.

Piling work has started on the Union Square Phase 1 area.

The work on Union Square is phased over 10 to 15 years, a scheme of this type has never been seen in Swindon before. It will entirely change the town centre, there's no doubt about that. The first phase is well underway on the land of the former Police Station between Gordon Road, Fleming Way and Princes Street. The car park, sheltered housing units, and offices are currently being built (space will be provided for the NHS Walk-In Centre on the Phase 1 site).

The land in the middle-ground, the open car park, walk-in centre and fenced space will be Union Square Phases 3 and 6.

The Union Square project will stretch all the way along Corporation Street to the junction of Manchester Road and then along to the present bus station at New Bridge Square. The current bus station and multi-storey carpark, along with the vacant land will be brought back into use for houses, offices, shops and public spaces. One interesting touch in the design is the resurrection of several former street and road lines that were lost when the land was previously developed. The line of Broad Street and Carfax Street is retained and the line of Gordon Road will continue across Fleming Way. Because the majority of Union Square is based around a pedestrianised centre space, making the new development inviting for people as a thoroughfare is central to the design of it's layout.

An artist's impression of the Union Square project, looking immediately north of Fleming Way. The Zurich Tri Centre is the white building, with the buildings in the right foreground occupying the site of the former Post Office. These buildings are Phase 2, with the buildings across the new public square Phases 4 and 5.

What are currently empty, unwelcoming spaces in the very centre of Swindon will be brought back into use where people will live, work and relax.

For Union Square and Swindon, it's just the beginning.